How urban regeneration can catalyse slum transformation. This UN-Habitat paper links physical, economic, social, environmental and governance actions to upgrade housing and services, secure tenure, grow livelihoods and embed climate resilience—reducing displacement and spatial injustice—with lessons from Jamaica, Kenya, Brazil and Colombia.

This White Paper is a collaboration of UN-Habitat’s Urban-Rural Linkages Program with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) as background for discussions at the upcoming UN Food System Summit Stocktaking (UNFSS+4). The paper draws upon recent working papers, expert group meetings including the GAIN-FAO-Rikolto Local and Traditional Food Markets Global Technical Meeting (June 2024), programmatic delivery, and reports from organizations referenced in this paper. Noting the…

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 emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 created a temporary crisis of confidence in the future of cities. However, a broad consensus is that urbanization remains a powerful twenty-first century mega-trend; and that well-planned towns and cities remain central to the sustainable development trajectory. There is a sense of optimism that the crisis may provide us with the opportunity to build back differently, more inclusively, greener and safer.