The official Habitat III conference has not yet started, but a whole range of initiatives and representatives of organisations already shared their views on how to implement the New Urban Agenda once it has been adopted.
At the "Co-producing sustainable cities?" conference in September 2016, we talked to Günter Meinert of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ GmbH) about his hopes for the Quito conference.
On Monday, 17 October 2016, from 3 pm – 4:15 pm, the Quito side event "Follow-up and Review of the New Urban Agenda" is taking place. The panel discussion will bring together stakeholders, experts and decision-makers to discuss options for follow-up and review (FUR) of the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The panel discussion will be moderated by William Cobbett, with Rafael Tuts (tbc), Sirly Castro Tuirán, and Dr. Peter Kurz as discussants. Come and join us!
In the run-up to the German Habitat Forum in June 2016, people from all over the world were asked how they imagine the city of the future, what they expected from local, national and international authorities for their city, and how their city has evolved. The series "Voice on Habitat" projects an image of the issues that the New Urban Agenda has to tackle, and gives a voice to the people who will be directly affected by its implementation. In the third video, people were asked how their city has evolved and what they liked or disliked about it.
In the run-up to the German Habitat Forum in June 2016, people from all over the world were asked how they imagine the city of the future, what they expected from local, national and international authorities for their city, and how their city has evolved. The series "Voice on Habitat" projects an image of the
“Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” - this is the call to action formulated in Sustainable Development Goal 11. Although this reflects an awareness of urban governance issues in regard to sustainable development, our author argues that many of these issues are still neglected and need to be further elaborated.
In the run-up to the German Habitat Forum in June 2016, people from all over the world were asked how they imagine the city of the future, what they expected from local, national and international authorities for their city, and how their city has evolved. The series "Voice on Habitat" projects an image of the issues that the New Urban Agenda has to tackle, and gives a voice to the people who will be directly affected by its implementation.
Commentary by Dr. Christoph Beier, Vice-Chair of the GIZ Management Board.
After a final round of negotiations, Sept. 7 - 10 at UN Headquarters in New York, the member states agreed on the New Urban Agenda text to be adopted at the Habitat III conference this year, Oct. 17 – 21 in Quito. An agreement on the text was reached during extended negotiations, after a number of outstanding issues remained following the third Preparatory Committee Meeting in late July.
Against the background of Habitat III in Quito in October, “Considerations for the Follow-up and Review of the New Urban Agenda” develops recommendations for the follow-up and review of the New Urban Agenda. These recommendations reflect lessons learned from relevant international agreements and urban initiatives, and also consider how all relevant actors can be encouraged to participate in the follow-up and review of the New Urban Agenda.
There is a growing recognition that the ambitious goal of transforming fast-growing cities into major globally attractive hubs of the world economy cannot be reached without including the urban poor as cooperation partners in housing and urban development processes. This situation, combined with pressure from civil society groups, has opened new space for the encounter between civil society and state organisations. Peter Herrle, Josefine Fokdal, Astrid Ley and Sonja Nebel assess this situation in their Cities Alliance background paper, of which an extract is published here.
The UN Major Group for Children and Youth is the officially mandated space for young people to participate in UN processes. How does their involvement play out in regard to the Habitat III negotiations and the New Urban Agenda? And what are their demands?
PrepCom III held in Surabaya in July 2016 was supposed to finalize the New Urban Agenda. However, finding a common ground on the institutional framework that enables urban development and on the follow-up of the New Urban Agenda turned out to be difficult, and the draft is now expected to be finalised during informal consultations in New York.
At the German Habitat Forum in June 2016 URBANET talked to the African Centre for Cities Director Edgar Pieterse about cultural inclusion, informal settlements and why it is necessary that international institutions overcome their own limitations for the New Urban Agenda to have an impact.
From 1 to 2 June 2016 more than 1.000 urban development experts met in Berlin during the German Habitat Forum. We asked several of the attendees what they think should be at the core of the New Urban Agenda. Here are their answers.
