UN System

How to Develop a Healthy and Age-friendly City: Trends show that in the future, most people will live in cities and many of them will be older than 60 years old, ushering in a four-generation urban society. Policy and decision-makers therefore must include in urban plans the health and social needs of densely populated cities and aging constituents, along with other concerns. Ensuring the well-being of people and communities is also a key factor in building a city’s competitiveness, especially in a post-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) setting. A healthy city promotes equality, good governance, well-being, innovations, and knowledge sharing. It involves active mobility, food production, gardening, availability of sports arenas, and ways of social exchange. Meanwhile, an age-friendly city enhances the quality of life by anticipating and responding flexibly to the needs and preferences of older persons, protecting especially the most vulnerable. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has developed a framework that integrates sustainable urban planning and management with health and age-friendly outcomes and care systems to guide urban planners. The two-stage holistic and evidence-based framework uses two tools: the Health Impact Assessment and Healthy and Age-Friendly City Action and Management Planning. The framework incorporates lessons and best practices from ADB’s projects in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision - This report presents the results of the official United Nations estimates and projections of urban and rural populations for 233 countries and areas of the world and for close to 1,900 urban settlements with 300,000 inhabitants or more in 2018, as published in World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision. The data in this revision are consistent with the total populations estimated and projected according to the medium variant of the 2017 Revision of the United Nations global population estimates and projections, published in World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision. This revision updates and supersedes previous estimates and projections published by the United Nations.

UNITED NATIONS EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON SUSTAINABLE CITIES, HUMAN MOBILITY AND INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION - The meeting convened experts from around the world to (a) review the latest evidence regarding trends in urbanization and migration; (b) discuss development impacts, including social, economic, political and environmental aspects; and (c) discuss implications for policy, governance and planning. The discussion ranged from the global to the local level, with the goal of identifying substantive connections across geographic and organizational levels, and encouraging coordinated policy responses based on a whole-ofgovernment approach.

UN Demographic Yearbook (DYB) - As part of this data collection, they collect, process, validate and disseminate statistics on urban and rural areas, together with the definitions of urban/rural as applied by countries/areas

UN Demographic Yearbook (DYB) 2018

Policy Brief: COVID-19 in an Urban World - As this brief has shown, many policy options are available for local governments and more broadly to set cities on a course towards sustainability, accessibility, innovation, equality and respect for human rights. The policy recommendations can be adapted to local contexts – not just to acknowledge the unique strengths and challenges of different cities and even neighbourhoods within cities, but also to ensure that their unique character and culture are respected. Measures have also been proposed for national governments to support cities in this endeavour. And the United Nations stands ready to work with countries on this process.

Human Rights and Urbanization - "This two-pager was developed by UN Habitat & OHCHR based on the “Frontier Dialogues” on emerging human rights issues launched in 2016 by the former UNDG Human Rights Working Group with members taking the lead on specific issues. These messages were approved by the UNDG and have been incorporated into the UNDG Guidance Note on Human Rights for Resident Coordinators and UN Country Teams.

Urban Food Agenda Framework: Thie publication was prepared in response to the growing demand for a guide that would assist the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in supporting countries, and their sub-national and local governments, in taking actions to ensure sustainable food systems. This framework will orient efforts for implementing the UN endorsed New Urban Agenda and thereby helping to achieving the goals set out in the 2030 Agenda.

Urban Food Policy: This report seeks to highlight trends in the progressive evolution of urban food policy and practice as seen in the 157 submissions from the 2016, 2017 and 2018 cycles of Milan Pact Awards. Short briefs of a selection of 50 practices are referenced in the annex to this report and posted on the Urban Food Actions Platform hosted by FAO in collaboration with the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) Secretariat, ICLEI, UCLG and C40 networks. The analysis of emerging food policy and practice trends in this report are supplemented by examples taken from the 50 briefs.

