Local authorities have played a major role to curtail COVID-19, particularly in vulnerable urban settings, while maintaining critical services.
To identify problems and suggest solutions, UN-Habitat assessed 34 Unions of Municipalities and 5 individual municipalities, covering 52 per cent of Lebanese municipalities. The report highlights key urban challenges and proposes several mitigating measures.

The State of Arab Cities report 2020 is driven by a sense of urgency around the headlong expansion of urbanization, in an area where more than two-thirds of the population will reside in cities by the middle of this century. In 1950, just two cities of the region had a million people, whereas by 2025 this is expected to reach 31. At a time whereas many Arab countries are undergoing major infrastructure initiatives and the proliferation of new cities, it is particularly useful to examine the…

UN-Habitat has been active in the Somalia urban sector for more than 30 years to promote sustainable and participatory urban development. Responding to the implementation of Somalia National Development Plan 9 and Somaliland National Development Plan II, UN-Habitat’s interventions in Somalia focuses on durable solutions for IDP’s, strengthening urban planning and municipal finance to address urbanization challenges and at the same time enhance service delivery capacity; and to improve…

This report highlights UN-Habitat’s 2019 work with the federal government, and its Member States in responding to the Somalia National Development Plan priorities and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDG 11) and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA). Working as a member of the UN County team, UN-Habitat’s interventions are underpinned by the agency’s core normative programming on inclusive and sustainable development of cities.

The novel coronavirus is a global health, economic and social crisis. With over 750 000 confirmed cases in 202 countries, territories and areas, Covid-19 had by the 1st of April 2020 caused over 35 000 deaths (WHO Africa, 2020). The effects of the virus have brought economies to an abrupt halt and will affect the possibility to achieve many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This report presents an innovative pilot on how to count the costs for achieving SDG 11 developed by UN-Habitat and AidData. It furthermore presents UN-Habitat estimations on the total SDG and infrastructure investment gap as well as the total financing capacity available. Finally, the report discusses possibilities for bridging the investment gap for SDG 11 and urban infrastructure.

This publication of Financing for Resilient and Green Urban Solutions in Zhoushan, China in examines the status of housing and urban infrastructure and how much investment is needed. The assessment particularly considered the status of housing finance instruments and costs, as well as the roles of local and national governments in facilitating investments. The report was also anchored on determining whether the identified investment needs address resilient housing and infrastructure and…

This publication of Financing for Resilient and Green Urban Solutions in Beira, Mozambique in examines the status of housing and urban infrastructure and how much investment is needed. The assessment particularly considered the status of housing finance instruments and costs, as well as the roles of local and national governments in facilitating investments. The report was also anchored on determining whether the identified investment needs address resilient housing and infrastructure and…

This report: Financing for Resilient and Green Urban Solutions in Accra and Tema, Ghana examines the status of housing and urban infrastructure and how much investment is needed. The assessment particularly considered the status of housing finance instruments and costs, as well as the roles of local and national governments in facilitating investments. The report was also anchored on determining whether the identified investment needs address resilient housing and infrastructure and assessed…