The Gender Policy and Plan (GPP) 2020-2023 is UN-Habitat’s roadmap for promoting gender equality throughout its work. It is aligned with the organizational Strategic Plan (2020-2023) and supports the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its contribution to their implementation. The GPP elaborates the gender dimensions of the programmatic results and the relevant indicators for measuring success, as well as steps to strengthen gender equality across UN-Habitat systems and processes. It builds on the evaluation results, lessons learned and recommendations from the independent external evaluation of UN-Habitat’s Policy and Plan for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women in Urban Development and Human Settlements, 2014-2019 that was conducted in 2020.

La crise sociopolitique s’est progressivement transformée en conflit armé dans les régions du Nord-Ouest et du Sud-Ouest au Cameroun, cette situation a entrainé des vagues massives de personnes déplacées et installées dans les régions voisines de l’Ouest et du littoral. Les répercussions de ces flux démographiques ont été rapides sur la cohésion sociale au sein des collectivités hôtes au niveau individuel, économique, socioculturel et sociopolitique avec des tensions diverses. Face à la précarité, la rareté des terres et la carence des opportunités économiques alors ressentis, les collectivités territoriales décentralisées font face à des défis liés à la maitrise des besoins des populations hôtes et des personnes déplacées, désormais au coude à coude face au déficit de logement, au risques liés à l’insécurité grandissante, à la rareté de terres cultivables et exploitables, à la rareté d’opportunités économiques et au besoin d’intégration socio-culturelle ;

Communiqué of the Expert Group Meeting on Urban Regeneration as a tool for Inclusive and Sustainable Recovery, held on December 2021 (Bilbao, Spain), organized by UN-Habitat (Inclusive, Vibrant Neighbourhoods, and Communities Flagship Programme), with the support of the Basque Government (Spain).

The debate focused on Urban Regeneration as an integrative process and essential instrument that city leaders, planners, and policymakers, together with civil society, investors, and the private sector should consider achieving sustainable and inclusive cities, and the COVID-19 pandemic recovery.

This Communiqué summarises the priority actions identified by the experts as a result of the two-day meeting: a) develop Guidelines for Inclusive and Sustainable Urban Regeneration, b) monitor spatial inequality; c) establish an Urban Regeneration Reference Group, and d) mobilize resources for urban regeneration.

The Global Urban Monitoring Framework was endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2022 for implementation as part of the Harmonized Global UN Systemwide Strategy for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and New Urban Agenda (NUA) and other regional, national, and subnational urban programs. It harmonizes existing urban indices and tools, including the widely implemented City Prosperity Index (CPI). The framework aims at ensuring thematic integration and interlinkages among various dimensions of development, disaggregation of data, and inclusion of groups that are traditionally excluded. It promotes working at different scales and functional urban areas, including ecological functional areas, enabling city comparability, and the possibility of more in-depth policy analysis.

This White Paper offers a preliminary analysis of the urban content of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from March 2017 through the end of September 2021. It also trials an in-depth country level analysis that includes, to a limited extent, related national climate policies. A draft of this document was launched at COP26 in Glasgow, in November 2021. Stakeholder comments have seen been incorporated. A more comprehensive Policy Paper is under preparation for launch at COP27 with a view to provide guidance for Parties to the UNFCCC to strengthen the urban dimension in their NDCs and Implementation Mechanisms with a view to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The 2021 global analysis of the urban content of the NDCs shows that: (1) 84% of the NDCs contain strong or moderate urban content; (2) NDCs with urban content have significantly increased in comparison with the 2016 analysis; (3) NDCs with strong urban content have significantly increased from 16 percent in 2016 to 45 percent in 2021.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world that is expected to record a positive increase in its child and youth population by 2050. Demographics across the region show that the urban population is predominantly youthful. More children and youth will be living in urban areas and cities, than in rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa, by 2050, with the biggest proportion of urban population residing in secondary towns of 300,000 people or less.  It is within this context that UN-HABITAT and UNICEF identified the need to analyze current conditions in secondary towns and cities, and to strengthen evidence on how to make secondary cities and towns more livable.

This Analysis Report uses the Index of Multiple Deprivations as an effective diagnostic tool for measuring relative deprivation and inequalities in small areas, such as secondary cities and towns. The analysis shows that by 2050, 6 out 10 people in Africa will live in urban areas and 70 per cent of them will be children and youth. The urbanization trends particularly around secondary cities means heightened levels of multiple deprivations for children on the continent in areas of WASH, Health, Housing and Shelter for children.  