Urban Crisis Recovery: In 2018 ILO, UNESCO and UN-HABITAT met in Amman to explore the possible establishment of a joint initiative for the recovery and reconstruction of major cities in four conflict-affected countries of the Arab region, namely Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen. The “Regional facility for urban crisis recovery and reconstruction in the Arab States” will build on existing programmes of individual agencies without replicating them, and will benefit from the added value of the participating agencies, who will work together in complementarity. It will be based on the principles of sustaining peace and building back better and will aim to complement interventions of humanitarian and development actors.

Urban Unemployment Data Collection: The International Labour Office Department of STATISTICS, responsible for compiling and disseminating the full range of labour statistics produced in countries (and disseminated in LABORSTA, the ILO labour statistics database) carried out a first investigation in 2010 to find out what labour statistics topics were available in international data repositories for urban and rural areas of countries around the world. The initiative was to prepare a dataset of the resulting statistics and to document the definitions used to classify urban and rural areas in these official labour statistics.

Additional Source

IMF Publications on Housing Prices

Global Housing Price Index: IMF assessment on housing prices tracked by country, detailed analysis. 

A Territorial Approach to the Sustainable Development Goals:

Synthesis report -> The report estimates that at least 105 of the 169 SDG targets will not be reached without proper engagement of sub-national governments. It analyses how cities and regions are increasingly using the SDGs to design and implement their strategies, policies and plans; promote synergies across sectoral domains; and engage stakeholders in policy making. The report proposes an OECD localised indicator framework that measures the distance towards the SDGs for more than 600 regions and 600 cities in OECD and partner countries. The report concludes with a Checklist for Public Action to help policy makers implement a territorial approach to the SDGs.

Multiple Deprivations In Secondary Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, Call for action.

Report of the Mayors for Children’ meeting in Greece, November 2019

Global Framework for Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

State of the world’s children 2019

Investing in the Pathways to Employment For adolescent girls and young women in low and middle-income countries A Guide for Investors: The section of "Role of Private Capital," looks at how to design and structure private capital flows to impact urban areas for women and adolescents 

Urbanization data from November 2018 (underlying data for the urban paradox report) + (values and wealth disparity gaps by indicator and country)

In the 2018 Annual Report, there is a focus on "GOAL AREA 4: EVERY CHILD LIVES IN A
SAFE AND CLEAN ENVIRONMENT,": A growing proportion of the world’s children reside in urban settings, where, on average, they have greater proximity to services and benefit from higher incomes and better infrastructure than rural children. However, UNICEF research shows that in some countries, the poorest and most vulnerable urban children fare worse than their peers in rural areas. In 2018, UNICEF revitalized its programming for children in urban settings and provided support to urban and rural local governments. As a result, 409 local governments in 32 countries have child-responsive and budgeted plans.

Shaping urbanization for children: A handbook on child-responsive urban planning presents concepts, evidence and technical strategies to bring children to the foreground of urban planning. By focusing on children, this publication provides guidance on the central role that urban planning should play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from a global perspective to a local context, by creating thriving and equitable cities where children live in healthy, safe, inclusive, green and prosperous  communities.

Catalyzing Private Sector Investment in Climate Smart Cities: to explore innovative financing instruments and approaches for catalyzing private sector financing to fill the climate-smart investment gap in cities. The report reviews the existing literature, highlights key barriers in scaling-up private investment in climate-smart urban infrastructure, and showcases innovative financial de-risking instruments and other financial instruments for private sector financing for low carbon, resilient urban investments. The first chapter of the report introduces the topic and the second presents the challenges and the opportunities of urban climate investments. The third chapter discusses climate-smart cities and types of urban mitigation and resilience investments. The fourth chapter reviews and provides a framework to examine the interconnected layers of investment barriers specific to private investment, city financing, and climate-smart projects. Considering these risks allows investors and other stakeholders to better understand the complex web of challenges to expanding investment in urban climate projects and how they build on one another. Chapter five presents 10 case studies of innovative financing approaches to address some of these barriers and mobilize private sector finance for low carbon, resilient urban development. Finally, the c​onclusion in chapter six offers some key findings and considerations for the wider community of practice.

