The 2025 Annual Report of the Policy and Legislation Section (PLS) presents a year of steady progress in advancing sustainable urban development. Through diverse initiatives and collaborative partnerships with donors, development partners, and countries, UN-Habitat through PLS has continued to strengthen policy, legislative, and governance frameworks at national and subnational levels. The report also identifies emerging priorities that will guide the Section’s work in 2026, supporting global…

National Urban Policies (NUPs) serves as a key guiding frameworks towards the realization of the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Urbanization. The Korea-funded National Urban Policy Programme contributes to this by not only supporting countries in developing and implementing NUPs but also strengthening the capacity of relevant stakeholders. The 2024-2025 Annual Report shows the progress of the programme implementation at global and local scale among the eight participating countries of Phase 2…

​​Rapid Municipal Assessment of conflict-affected areas in Lebanon, presenting key findings on service delivery, infrastructure damage, and municipal capacities to support evidence-based recovery and humanitarian planning.​

​​Can mega-events create lasting urban value beyond the global spotlight? This white paper explores how mega events like World Expos, Olympic Games, and FIFA World Cups can become catalysts for sustainable, inclusive, and resilient cities through legacy-driven planning, adaptive design, and community-centered urban transformation.​

The Sahab City-Wide Public Space Assessment provides a comprehensive, GIS-based analysis of the city's public spaces, evaluating environmental quality, inclusivity, and accessibility. It offers an evidence-based foundation to guide urban greening, inform investments, and support more resilient, inclusive city planning.

UN-Habitat’s Catalogue of Solutions presents the organization’s portfolio of tested tools, methodologies and advisory support designed to help countries, cities and communities address today’s most pressing urban challenges. The catalogue brings together solutions developed through decades of UN-Habitat’s global experience, providing practical pathways for advancing inclusive, resilient and sustainable urban development.

These solutions respond to the urgent need to improve…

Public spaces to play are important to children's health and development and are a core right. Yet with increasing urbanization, access to public spaces to play is shrinking, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This guide, developed by UN-Habitat, WHO and UNICEF, highlights the importance of public spaces for optimizing children's health and well-being, and realizing their comprehensive rights. It provides support for practitioners in developing and improving public…

Beijing Future Science City Sustainable Development Practices: Innovations and Achievements takes the “Science + City” integrated model as its core concept. It systematically summarizes 15 years of development achievements across seven major sustainable development sectors, and has formed a three-pronged synergy model: industry-city integration, education-research-industry collaboration, and ecology-city coordination. With remarkable ecological, economic and social benefits, it provides a…