Partnerships for the New Urban Agenda
Draft One March 15, 2016
Executive Summary [To follow]
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1. INTRODUCTION (PREAMBLE/CHAPEAU) The Habitat III Secretariat and Bureau have encouraged the creation of the General Assembly of Partners (GAP) towards Habitat III. GAP came into fruition in April, 2015. As a special initiative of the World Urban Campaign, GAP benefits from earlier partnership experiences emanating from Habitat II. Consequently, GAP organizers crafted an inclusive platform composed of 14 Partner Constituent Groups (PCG) that incorporates the nine major groups, the Habitat Agenda partners and others. This arrangement is unique in UN stakeholder experience. In December 2015, the UN General Assembly Second Committee recognized GAP as a key channel of communication between the civil society, the Habitat Secretariat and the Bureau. (General Assembly A/C.2/70/L.61). GAP’s aim is to support partners’ engagement and contribution to the Habitat III Conference, in particular to the New Urban Agenda. About GAP GAP’s Partner Constituent Groups include civil society, non-member-state executive and legislative governmental representatives, and other subnational authorities. They “are involved with the advancement of new concepts, ideas and methodologies in the field of sustainable urbanization and human settlement development, especially urban planning and design, including public spaces and streets, urban transport and mobility, climate change and environment, energy, disaster risk reduction and rehabilitation, housing and slum upgrading, safety and security in cities. GAP recognizes that each group brings to these concerns its members’ particular values, interests and perspectives.” (General Assembly of Partners, Partner Constituent Group Chair Handbook, p. 8) GAP is premised on the member state recognition of the vital role of partners (also known as stakeholders) in the development and implementation of important global agreements, a belief dating from 1992 when nine major groups were identified (Women, Children and Youth, Indigenous Peoples, Non-Governmental Organizations, Local Authorities, Workers and Trade Unions, Business and Industry, Scientific and Technological Community, Farmers). Four years later, the Habitat Agenda identified and amplified the concept of partners and partnership, mentioning the concept 91 times in the document, not only listing additional groups but also specifying their respective roles in implementation (The Habitat Agenda Goals and Principles, Commitments and the Global Plan of Action.) In the ensuing years, UN Habitat counted the following groups among its Habitat Agenda Partners: Local Authorities, NGOs and CBOs, Trade Unions, Professionals, Academics and Researchers, Human Solidarity Groups, Indigenous Peoples, Parliamentarians, Financial Institutions, Youth and Women. (UN Habitat, Habitat Agenda Partners http://unhabitat.org/about-us/our-partners/). Since the 1990s, member states have repeatedly committed to stakeholder involvement; many UN agencies, including UN Habitat followed suit. The most recent examples are found in Transforming Our World, The 2030 Framework for 3
Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement and UN-HABITAT’s various public statements. The 2030 Framework for Sustainable Development that established the Sustainable Development Goals, approved in September 2015, asserted: “We will revitalise an effective Global Partnership for Sustainable Development embracing all countries and stakeholders..” (Transforming Our World, p. 3). In December 2015, at the Conference of Parties (COP 21) that formulated the Paris Agreement, member states not only reiterated their commitment to partnerships but also highlighted specific groups. The preamble to the Paris Agreement recognizes “the importance of the engagements of all levels of government and various actors, in accordance with respective national legislations of Parties, in addressing climate change,” and an associated document identified six key “non Party” stakeholders: “civil society, the private sector, financial institutions, cities and other subnational authorities, local communities and indigenous peoples.” (Decision 1/CP para 15 December xx). In its presentation of the Habitat Agenda Partners (HAP), UN Habitat made the following assertion: “The involvement of HAPs working in the field of sustainable urbanization and human settlements development is essential for the successful design and implementation of a new urban agenda, the post 2015 development agenda and Sustainable Development Goals.” (UN-HABITAT, http://unhabitat.org/about-us/ourpartners/). Further confirmation of this commitment is in the agency’s strategic plan (UN Habitat Proposed Work Programme and Budget 2014-2019, HSP/GC/24/5/Add.2,http://unhabitat.org/un-habitats-strategic-plan-2014-2019/). While we, the members of the GAP, are fully aware that it is the national governments’ primary responsibility to forge the New Urban Agenda and, subsequently, provide the leadership and enabling environment – legal, administrative and financial – for its implementation, we also realize that partners as stakeholders are expected to be active contributors to the New Urban Agenda and its implementation. In its approval of the Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), the UN called for “the effective contributions from and the active participation of all relevant stakeholders … at all stages of the preparatory process and at the conference itself ”(GA 67/216). We stand ready to accept all responsibilities included therein. GAP Analysis of Key Issues to be Addressed in the New Urban Agenda In a world that is 54% urban in 2016 and rising to 66% urban in the next 20 years, growth has greatly elevated the demand for adequate, safe, and accessible housing and associated services. “The expected global population increase of 1.18 billion by 2030 combined with the existing housing deficit (currently 880 million people live in inadequate housing in cities) implies that approximately two billion people will require housing in 2030.”1 Further, the estimation that in 2012, 60% of the built environment to exist in 2030 is yet to be built2 will put pressure on land and services.3 The fact that metropolitan areas are the source of 70-80% of global green house gas emissions points to the need to recognition of balanced territorial Habitat III Policy Unit 10, Housing Policy, p.2. (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 2012) as cited in Issue Paper 8. 3 Habitat III Policy Unit 6 Urban Spatial Strategies, Land Market and Segregation, p. 5. 1 2
