World Cities Report 2024: Cities and Climate Action

This edition of the World Cities Report provides a wide and far-reaching analysis of the current and expected climate impacts on different regions and cities, as well as the differing vulnerabilities urban populations face due to factors such as poverty, inequality, ethnicity, gender, disability and other characteristics. Notwithstanding the acute financial and institutional shortfalls many face, the Report shows that cities are…

The SDG, Agenda 2063: Africa we want and the New Urban Agenda underscores the need for international cooperation, knowledge sharing, and technology transfer to address the global solid waste challenge. They call for increased investment in waste management infrastructure and capacity building, particularly in developing countries. As representative cities at distinct stages of development, Shanghai, China and Lagos, Nigeria have amassed unique experiences in waste management. These experiences…

Water is the basis for life, and meeting water supply demand is a global challenge, particularly in developing countries. In 2020, it was estimated that two billion people lived in water-stressed regions with no access to a safely managed drinking water service on premises, available when needed and free of contamination. This condition is expected to worsen in some regions due to climate change and rapid population growth. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2020 estimates that…

This publication starts with a description of the country’s overall natural hazard exposure and then focuses on human settlements’ vulnerability in Mozambique (Chapter 1). In Chapter 2 it describes the first milestone of UN-Habitat’s activities - the establishment of the Living with Natural Hazards approach - and its implementation through pilot demonstration buildings. It also gives examples of the construction interventions and methodology adopted in the Participation, Awareness and Didactic…

This report summarizes the Shuangjing Sub-district's best practices on how to implement SDG11 at the sub-district level. In 2019, the China Center for Urban Development and the UN-Habitat conducted the International Sustainable Development Pilot Community Assessment for Shuangjing Sub-District of Beijing, China. Shuangjing summarized relevant policies and practices to research the objectives of the UN SDGs, especially Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. Shuangjing proposed to…

The “Rural Revitalization Under the Net-Zero Carbon Goal, Dinghai, Zhoushan, China” is a practice report under the cooperation of UN-Habitat, Zhoushan Municipal Government and Tongji University. The Dinghai District has pioneered net-zero carbon rural revitalization efforts. This report thoroughly evaluates their planning and development initiatives through a comprehensive investigation and presents exemplary cases to provide a low-carbon solution for rural areas in island regions.

This Global Report on Sanitation and Wastewater Management in Cities and Human Settlements is a global reference on sanitation and wastewater in urban settings. It takes stock of the sanitation and wastewater management situation, both in terms of service levels and the supporting functions required to enable service provision at scale.

Drawing from existing literature and primary data in 18 cities across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America, the Report underlines the scale of…

This paper was initially the input from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) Policy, Governance and Legislation Section to The State of Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture, prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) office for the Near East and North Africa (NENA).

This background paper was meant to contribute to the chapter on “Territorial governance and the urban-rural interface” prepared by FAO. However,…

MY Neighbourhood’ provides an extensive ‘check list’ of urban design principles that are applicable in diverse cultural and geographical contexts at the neighbourhood scale. This checklist ensures an integrated approach to neighbourhood design by integrating principles across five key city objectives, across sectors (transport, housing, public space, utilities etc), and across design dimensions (neighbourhood, street, open public space, and building unit).