Box 4.11: Next steps for the New Urban Agenda

Training on handwashing for prevention of COVID-19 for over 2,000 households organized by UN-Habitat in Tboung Khmum, south east Cambodia. © UN-Habitat

Box 4.11: Next steps for the New Urban Agenda

Following the conclusion of Habitat III, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/75/224 in December 2020 and called on the President of the 76th Session to convene a High-Level Meeting on the implementation of the NUA. This event, referred to as “Quito+6”, will be held six years after Habitat III to provide the international community with a platform to take stock of the impact of COVID-19 and the measures necessary to revitalize the implementation of the NUA.

The United Nations system is well placed to support the General Assembly as it prepares for Quito+6. In 2018, the SecretaryGeneral declared urbanization a megatrend and called for a whole system approach to support countries in implementing the NUA. In 2019, the Chief Executives Board endorsed a system-wide United Nations strategy for sustainable urban development. Building upon the transformative commitments of the NUA, the strategy outlines ways to harness the transformative power of urbanization to reduce poverty and inequality, promote prosperity and economic transformation, advance climate action and environmental sustainability, and ensure urban crisis reduction and recovery.

The Secretary-General’s policy brief, COVID in an Urban World, issued in July 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, highlighted the urban dimensions of the pandemic and has very much inspired the development of this volume. More recently, the SecretaryGeneral established the United Nations Task Force on the Future of Cities and will deliver a keynote address on this topic later in 2021. These related efforts will help Member States, as well as the United Nations system, revitalize the global framework for sustainable urbanization.