The challenge

Public space is crucial for sustainable cities and communities: providing ecosystem services, improving health and wellbeing, ensuring social inclusion and economic exchange. It offers an opportunity to enrich the quality of life of all urban dwellers, leaving no one behind. In collaboration with partners, UN-Habitat demonstrates how to turn public spaces around, transform communities and change mind-sets through innovative community-led approaches and scalable catalytic pilots.

UN-Habitat’s research shows that well-functioning cities have around 50% of the surface area dedicated to public space. Unfortunately, few cities around the world meet this target. Lack of quality public spaces reduces urban quality of life, increasing crime, social tensions, health and congestion. Public space provides leverage to optimize urban performance – build safer and cohesive communities, reduce spatial inequalities, build local economies and bring nature back to the city. Learn more about the impact of the Global Public Space Programme

Impact

Through the Global Public Space Programme UN-Habitat has completed more than
150
safe, inclusive and accessible public spaces in over 100 cities.
Since the start, over
2.8 million
people benefits from the access to public spaces designed and upgraded through UN-Habitat’s Global Public Space Programme.
More than
52,000
people including youth, children, women and girls have been engaged in the co-design and co-building of their public spaces.

News and Stories

Featured Stories & Videos

Featured Stories & Videos

Donors and partners

As part of our public space work, we work with a wide range of partners – including local and national governments, civil society academia and the private sector. The UN-Habitat public space network includes more than 800 actors that regularly meet to bring the public agenda forward. 

Our public space regeneration projects are usually implemented through a collaboration between UN-Habitat, the local government and a civil society organization, but in some cases also with other UN agencies, gathered in a United Nations public space network.

Join

Our Experts

Jose Chong
Global Public Space Programme, Planning Finance and Economy Section
Urban Practices Branch, Global Solutions Division
UN Complex Nairobi, NOF 3, L2 NW