Transport electrification can simultaneously contribute to sustainable urban mobility by enhancing vehicle energy efficiency and supporting the shift towards public transport and active mobility. Electric mobility expands the mobility options in our cities, with a range of lightweight, new electric vehicles including electric bicycles and kick e-scooters which can act as a catalyst for behavioural change.

The Slum Upgrading Legal Assessment Tool is a diagnostic self-assessment legal tool to identify, in a structured, objective, and systematic way, the strengths and weaknesses of the regulatory framework made up of all legislation and regulations enacted at different levels and in force in a country.

This report has been developed by the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) and UN-Habitat based on the outcomes of 2021 Innovate4Cities Conference co-sponsored by UN-Habitat, GCoM and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is intended to inform research, policy and public discussions on the global research and action agenda for cities and climate change science.

As we enter the second year of this United Nations’ Decade of Action, the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminds us that we need to ‘turbo-charge’ our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. More importantly, we need to deliver the goals as One United Nations and strive to pass the finishing line with no one and no place left behind.

Our world is changing rapidly. Technology and information are moving at breathtaking rates. Populations are expanding, political forces are in flux and the climate crisis threatens the planet’s future. A pandemic has swept across the world, claiming millions of lives.

Over the last decade, UN-Habitat has utilised participatory approaches in urban planning processes to support the creation of Kalobeyei Settlement, the regeneration of Kakuma Camps, and the development of a socio-economic corridor, in alignment to KISEDP, Kenya. Throughout these experiences, practitioners have recognized the importance of the design and integration of participatory approaches to elevate the role of every participant.

UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab State’s Building Gender-Inclusive Cities report highlights the mainstreaming and programmatic prioritization of gender in UN-Habitat’s work. This is done through showcasing numerous gender-responsive interventions and projects that were done across countries of the Arab region in 2021. In these projects, UN-Habitat focused on ensuring urban settings, including public spaces and transportation, are safe and empowering for all girls and women.

This publication provides the basis for a much-needed Urban Resilience Framework, including an examination of urban disaster risk and resilience in the SADC region, vulnerability profiles for each country, city level analyses of vulnerability, and measures to foster institutional and policy discussions.

In 2021, conflict, pandemic and climate emergencies continued to shape the challenges faced by human settlements. UN-Habitat was able to strengthen its efforts to help Member States to respond to new vulnerabilities and risks. Our normative guidance combined with demonstrated projects succeeded in creating conducive conditions for sustainable and inclusive recovery and resilience at the local level.