Sustainable Urbanization Strategy: Outlines how UNDP is responding to rapid urbanization in developing countries and its consequences for sustainable development. It outlines how UNDP will support countries and cities, building upon its past and current work on urbanization. The strategy presents the complex and evolving urban challenges and the interrelated development choices which cities face as they strive to achieve the SDGs and implement the New Urban Agenda. It also sets out UNDP’s comparative advantage and experience in core thematic areas which are relevant to achieving the SDGs in cities and urban areas.

Urban Air Pollution Project in South East Asia. ESCAP with the financial support of Government of Korea, is implementing a technical assistance project to cities in South East Asia with UNEP and other partners aimed at leveraging innovation to local air pollution mitigation plans. This is a follow up to an ESCAP Resolution in 2019 on air pollution sponsored by Government of Korea.

COVID-19 Recovery Support to Asia-Pacific Local Governments. A new 13th tranche Development Account project, partners with UN-Habitat and UNCDF to support data, knowledge and planning of cities in Malaysia, Viet Nam, India and Fiji to build back better from COVID-19.

Closing the Loop project on addressing marine plastic pollution from ASEAN cities, with financial support from Government of Japan and in partnership with ASEAN Secretariat, South East Asian cities, the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) and others. The project will produce innovative data, monitoring technologies and plastic waste action plans for cities in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Viet Nam as part of the implementation of the ASEAN Framework for Action on Marine Debris and ESCAP Resolution on Sustainable Development of Oceans from the latest Commission Session in 2020.

Forecasting Sustainable Urbanization project. ESCAP with financial support from Government of China and in partnership with UNECE, supports cities in Central Asia and China to develop measures to reduce the increase in natural resource depletion resulting from unplanned and/or unmanaged urbanization. Altering these trends requires robust analysis of existing data and metrics and a means to forecast resource needs, investments, and the potential for policy interventions and technical solutions

Ocean Cities project: Promoting Nature Based Solutions in Pacific Islands Cities produced regional knowledge products on ocean friendly urban development strategies with partners from the Pacific

Urban Nexus project in partnership with GIZ and ICLEI. The project supported twelve cities in seven countries, namely: China, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. ESCAP-led activities promote an enabling framework for the urban nexus initiatives to thrive in the cities, highlight the relevance of the nexus approach, and seek to mainstream the nexus approach in national and local strategies for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda.

Integrated Resource Recovery Centers (IRRCs) project with financial support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in partnership with UCLG ASPAC and Waste Concern. ESCAP, Waste Concern and their partners have been promoting a waste-to-resource approach to sustainable solid waste management in towns and cities across the region. Through this project, ESCAP has helped local actors to deploy inclusive programs and strategies for adopting 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycling) practices and establish IRRCs. The IRRCs are decentralised facilities that use cost-effective and simple technologies to convert the organic component of municipal waste into resources using composting, anaerobic digestion and faecal sludge management processes.

The Future of Asian and Pacific Cities 2019: Transformative Pathways Towards Sustainable Urban Development

Penang Platform for Sustainable Urbanization: A Dynamic Partnership to Accelerate City Actions for Sustainable Development in Asia-Pacific

The Asia Pacific Mayors Academy was launched in 2019 by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) - in cooperation with the United Nations University, Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS); the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), and Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).

The annual ASEAN Mayors Forum is supported with UCLG ASPAC.

The UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities is an international policy-oriented network providing inspiration, know-how and best practice: Learning cities at all stages of development can benefit greatly from sharing ideas with other cities, as solutions for issues that arise as one learning city develops may already exist in other cities. The Network supports the achievement of all seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 4 (‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’) and SDG 11 (‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’).

