UN’s Habitat III conference

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.

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

“All migrants will be protected” in the world’s cities if governments stick to new global standards for urban living, agreed this week at the UN’s Habitat III conference in Ecuador.

That’s according to William Swing, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), who has been attending the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, taking place in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito.