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.

The New Urban Agenda, adopted at Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador, on 20 October 2016, presents a paradigm shift based on the science of cities and lays out standards and principles for the planning, construction, development, management and improvement of urban areas. The New Urban Agenda is intended as a resource for different actors in multiple levels of government and for civil society organizations, the private sector and all who reside in urban spaces of the world. The New Urban Agenda highlights linkages between sustainable urbanization and job creation, livelihood opportunities and improved quality of life, and it insists on incorporation of all these sectors in every urban development or renewal policy and strategy.

The New Urban Agenda Illustrated handbook serves as the base for the New Urban Agenda online crash course. The self-paced course in two parts is available for free and accessible at any time. Access the course here (part 1) and here (part 2). The course further breaks down the contents of the New Urban Agenda in an interactive and engaging format. An official UN-Habitat certificate is awarded on completion of the course.

The New Urban Agenda works as an accelerator of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 11– Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable – to provide a comprehensive framework to guide and track urbanization around the globe. Cognizant of the fact that 95 per cent of the urban growth will be in the developing world, Sustainable Development Goal 11 sets targets and defines indicators to measure progress and growth.

The New Urban Agenda Illustrated handbook prepared for all urban stakeholders globally supports a stronger understanding and implementation of the propositions contained in the New Urban Agenda. It subdivides and maps the New Urban Agenda into three chapters: 1) Core Dimensions, 2) Means of Implementation and 3) Governance, Follow-up and Review.

The handbook analyses the contents and propositions of the New Urban Agenda and their synergies with the Sustainable Development Goals and Targets, and enriches them with visual illustrations, examples from all over the world and practical propositions for action.

Throughout its different sections, it provides a snapshot of issues and challenges in the urban development sphere as they are laid out in the New Urban Agenda. It aims to address higher level policy decisions for the growth and development of cities around the world. Key topics related to sustainable urban development are explained in summary, and each can be further investigated and explored. In the bibliography section, a complete list of references is provided for the reader to further research and study.

The New Urban Agenda was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, on 20 October 2016. It was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly at its sixty-eighth plenary meeting of the seventy-first session on 23 December 2016.

The New Urban Agenda is an action-oriented document that mobilizes Member States and other key stakeholders to drive sustainable urban development at the local level.

Urbanization presents an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the Arab transformation and capacity to respond to development challenges. The Arab region is the most urbanized and urbanizing region in the world and its urban population will almost double in the next two decades. The imperative of steering and guiding the urban growth process is thus a priority undertaking.

The report highlights key trends, policy imperatives and policy priorities for an Arab Urban Agenda in line with the Arab Strategy for Housing and Sustainable Urban Development 2030. This is a timely undertaking at a time when the role of urbanization in sustainable development is widely acknowledged including in the context of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (HABITAT III) further provides a renewed opportunity for Arab efforts to ensure an environmentally sound, socially just and economically inclusive urbanization paradigm.

The Local Area Development Programme (LADP), funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by UNDP in partnership with UN-Habitat, in close coordination with the Ministries of Planning (MOP) of the Federal and Kurdistan Region governments and Governorate-level authorities, was designed to address the main issues that hinder planning at the local level, the implementation of plans and related delivery of service to citizens of Iraq.

The overall objective has been to contribute to the stability and socio-economic development of the country by strengthening its government systems and enhancing the capacity to plan and execute budgets at the local level. Over the course of the past three years, LADP-EU has supported the development of coherent strategic frameworks for local planning that aimed to link investment expenditures to the achievements of the larger strategic investment priorities at both local or national levels embodied by the National Development Plan 2018-2022 and Iraq’s commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Regional Action Plan (RAP) is a regional proposal that builds on the global framework for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. The New Urban Agenda is the principal outcome document of the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, Habitat III, held in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. The implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean is fundamental to the development of all countries in the region, and to ensuring their sustainable future.

The RAP proposes interventions and actions, as well as relevant policy priorities to promote sustainable urban development in the region. The Plan is a proposal to maximize the central role of cities and human settlements as motors for sustainable development in an ever-increasingly urbanized world. In order to achieve sustainable, resilient, safe and inclusive cities, the region needs routes, methodologies and tools to guide urbanization.

The Plan offers a roadmap towards urban sustainable development in the region, which must be reviewed, analyzed and adapted to each national, subnational and city context. The Regional Action Plan is a valuable reference to promote and orient the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda in the region, and achieve sustainable urban development. The publication and printing of this version of the RAP was coordinated for presentation, discussion and dissemination during the Cities Conference at ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile (October 2-6, 2017).