The UN-Habitat Strategic Plan 2014-2019 identifies four Cross-Cutting Issues to be mainstreamed: Climate Change, Gender Equality, Human Rights and Youth. The aim of mainstreaming these issues is to support country, regional and thematic offices, in order to ensure that all UN-Habitat work is targeting those furthest behind and promoting socially and environmentally sustainable cities. Mainstreaming does not require that each and every project directly aims to address and solve these issues,…

"The Cross-cutting Progress Report 2016 covers UN-Habitat’s activities and achievements, during the course of 2016, in the way of its four cross-cutting issues: climate change, gender, human rights, and youth. The Report presents an overview of the mandate and structure of each of the cross-cutting issues, as well as presenting case studies of the Agency’s work on the ground relating to these issues.
The four cross-cutting issues were formalised in 2013 and have since then…

This paper intends to strengthen awareness and collaboration between UN-Habitat and its partners with the goal of promoting the relevance of issues pertaining to youth living in cities; present and future.

This joint publication by CYFI and UN-Habitat examines youth economic citizenship in Sub-Saharan Africa. This publication provides an overview of economic citizenship, explains how it is relevant to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and provides research findings on its application in the region. Detailed case studies are provided on financial literacy and financial education initiatives for children and youth in Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The ICT, Urban Governance and Youth report is the fourth report in the Global Youth-Led Development series. The report provides a conceptual framework which reflects the rapidly changing dynamics in three areas of urban development: the demographics of the fastest growing segment of urban populations, youth (ages 15 to 24);information and communications technology (ICT) and particularly mobile phones; and governance, particularly local governance in the developing world.

This study aims to examine current land access and youth livelihood opportunities in Southern Ethiopia.
We used survey data from the relatively land abundant districts of Oromia Region and from the land scarce districts of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ (SNNP) Region. Although access to agricultural land is a
constitutional right for rural residents of Ethiopia, the study found that youth in the rural south have limited potential to obtain agricultural land that can…

The land challenge is central to the broader youth dynamics of migration, employment, livelihoods and belonging. The more than 1.8 billion youth living worldwide represent not only a land challenge, but an untapped potential in moving the tenure security agenda forward.

Today, there are more than 1.2 billion youth in the world, the largest number of youth ever to have existed. These youth live, by and large, in cities and towns; the cities of the developing world account for over 90 per cent of the world’s urban growth and youth account for a large percentage of those inhabitants. It is estimated that as many as 60 per cent of all urban dwellers will be under the age of 18 by 2030. This urban demographic “youth bulge” represents both a challenge as well as an…

The Asia-Pacific region has more than half of its population composed of young people. The region is experiencing quite a number of positive developments but equally in the same measure registers quite a number of challenges amongst which are unemployment, poverty and increased population in slums.