Land and the way it is accessed, used and controlled is a key element of sustainable social and economic development, peace and stability, and the realization of human rights. This makes land governance a cornerstone for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and explains the attention that international instruments pay to it.
Recently, the endorsement of various international frameworks has provided an impetus for the global land sector community as new…

United Nations Member States have committed to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within a time frame of 15 years, endorsing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 70/1.

This publication highlights the key achievements of the project “Sustainable Resettlement through Community-Driven Improvement of the Learning Environment in Mannar District, Sri Lanka” implemented through a participatory people’s process from 2015 -2017. Through this project, UN-Habitat supported the construction and improvement of learning facilities in 25 schools in Mannar district with funding from the Government of Japan. It supported the construction of primary and secondary classroom…

The supply of affordable and adequate housing has been overwhelmed by the demand of the millions of rural poor who have migrated to cities in hope of finding better employment, health care, and better educational opportunities. According to UN estimates, the urban population of the developing world alone will increase from 2.7 billion in the year 2011 to 5.1 billion by 2050. To accommodate the more than 2 billion new arrivals, the urban footprint of cities in the developing world is expected to…

The International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning (IG-UTP) in 2015 are becoming an increasingly relevant instrument for the achievement of universal objectives since their release in 2015 as now acknowledged in the New Urban Agenda, and consequently, becoming a key contributor to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The IG-UTP Implementation Report has been developed as a collection of experiences and findings both from UN-Habitat and IG-UTP countries and…

The Regional Action Plan (RAP) is a regional proposal that builds on the global framework for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. The New Urban Agenda is the principal outcome document of the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III, held in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016.

A distinctive feature of urbanization in the last 50 years is the expansion of urban populations and built development well beyond what was earlier conceived as the city limit, resulting in metropolitan areas. This is challenging the relevance of traditional municipal boundaries, and by extension, traditional governing structures and institutions. "Steering the Metropolis: Metropolitan Governance for Sustainable Urban Development,” encompasses the reflections of thought and practice…

The purpose of this report is to assess the development, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of national urban policy in Europe and North America. Surveying the experience of countries throughout this region, and highlighting both minor and major case studies, the report emphasizes the diversity of national urban policy characteristics on a regional level, but also identifies certain key regional characteristics.