Weight of Cities: The proportion of the global population living in cities and towns is expected to rise from 54 per cent in 2015 to 66 per cent by 2050, which will result in a significant expansion of existing cities, as well as the construction of new cities. Without a new approach to urbanization, material consumption by the world’s cities will grow from 40 billion tonnes in 2010 to about 90 billion tonnes by 2050. Therefore, the resource use implications and environmental impacts of urbanization are significant. Resources should now become a central policy concern, in addition to concerns about climate change.

Resilience and Resource Effciency in Cities:
Urban areas accounted for 54% of the total global population in 2014. Yet activities in cities account for 70-75% of natural resource consumption, with signifcant impacts for resource availability and ecosystems in areas far beyond urban boundaries. Cities are also disproportionately susceptible to a range of environmental hazards due to their concentration of people, infrastructure and economic activity; their exposure to risk is likely to further increase with climate change. The resource effciency and resilience of cities will become even more signifcant
as urban population and economic growth continues: the global urban population is projected to increase by approximately 1.84% every year between 2015 and 2020, with 90% of this growth occurring in Asia and Africa. The major global challenges of the 21st century – urbanisation, climate change, resource scarcity and poverty – therefore have huge implications for urban planners and policymakers. This report looks at the relationship between building the resilience of cities in the face of global environmental change, and increasing the resource effciency of cities to reduce their harmful impacts on the environment. It provides examples of effective ways to address these agendas, as well as the potential and challenges for integration. This speaks strongly to global policy agendas, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the New Urban Agenda.

Sustainable Real Estate Investments: This framework is designed to help real estate investment stakeholders identify key drivers and overcome the most common barriers for action to integrate ESG and climate change risks into their decision making processes. It has been carefully prepared with input from many knowledgeable industry experts and resources produced over the past five years. Focus on "Climate, Fiduciary duty, Long term and Time to act."

UNIDO Contributions to Habitat III Quito Conference: Participating as a panelist in a roundtable discussion on “implementing the New Urban Agenda at all levels and with all actors”, Monga outlined UNIDO’s lead role in integrating low carbon industrial development within the cities for shared economic empowerment. On the sideline of the Habitat III, UNIDO organized an event focusing on the significance and potential of sustainable cities as hubs for innovation, low carbon industrialization and climate action. In particular, UNIDO’s initiatives of developing eco-industrial parks and sustainable cities in India, Malaysia and Senegal were highlighted.

UNIDO Partnership with Private Sector on Planning and Development of Urban Areas & Industrial Zones: In September of 2019, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Urban Planning and Design Institute of Shenzhen signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the BRIDGE for Cities 4.0 event : Connecting cities through the new industrial revolution that took place in Vienna, Austria

Small Area Estimation: Better Data for More Effective Policies and Programmes: This brochure describes a method of Small Area Estimation that combines census and household survey data. It also presents a case study based on data from Nepal. The case study illustrates the use of census as well as demographic and health survey data to generate estimates of three family planning related indicators for Village Development Committees and Municipalities in rural and urban areas, respectively.

QGIS for digital cartography in Censuses and Surveys: Geospatial data is increasingly used as census modernization advances within population data systems worldwide. It is UNFPA’s aim to expand access to software and related guidelines for using these data most effectively for development, disaggregation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). UNFPA’s Technical Division’s Population and Development Branch is committed to increasing the availability of both commercial (ArcGIS) and open-source (Q-GIS) GIS software and guidelines for UNFPA and our partner governments. This manual provides technical guidance on digital mapping, and analysis with QGIS, one of the most widely used free and open-source GIS packages. The manual covers all stages of digital mapping, including plotting of households within Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), creation of administrative boundaries, production of supervisor and enumerator maps, basic spatial analysis, and image processing; it also ensures that UNFPA provides National Statistical Offices and other partners with an alternative to commercial software for digital cartography in censuses and surveys.

