HABITAT III Regional report on Housing and Urban Development for the UNECE region [Final Draft - September 2016 ]

Towards a city-focused, people-centred and integrated approach to the new urban agenda

The “Region”

• 56 Member States

• Home to 1.3 billion people (17% of global population)

• 263 cities of 500,000 or more

• Approx. 40% of global GDP

• Diverse in size, geography, economy and culture

Proportion of population living in cities varies from less than 50% to more than 80%

© Shutterstock/Paul Prescott

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Population density by city size class per part of the world, 2015

©Asaf Eliason/Shutterstock • More private home ownership • Sale of public/social housing • Home-owners too poor to maintain housing block…

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanpassmore/10583537265/ • Growing recognition of factors that support health,

well-being and environmental protection in cities

• Air pollution, flooding and heat-waves the most prevalent issues • High ambition for climate action, not necessarily met…

© https://www.cciq.com.au/blog/knowledge-economy/

• Who owns data? Municipality vs. Google

• Who ensures data protection and privacy?

• Does the knowledge-based economy require the same urban space?

• Political importance of territorial / urban planning. Compactness - Urban concentration – sprawl – shrinkage

• Public vs. private interests ? Economic transition – Housing policies – digital revolution – circular economy

• Urban governance innovation ! Urban sprawl? Metropolitan areas? Migration? Shrinking? Ageing? Digital revolution? Climate change? Legislation and urban policies are needed

Policy implications

• Demographic ageing and a rapidly increasing wave of migration further intensify pressure on the welfare systems and social balance in the region;

• Universal commitments on the mitigation and adaption of climate change along with the needs of curbing pollution, reducing waste and using resources sustainably will require significant increase of efforts in tightening regulations and in allocating resources;

• Increasing segmentation of labour market changes the patterns of employment, income gap between the high value-adding jobs and the traditional occupations is rapidly widening;

• Growing inequality manifests itself in declining affordability of the city; • The interaction of these trends may affect most the successful cities, by

undesirable spatial segregation. The gap between the few successful, larger cities and metro areas, and “economic backwaters” with shrinking, aging, underprivileged populations may continue growing, requiring further efforts for balancing territorial development.

THE GENEVA UN CHARTER ON SUSTAINABLE HOUSING Ensure access to decent, adequate, affordable and healthy housing for all. • Affordability • Accessibility • Inequality • Speed