One of the most significant challenges facing urban authorities in developing countries is finding the funds needed to support and sustain urban development. Without funds, the authorities are unable to meet the ever-growing demand for basic services, maintenance and new infrastructure – including land services that ensure tenure security.

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.

The Volume 2 of the VLR Series, the Guidelines for Voluntary Local Reviews, jointly developed by UN-Habitat and UCLG, provides an overview and analysis of how the linkage between national and local levels is playing out.

The Handbook for “Building Participatory Accountability Systems for City Policies” offers guidance on how to develop urban projects and interventions through a participatory and consultative approach with city stakeholders, while allowing for flexibility to tailor interventions to the specific needs of individual cities and regions.

Since 2020, UN-Habitat has been funded by the EUTF Programme entitled ‘Enhancing self-reliance for refugees and host communities in Kenya’. The spatial profiles produced during the first phase of the project have focused on establishing the existing conditions of the refugee hosting areas, identifying challenges and opportunities for inclusive development, and outline recommendations for improvement of the settlements.

Since 2020, UN-Habitat has been funded by the EUTF Programme entitled ‘Enhancing self-reliance for refugees and host communities in Kenya’. The spatial profiles produced during the first phase of the project has focused on establishing the existing conditions of the refugee hosting areas, identifying challenges and opportunities for inclusive development, and outline recommendations for improvement of the settlements.

UN-Habitat’s first Policy, Legislation and Governance (PLGS) Annual Report highlights the section’s implementation of the Strategic Plan 2020-2023 for 2020. The Annual Report features the section’s and its partners’ contributions and results realized across various key programmes and projects at the local, national, regional and global levels between November 2019 and the end of 2020.

The overarching goal of the Lebanon 2021–2023 Habitat Country Programme Document (HCPD) is to contribute to improving the living conditions of children, youth, women and men in Lebanon – regardless of their nationality – by creating liveable urban areas that are effectively planned and managed, environmentally sound, financially viable and competitive, and socially cohesive through good and inclusive governance and equitable distribution of resources.

Communiqué on Voluntary Local Reviews by the institutions and partners gathered at the Expert Group Meeting Towards a New Generation of VLRs: Connecting VLRs and VNRs held on February 23 and 24 2021.