The Design Guidelines for Safe and Inclusive Public Spaces in Palestine is a strategic and technical reference developed by UN-Habitat in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government under the HAYA Joint Programme funded by the Government of Canada. This document provides a comprehensive framework for Local Government Units (LGUs) to plan and design public spaces that are safe, inclusive, and accessible for all, particularly women, girls, children, older persons, and persons with…

The use of the public space methodology will enhance the sustainability, replicability and scaling-up of the achievements of UN-Habitat’s interventions under the HAYA Joint: Eliminating Violence Against Women in the West Bank and Gaza Strip funded by the government of Canada. The Public Space Assessment, Design and Management Methodology is a comprehensive guide for local governments and illustrates the process of developing safe and inclusive public spaces for all. The methodology covers city-…

This framework represents a comprehensive guide for Arab countries emerging from conflict and crisis situations to design and implement sustainable reconstruction activities that accelerate efforts towards building forward better. Drawing on analyses of over 100 reports and consultations with multiple stakeholders across relevant sectors, including government officials, planners, investors, and others, in Iraq, Libya, the State of Palestine, Sudan, and elsewhere, the framework serves as an…

This study identifies formal and nonformal land professionals’ categories, their current functions and the additional roles that they would need to take up to improve land governance and establish functioning and fit-for-purpose land administration systems in the Arab region. The study highlights the common challenges faced by land professionals and takes stock of their current capacities, the additional capacities they would need, and the interventions that would enable them to adequately play…

The UN-Habitat Regional Office for the Arab States, located in Cairo, supports 18 countries in the region to promote socially and environmentally sustainable cities. In a rapidly urbanising region, UN-Habitat envisions well-planned and well-governed cities through focusing on adequate housing, urban recovery, access to basic services, public spaces, policy and governance, housing, land and property rights, localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals and climate action.

In the Arab region, as in other parts of the world, there is a growing consensus that securing land tenure for women and men is an essential precondition to achieving socioeconomic and human development. However, the empirical evidence needed to understand the relationship between gender, land tenure, and inequalities is lacking.

The Arab Land Initiative, with the support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, contributed to address this gap…

The State of Arab Cities report covers various issues that currently characterise the Arab region. The report presents the state of urbanisation in the region, with its key drivers and urbanisation trends and explores a selection of major challenges and opportunities in the region. The report then presents the need for a paradigm shift in urban infrastructure, illustrating emerging infrastructure opportunities that could contribute towards building a more sustainable future for cities, and…

This report explores some of the critical challenges that converge at the intersection of climate change and land governance. Some of these challenges are droughts, desertification, disaster risk, land and water management, land degradation and restoration, soil erosion and conservation, biodiversity, and food security.