Rapid urbanization, climate threats to our ecosystem and the profound impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic are among the top challenges faced by the world today. These problems create daily stress for our cities and human settlements. At the same time, cities provide opportunities to anchor the pandemic recovery in social justice, deliver the 2030 Global Agenda commitments and achieve national climate targets under the Paris Agreement. If managed and planned sustainably and equitably, cities offer solutions to address social and environmental issues.

The New Urban Agenda, adopted at Habitat III in Quito in 2016, is a global framework to help governments manage rapid urbanization and develop sustainable solutions to address environmental and social problems and deliver targets set in the 2030 Global Agenda.

The 2022 Secretary-General’s quadrennial report on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda from 2018 to 2021 has been prepared pursuant to resolutions of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the UN General Assembly. It is the second report in a series of five to review the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. The first report came out in 2018.

This report was prepared in consultation with more than 40 partners, including non-governmental organizations. Inputs informing the report are available on the New Urban Agenda Platform.

There are seven sections in the report.

Section I sets the context, especially referencing the global COVID-19 pandemic and its effects.

Section II provides an update on the progress of the three transformative commitments of the New Urban Agenda: social inclusion and ending poverty; inclusive urban prosperity and opportunities; environmental sustainability and resilience.

Section III discusses how the New Urban Agenda is implemented through effective governance structures, inclusive urban planning and management at the national and local levels, financing, capacity-building, technology use and facilitated engagement.

Section IV presents an assessment of how the New Urban Agenda has accelerated progress on other global agendas, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals and agendas relating to climate change.

Section V reports on the growing role of local governments in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

Section VI describes the progress made in developing an incremental, inclusive reporting system for the New Urban Agenda.

Section VII reports on the status of the recommendations from the 2018 quadrennial report and sets out new recommendations for 2026.

The full text of the report in five languages is available here.