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MONTREAL, Canada — Mayors and other top officials from 140 world cities used last week’s Metropolis World Congress here to assert cities’ key role in combatting climate change and to advance the New Urban Agenda ratified last October at the U. ... Read more
Need a recipe for a successful urban food policy? A recent report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, has some ideas. The report, “What makes urban food policy happen?”, features case studies from five cities on four continents. According to the authors, there are many nutrition-related challenges that municipalities around the world can tackle, from obesity to... Read more
Yangon, 3 July 2017—The Government of Myanmar has handed over a unique housing project for the poorest and most vulnerable families in Dagon Seikan Township in Yangon Region. The Government of Japan funded UN-Habitat to provide housing and basic services facilities for most poor and vulnerable families in the vicinity of the project area. The project was undertaken in two Phases. Phase One was... Read more
Berlin, 04 July 2017– In order to address the rising tide of refugees and migrants over the years, UN-Habitat co-launched the Mediterranean City-to-City Migration (MC2CM) project that brings together experts and cities to contribute towards improved migration governance at city level, including migrants’ access to housing, basic services and human rights. The participating cities exchange... Read more
We should be careful not to exaggerate the differences between the most and the least advanced global cities. Security solutions in Toronto might very well be applicable in Karachi; and digital services in Singapore could eventually take root in Kabul We are now in the final days of the industrial age. Just as the second generation of steam engines propelled the Industrial Revolution forward, so... Read more
A new report by the World Bank shows that Nairobi is among African cities that lack formal, planned housing that is connected to jobs and services. The report, "Africa's Cities opening doors to the World", says that three distinct characteristics constrain economic development and stifle growth: they are overcrowded, disconnected and costly. "Two [of the characteristics] appear directly in... Read more
ARE cities good or evil? In developing nations and emerging markets the rise of the city has been unprecedented in recent decades, and it is in these environments in particular that cities can often be viewed as breeding grounds for poverty and crime, as well as environmental and social degradation. But in actual fact, they also present the most effective places to promote economic development... Read more
UN Outlines Inspiring Examples of Building Resilience Rapid urbanization is making people more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to a new UN report that highlights diverse initiatives worldwide that are bolstering the resilience of cities, towns and villages. More than half the world’s population today live in cities, and another 2.5 billion people are expected to join them... Read more
Achieving the SDGs depends on action at local and subnational levels. Local and regional governments across the world are ready and willing to play our role. We work hard to ensure that the best services reach the greatest number of people, leaving no one behind; this is what the SDGs are all about. Local and regional governments have had our say in the definition of the global agendas; we... Read more
Metropolis’s Avinash Rajagopal asks Dr. Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat, for his insight into successful affordable housing policy and the "New Urban Agenda," a blueprint for urbanization in the 21st century. Last October, representatives from all the member states of the United Nations, from parliamentarians to nonprofits working with women and youth, convened in Quito, Ecuador at... Read more
The Philippines is rapidly urbanizing, and is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in the East Asia and Pacific region. In 1970, our urban population was less than a third (31.8 percent) of our total population. As of 2010 (when the last population census was taken), nearly half (45.3 percent) of our population was classified as urban, and 54.7 percent rural. It is projected that by 2050,... Read more