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

Rent regulation is a system of laws controlling rents and tenant evictions aimed at ensuring that rentals are affordable. It reduces both the incidence and fear of homelessness by setting substantive and procedural guidelines to control increases in rent and tenant evictions, thereby preventing landlords from profiting from rental shortages and enabling tenants to remain in existing rentals.

This document examines the legal framework regulating the urban landlord and tenant relationship in Botswana, Kenya, Lagos State- Nigeria, and South Africa. It is not an essay on the ideology of rent regulation, but rather an examination of legislation those states enacted for regulating tenancies to identify what rules may be included in a comprehensive rent regulating regime that promotes security of tenure and affordable rental housing for the urban poor.

The “Housing, Land and Property Issues of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon from Homs City” project was launched in 2017 in partnership with UNHCR and with the support of the Ford Foundation. The aim of the study is to analyze the housing arrangements that refugees coming from Homs city have secured, seven years into the crisis, in addition to their living conditions, the implications of their legal status on their presence in Lebanon, and the role/influence of social networks - characteristic of this community coming from the city of Homs - on their access to shelter and trajectories. The project contributes to the knowledge about refugee trajectories in the context of a protracted refugee crisis particularly in relation to shelter acquisition. The results reported in this study can promote public awareness about the implications of the absence of affordable housing programs and the current restrictions that refugees in Lebanon face to access adequate shelter. They can further inform policymakers and other actors in the shelter sector about the current operations of the housing market.

Partners: UN-Habitat and UNHCR

Locations: Lebanon, Syrian Arab Republic, Homs

Donors: Ford Foundation

Globally, poverty in urban areas is evident in the proliferation of slums and informal settlements. In 2001, 47% of the world’s population lived in urban areas, and it was expected that the number would reach over 56% within the next two decades,1 with a billion-people living in a slum.2 Moreover, at least 2 million people in the world are forcibly evicted every year, while millions are threatened with forced evictions. These issues continue to persist despite the fact that the right to adequate housing is guaranteed to all and a prerequisite to inclusive and sustainable urban centers.

Human rights are important as they set the minimum standards that are essential for people to live in freedom, equality and dignity. They give everyone the freedom of choice and expression and the rights to basic needs necessary for their full development and enjoyment of their rights, including education, water, sanitation, food, health, and housing. Human rights also protect against their abuse by people or entities that are more powerful. Furthermore, human rights inform the relationship that exists between individuals and their governments, distinguishing between every human being and governmental and non-governmental actors obligated to respect, protect, and fulfill these rights.

The UN-Habitat Strategic Plan 2014-2019 identifies four Cross-Cutting Issues to be mainstreamed: Climate Change, Gender Equality, Human Rights and Youth. The aim of mainstreaming these issues is to support country, regional and thematic offices, in order to ensure that all UN-Habitat work is targeting those furthest behind and promoting socially and environmentally sustainable cities. Mainstreaming does not require that each and every project directly aims to address and solve these issues, but rather that they are contributing to the larger long-term goals of UN-Habitat, the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

"The Cross-cutting Progress Report 2016 covers UN-Habitat’s activities and achievements, during the course of 2016, in the way of its four cross-cutting issues: climate change, gender, human rights, and youth. The Report presents an overview of the mandate and structure of each of the cross-cutting issues, as well as presenting case studies of the Agency’s work on the ground relating to these issues.

The four cross-cutting issues were formalised in 2013 and have since then increasingly worked toward joint normative efforts. For example, the Cross-cutting Project Markers were released in September 2015 and are applied to projects at the Project Advisory Group (PAG) to assess responsiveness to these issues in projects. As of September 2016 all Cross-cutting Project Markers have been uniformly applied by the Programme Division."

As established in international law and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, it is necessary to pay attention to the rights and needs of persons with disabilities.

Persons with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the poorest quintile of the population, and face additional challenges due to discriminatory laws and policies, environmental barriers, and lack of support services that would enable the enjoyment of the right to adequate housing on an equal basis with others.

This study reviews the literature on the meaning and impact of the right to adequate housing for persons with disabilities in cities. It uses the foundational framework of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and demonstrates how the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) provides a new understanding of this complex right.

The authors link the right to adequate housing not only to other international treaties, but also to the diverse groups of individuals who are persons with disabilities and the complexity of the identities involved.

They outline major types of barriers that persons with disabilities encounter (physical inaccessibility, lack of access to transportation services, insecurity of tenure, among others), and identify trends in relation to policy and legal framework and national and sub-national solutions to the realization of the rights of persons with disabilities.

The report takes a human rights-based approach to development of human settlements that offer equal opportunities to persons with disabilities. The report offers three case studies that highlight some good practices and topics worthy of further inquiry.

The study points to many actions States Parties can pursue, and makes some recommendations specifically for UN-Habitat.