New Urban Agenda

Building the cities of the future is going to involve “collaborative effort,” requiring good leadership and realistic expectations.

That’s the view of Deputy Executive Director of the UN urban agency UN-Habitat, Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, who was the mayor of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, for five years, up to 2011.

She is a senior member of the team charged with helping cities, countries and regions around the world, realize the ambitious New Urban Agenda, which was agreed at the Habitat III Conference last year.

A “bold new course” is needed across the UN system to address the challenges of urbanization in the 21^st Century, the UN deputy chief said on Tuesday.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed was speaking on the opening day of a High Level Meeting looking at the New Urban Agenda and the working of the UN urban agency, UN Habitat.

More details from Matt Wells.

Duration: 2'56"

Indigenous people in Canada have been marginalized when it comes to city life “for many decades” with women and girls suffering a “disproportionate level of violence.”

That’s according to Christine O’Fallon, a member of Canada’s Women Transforming Cities group, speaking at the UN’s recent Habitat III conference on the future of urbanization, in Ecuador.

If the voices of slum-dwellers are ignored in the New Urban Agenda for world cities, adopted by UN Member States in October, then it “will fail”.

That’s according to José Lobo, of Arizona State University in the United States, who partners with the Slum Dwellers International network, based in 32 countries around the world.

He was speaking at the UN’s Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador, which adopted the New Urban Agenda as the blueprint for more sustainable and liveable cities of the future.

South Sudan at “tipping point” warns woman activist

When it comes to the New Urban Agenda for world cities, action needs to start at “the base” and not come from the top-down.

That’s the passionate view of Alima Sagito, a grassroots campaigner from Ghana, speaking at the UN’s Habitat III conference on the future of world cities, which took place recently in Quito, Ecuador.

Ms Sagito said that “critical planning” was needed to manage cities better, especially in fast-growing cities across Africa.

The risk of “outright violence” against the LGBT community is growing in cities but hopes are high that a newly-adopted agenda for future urban living will create more “safe spaces”.

That’s the view of Cicely-Belle Blain, a Canadian youth worker, who was one of the delegates to the recent Habitat III conference on the future of cities, which took place in Quito, Ecuador.

Somalia electoral season begins

What’s been described as a “complicated” electoral process is now underway in Somalia. The indirect elections are being held to choose a parliament and president, with hopes that one-person, one-vote elections will take place in 2020. Michael Keating is the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia and head of the UN mission in the country, UNSOM. Dianne Penn asked him about the complexity and significance of the electoral process.

New Urban Agenda guarantees rights of women and girls

The adoption of a new agenda to transform the world's cities will be "useless" unless countries and cities implement it.

That's the passionate view of Joan Clos, Secretary-General of the UN's Habitat III conference which ends on Thursday in Quito, Ecuador.

The once-every 20-years conference on Sustainable Urban Development has been focused on making cities and towns better places to live, through a non-binding New Urban Agenda, agreed by all Member States.