The publication is a showcase of 17 urban and territorial planning inspiring case studies around the world that highlight diverse issues and the approaches taken to resolve them. It demonstrates the importance of inclusive participatory planning, the strength of an integrated spatial development planning, the power of partnerships and multi-stakeholder involvement within the project and the necessity of focusing on the implementation of the plans.

The report covers the second biennium of implementation of the Guidelines and builds upon the results of the Global Survey on Urban and Territorial Planning formulated by UN-Habitat in September 2019, and upon case studies, regular newsletters, online sources, and partner websites advocating for the guidelines. It is a compilation of exercises and finding in using the Guidelines, to track the adoption and use among Member States and partners.

In March 2020, UN-Habitat began supporting efforts in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic in Kakuma-Kalobeyei, Turkana County, Kenya. This was facilitated through UN-Habitat's role as technical lead for the Spatial Planning & Infrastructure Development Working Group under the Kalobeyei Integrated Socio-Economic Development Programme (KISEDP).

The information and processes presented in this publication are based on the research and experiences drawn from the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) country-level interventions in Africa and Asia presented in the policy guide Tenure-Responsive Land Use Planning: A Guide for Country-Level Implementation.

The purpose of this playbook is to outline UN-Habitat’s approach to using Minecraft as an enabler to encourage community participation in urban design and governance.

The Beirut City Profile offers an important multisectoral and spatial analysis of the City of Beirut, including a diagnosis of the wide spectrum of challenges that the city has encountered over the past decades, including the most recent and devastating shock, the Beirut Port explosion. The profile aims to help offer a common understanding of how multiple shocks and vulnerabilities manifest across the city.

From 1 to 5 September 2019, a Community-based Urban Vision Week was organized in Somaliland’s capital city of Hargeisa. Hargeisa is a fast-growing city with limited resources to plan and manage the urban development in a sustainable manner. The Urban Vision Week aimed at paving the pathway to a participatory strategic urban action plan for Hargeisa 2040, pivoting around a Shared Vision on the best possible urban scenario to strive for.

The manual is meant to fit into a training course for data gathering in Somalia. It serves as an introduction for local government and other interested stakeholders, guiding through the different scales and themes relevant to the context, the different methods of gathering data, and the types of data that can be gathered. 

According to most statistics, Somalia is one of the few countries whose population still resides predominately in rural area, although it is experiencing rapid urbanization, and projected to become predominately urban by 2050.