The Call for Action outlines key messages to the leaders and all stakeholders in sub-Saharan Africa including:  the recognition of secondary towns and cities as current and future frontiers of urban growth and development in sub-Saharan Africa; placing children and youth at the core of policy development, funding and programming for secondary cities; embracing pro-active planning , strong data systems and use of data to monitor and determine future needs and sustainable plans for secondary towns and cities; and the need to anchor the development of secondary towns and cities on a strong and sustainable economic base.

UN-Habitat’s Public Space Programme has been supporting the engagement of communities internationally in revitalizing their neighborhoods through public space designs, such as the creation of court yards, streets and shared facilities etc. Participants are taught in an engaging and creative way on how to visualize the potentials of public spaces within their neighborhoods. Not only can this provide for better management of public spaces within the Kalobeyei New Settlement or Kalobeyei Town, in Turkana County, Kenya, it also supports the Kalobeyei New Settlement’s transition from a short-term, emergency planning to long-term, sustainable development model.

The Fundamentals of Planned Urbanization is a training companion on the principles of planned urbanization. It supports UN-Habitat’s efforts to develop human resources and institutional capacity for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11).

The companion includes eight modules on the state of urbanization in the world, global agreements on urbanization, fundamentals of planned urbanization, planned city extensions, housing, urban mobility, slum upgrading and climate change. All modules are accompanied by presentations, interactive exercises, case studies, and opportunities for peer-to-peer exchange, and can be conducted over the course of a five-day training. Depending on interest and time available, the training can be tailored to focus on more specific topics and/or made shorter.

The training companion builds upon a working paper, “Principles of Planned Urbanization” and a series of discussions with UN-Habitat staff and consultants. The initial draft of the training companion was tested during a training programme for senior managers from national and local governments from Asia, held in January 2017 in South Korea. The publication was subsequently applied in a training targeting senior public officials from national and local governments of Indonesia, which convened in Surabaya in November 2018. In March 2019, UN-Habitat tailored the companion at an executive training for city leaders and representatives from academia in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Housing Rights Index (HRI) is a decision-support tool developed specifically for the use of housing practitioners and policy makers who are involved in the Housing Practitioners Labs and tailor-made training developed and conducted by UN-Habitat. It is based on the right to adequate housing1 as enshrined in international human rights instruments2 and included in the Habitat Agenda (1996)3 and the New Urban Agenda (2016)4. It is understood as the right of every individual and community to gain and sustain a safe and secure home in which to live in peace and dignity.

The tool has both pedagogic and policy development roles. On the one hand, the deployment of the index will enhance the user’s understanding of the practical meaning of adequate housing rights and enable a better understanding of the policy and practical implications of the seven elements of adequacy that defines the right to adequate housing. On the other hand, the tool supports the user’s assessment of the housing sector with a specific look at the extent to which adequate housing rights are recognized, respected, realized and protected in his/her city.

The Housing Barometer is a tool to support a rapid analysis of the housing sector. It provides a quick overview of the housing sector that feeds directly into the housing policy formulation process. The Housing Barometer relies on qualitative assessments rather than data and empirical evidences. It expresses the perceptions of policy makers, decision makers and housing practitioners about the performance of the various subsectors of the housing sector. The result of housing sector analysis through the Housing Barometer gives an immediate visualization of the performance of the housing sector by means of the scoring given to each dimension and sub-sector of the Housing Sector in the context that it is being utilized.

The Housing Barometer is a practical tool that draws on the housing sector analysis methodology as outlined in the Practical Guide for Conducting Housing Profiles.

The Housing Barometer enables an easy diagrammatic visualization of the weaknesses and strengths of the housing sector in a given city/country, and as a result provides a basis for further policy discussions. It is illustrated as a housing sector diamond (the geometric figure) that suggests areas for further analysis and possible policy response. The Housing Barometer is therefore a problem-solving tool helping in the identification of the problem areas or policy shortcomings that need attention.

The Housing Barometer. A tool to support a rapid analysis of the housing sector - English

The Housing Barometer. A tool to support a rapid analysis of the housing sector - Spanish