Public space is more than well designed physical places. It is an arena for social interaction and active citizenship that can spark social and economic development and drive environmental sustainability. The design, provision and maintenance of well connected systems of public space are integral to achieving a safe and accessible city. However, cities must move beyond typically site-specific approaches to addressing public space if sustainable and longer lasting benefits are to be achieved. Establishing and implementing a city-wide strategy that approaches a city as a multi-functional and connected urban system can ensure the best chances of proactively driving good urban development.

A thorough strategy offers cities an action-oriented approach encompassing not only spatial goals, but governance arrangements, implementation plans, budgetary needs and measurable indicators. It should be formulated to overcome common obstacles to the successful provision of public spaces throughout a city. With adequate political support and funding, a city-wide public space strategy can deliver a well-distributed, accessible and inclusive public space system.

City-Wide Public Space Strategies: a Compendium of Inspiring Practices offers summaries and assessments of 26 such strategies from different cities in all regions of the world. It also proposes a new set of typologies of strategies and a framework with which strategies can be evaluated. This compendium is complemented by City-Wide Public Space Strategies: a Guidebook for City Leaders and together they provide city leaders, including mayors, local authorities, urban planners and designers, with the knowledge and tools necessary to support them in developing and implementing city-wide public space strategies. Building on the Global Public Space Toolkit published by UN-Habitat in 2016, this set of publications supports the strengthening of local government capacity, providing actionable policy guidance and driving transformative change in multiple global contexts.

Political upheaval or violent conflict is often characterised by a fundamental failure of governance, and the destruction of local economies, and yet in the aftermath of conflict people reconstruct their livelihoods and rebuild urban services through informal mechanisms of survival and support. This report explores the response of the urban informal economy to urban crises, its role in poverty reduction, peace building and development in post-conflict cities, and its scope as a platform for economic recovery and resilience. With a focus on urban areas in post-civil war settings, and on cities affected by ongoing turf wars, the research explores the complex drivers of conflict and the resilience and recovery of the informal economy.

The report is a synthesis of a three-year research project on Economic Recovery in Post-Conflict Cities: The Role of the Urban Informal Economy, funded under the DFID-ESRC Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research (Project ES-M008789-1). Fieldwork was carried out in five cities: Cali, Colombia; Dohuk, N. Iraq; Hargeisa, Somaliland; Karachi, Pakistan, and Kathmandu, Nepal. Each city was selected to explore the different facets of conflict and violence in order to study the informal economy’s crisis response in the widest possible contexts

In Ethiopia, the profiling was undertaken under the leadership of national and local authorities. This initiative has been carried out locally in Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa and Ambo, as well as nationally. The Ethiopia National Profile focuses on the findings of a desk-study, interviews with key actors, and country-wide consultations with key urban actors and institutions.

Consultation participants agreed to address the salient urban issues including poverty, insecurity, corruption, pollution and crime - all problems that negatively affect investments and economic development. A consensus was reached on priority interventions in the form of programme and project proposals to be implemented.

In Ethiopia, the profiling was undertaken under the leadership of national and local authorities. This initiative has been carried out locally in Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa and Ambo, as well as nationally. The Ethiopia National Profile focuses on the findings of a desk-study, interviews with key actors, and country-wide consultations with key urban actors and institutions.

Consultation participants agreed to address the salient urban issues including poverty, insecurity, corruption, pollution and crime - all problems that negatively affect investments and economic development. A consensus was reached on priority interventions in the form of programme and project proposals to be implemented.

The National Urban Profile focuses on the findings of a desk study, interviews with key actors and a town consultation with key urban actors and institutions. Consultation participants agreed to address the salient urban issues including poverty, insecurity, corruption, pollution and crime all problems that negatively affect investments and economic development.

A consensus was reached on priority interventions in the form of programme and project proposals to be implemented.

In Accra, the profiling was undertaken under the leadership of national and local authorities. This initiative has been carried out locally in Accra, Tamale, Ho as well as nationally. The National Urban Profile focuses on the findings of a desk-study, interviews with key actors and a town consultation with key urban actors and institutions.

Consultation participants agreed to address the salient urban issues including poverty, insecurity, corruption, pollution and crime all problems that negatively affect investments and economic development. A consensus was reached on priority interventions in the form of programme and project proposals to be implemented.

Costa Rica is in the process of implementing its urban development planning system. Its priorities for the next two years are the improvement of urban management and decentralization processes in order to strengthen local governments; reduce the number of population living in slums, improving conditions of houses considered temporary, mobiles or in poor condition; build more infrastructure and strengthening financial systems for slum improvement and urban gentrification of the center of San Jose.

The cooperation program, between UN-Habitat and the Government of Costa Rica includes capacity building projects for risk reduction and vulnerability, and the creation of safer cities. Apart from the National and the Local governments, UN-Habitat is already working with associates like IFAM, FOMUDE, groups of Women and other UN agencies in the country.

The Government of Ecuador is in the process of creating a new Constitution that will change the laws and regulations, public policies and institutions will change as a result. Within this context, the HCPD is aim to support this process and its efforts and to formulate a strategy to best approach the urban sector.

The document provides and overview of the national context and the intervention areas to address urban development challenges for the next two years. The intervention areas are: Urban planning and management, governance, land and housing; basic services, urban development and urban environment and capacity building for development.

Within these areas, and according to the National Development Plan, four specific lines of work have been decided: water and sanitation, housing, urban planning and management and citizen participation. With the collaboration of partners such as SENPLADES, MIDUVI and social organizations such as Contrato Social por la Vivienda and Foro Urbano Ecuador, it is expected that UN-HABITAT will continue its active role in urban policies and projects.

The UN-HABITAT Country Programme Document for Ghana outlines the main objectives and priorities of UN-HABITAT. In collaboration with the Government and other United Nations Agencies, the overall aim of this UN-HABITAT Country Programme Document is to promote the HABITAT Agenda. UN-HABITAT plays an active role in urban development and urban policy.

Through partnerships with the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and the Environment and the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, UN-HABITAT has assisted in identifying key urban issues and areas of support for improvement of the urban situation in Ghana.

Apart from a dynamic economy, social indicators still highlight the insecure living conditions of Malagasy people, mainly because of inadequate social infrastructures (schools, health centers, etc.) and dysfunctional public services. In addition, living conditions differ from one location to another, but are typically more challenging in rural than in urban areas, with a definite advantage for the capital, Antananarivo, compared with the rest of the country.

Poverty is markedly more severe in the southern regions of the country. Females are more prone to poverty: 80 per cent of female-headed households are poor, compared with 60 for male-headed.