On 20 December 2018, the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution A/RES/73/239 decided to dissolve the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and to replace it with a United Nations Habitat Assembly of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat Assembly). UN-Habitat Assembly is a universal body composed of the 193 member states of the United Nations and convenes every four years (A/RES/73/239).

The responsibilities of the UN-Habitat Assembly are:

i) Identify key issues and areas of focus for the normative and policy work of UN-Habitat;

ii) Review major trends related to human settlements and urbanisation;

iii) Examine global norms and standards in human settlements and sustainable urbanisation;

iv) Adopt resolutions, declarations, recommendations, formal decisions, reports and other documents pertaining to strategic vision and political guidance in accordance with its mandate;

v) Recommend strategies for coherent implementation of urban and human settlements dimensions of the 2030 Agenda, the New Urban Agenda and other global agendas, including of the work of the United Nations System;

vi) Examine and approve UN-Habitat’s strategic plan, to be prepared by the Executive Board;

vii) Review the Secretary-General’s quadrennial report on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

In addition, the Assembly should also ensure the active engagement of local authorities and other stakeholders in the Assembly, in its subsidiary bodies and in intersessional meetings.