Classification and Delineation of Urban Areas in a Census: Disaggregation between urban and nonurban areas is important across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) because urban areas are commonly associ-ated with amenities such as paved roads, safe drinking water, and access to electricity and education. Goal 11 of the SDGs focuses specifically on urban areas due to the continually increasing share of the world population living in them. Both urban and rural residents face vulner-abilities particular to their physical and socioeconomic environments. Interest in refinement of the definition and delineation of urban areas increased in response to sub-urbanization in developed countries and as urbanization accelerated in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. The importance of the distinction between urban and rural has not since diminished, but a definitive, universal definition of urban remains elusive.

State of World Population 2020 - DEFYING THE PRACTICES THAT HARM WOMEN AND GIRLS AND UNDERMINE EQUALITY: "Poor, rural and lesseducated girls are most at risk FGM is generally more prevalent among poorer households in rural areas than in wealthier urban households (Figure 4.2). In Egypt, for example, more than 90 per cent of women in rural areas have undergone FGM compared with 77 per cent of women in urban areas (as of 2015). In Kenya, women in rural areas are almost twice as likely compared with women in urban areas (as of 2014). Studies in Burkina Faso, Egypt and Ethiopia have shown that women who reside in rural areas are more likely to have undergone FGM or be willing to practice FGM on their daughters— and at the same time, they have more favourable attitudes towards FGM compared with those who reside in urban areas (Mohammed and others, 2014; Tamire and Molla, 2013; UNICEF, 2012, 2010; Karmaker and others, 2011).

World Bank Urbanization Reviews, Country Specific & Regional Database:The World Bank's Urbanization Reviews offer a framework for city leaders to make tough decisions on development in their cities by providing diagnostic tools to identify policy distortions and analyze investment priorities.

Urban Waste Management Initiative 2050, With a Vast Database of Initiatives: What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050 includes global, regional, and urban trends on solid waste management from technical and operational trends to environmental and social impacts. The topics covered in the publication include waste generation, waste collection, waste treatment and disposal, financing models, operational models, technologies, citizen engagement, environmental impact, and informal sector impact. The database linked with this website includes information on 217 countries and economies as well as more than 360 cities.

Healthy environments: why do they matter and what can we do?: This document is structured as follows. For each topic, a brief overview is provided of the main health impacts caused by environmental factors, key actions to create healthier environments, and WHO support to countries and communities. Part I covers key environmental risks to health, such as air pollution or inadequate water supply; Part II describes the main settings for implementing action, such as workplaces or cities. To facilitate the implementation of health-protective measures across sectors, the Health in All Policies framework is presented.

Health as a pulse for the New Urban Agenda: This paper clarifies these and other critically important connections between health and urban policies. It also provides a detailed vision for integrating health into urban planning and governance, and offers practical guidance on health-promoting approaches for those tasked with implementing the New Urban Agenda in the years to come.

Global report on urban health: equitable healthier cities for sustainable development: This report presents evidence that in cities, progress in health depends not only on the strength of health systems, but also on shaping urban environments. Capitalizing on such intrinsically linked factors leads to efficiency, synergies and co-benefits, and is essential to the attainment of the SDGs. The report presents examples of effective actions by cities and nations around the world and subsequent successes. At the same time, it underscores the persistence of inequity and how its root causes must fundamentally be addressed in order to achieve meaningful progress.

Integrating health in urban and territorial planning: The sourcebook also shows how an integrated approach to health can influence decisions on sectors such as housing, transport, energy, and water and sanitation. More importantly, it considers how they are all linked to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Health features prominently in the inter-linkages between and among the Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 11, on sustainable cities and communities, cutting across almost all others and across traditional policy and disciplinary silos. The sourcebook articulates how public health professionals are crucial to good urban and territorial planning. They have a valuable and unique set of skills to bring to the table and can help ensure that routine urban and territorial planning activities, such as economic development or transport planning, are focused on delivering population health and well-being. We encourage you to make use of this sourcebook so that together we can improve our urban environment, our health and our well-being through the realization of the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, so that no one and no place is left behind