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development with a focus on cities in the New Urban Agenda as being critically important to individual nations and inseparable from the global quest for sustainable development.4 Further, “inequality remains an enduring challenge for towns and cities in the 21st century. The benefits of urbanization are unequally shared and, in many contexts, a substantial proportion of urban dwellers are not able to access them. Privatization of public space, uneven investment in assets and services, and gentrification can lead to displacement and exclude whole groups of citizens.”5 With regard to services, in many places a “joint understanding of the sectoral interdependencies in service provision (water, waste management, energy, transport, etc.)” is lacking, thus making mobilization of effective infrastructure plans and financing programs for their equitable and efficient provision difficult if not impossible. 6 Finally, “today, creating enough opportunities for decent and productive work for all is a major urban challenge.”7 These realities, the presence in the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Development of a stand-alone goal on the development of cities and human settlements (as well as other relevant SDGs) and the Paris Agreement to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change for which cities and human settlements will the a central locus of attention, underline the necessity of giving priority to encompassing a new paradigm within New Urban Agenda. Such a paradigm must not only offer universal guidance but can and should also be adapted locally, according to member state contexts and conditions. A new paradigm is required because current development practices threaten member states’ abilities to reap the economic, social and environmental benefits of urbanization.8 For example, sprawl, pollution, and traffic congestion limit cities’ ability to attract investment and employment. The unregulated functioning of land markets reinforces the physical segregation of different income groups and places the poor in substandard living and working conditions, with almost a billion people living in slums today and the potential for doubling that number tomorrow. Haphazard, fragmented, low-density growth intrudes on vulnerable peri-urban and rural areas, displaces important ecosystem services and agricultural production and diminishes balanced territorial development. 9 Addressing these and other challenges, as articulated in the Habitat III Policy Papers and the Declarations of the Habitat III regional and thematic conferences, will require, among other actions, new urban governance that “consists of a set of institutions, guidelines, regulatory and management mechanisms in which local governments are key, but not exclusive, components… [and] based on open-decision-making, with the active participation of local stakeholders and with the aim of defining the best policies for the common good.”10 Further, national urban policies will play a major role in generating “transformative outcomes in terms of how different levels of government work 4
Habitat III Policy Unit 8 Urban Ecology and Resilience pp. 2 ff. Habitat III Policy Unit 2, Socio-Cultural Urban Frameworks, p.8.t. 6 Habitat III Policy Unit 9 Urban Services and Technology, p. 9. 7 Habitat III Policy Unit 7 Urban Economic Development Strategies, p.7. 8 Habitat III Policy Unit 5 Municipal Finance and Local Fiscal Systems, p. 7, Habitat III Policy Unit 1 Right to the City and Cities for All, p.4. 9 Habitat III Policy Unit 6, pp. . 10 Habitat III Policy Unit 4 Urban Governance, Capacity and Institutional Development, p.5. 5
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together to design, implement, monitor and evaluate policies for sustainable urbanization.�11 Drawn from all over the world, we, the GAP members, recognize regional differences in levels of urban development, yet use unifying principles to guide our work. For example, among the world’s regions urbanization rates vary greatly ranging from North America (82 percent) to Latin America and the Caribbean (80 per cent) to Europe (73 per cent) to Africa (40 percent) and Asia (48 percent). Levels of urban poverty, vulnerability and resilience also vary between and among regions, and indeed, between and within countries that lie within the same region. Despite these differences, GAP members have highlighted several common guiding principles which are universal, and which must underpin the New Urban Agenda, and the partnerships that are forged towards its implementation. The Success of the New Urban Agenda: The Importance of Partnerships And as we contemplate the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in the next two decades, we believe that member states alone will not be able to address the challenges mentioned above. We believe that the solutions will lie in the member states’ engagement of a wide range of stakeholders including the members of GAPs 14 Partner Constituent Groups, each contributing according to its mission and capacity. The belief in the importance of stakeholder partnerships for realizing the New Urban Agenda is reinforced in the entire set of Habitat III Policy Unit Papers, the Declarations of the Habitat III Regional and Thematic Conferences and The City We Need 2.0. Thus, we, the GAP members, firmly believe that the Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) offers the opportunity to develop a New Urban Agenda that profiles and highlights the strong commitments of leaders and stakeholders working in partnership to reap the benefits of urbanization while addressing its concomitant challenges. We expect the vision expressed in the New Urban Agenda to be translated by national governments and their partners into action programs tailored to their local contexts and needs. We, the GAP members, realize that partners have specific roles, rights and responsibilities, which are clearly ascribed in this report. We envision the New Urban Agenda and its supplementary action agenda documents will recognize and specify these roles in relation to their recommended programs. As GAP members, working with the conviction that multi-stakeholder partnerships are critical to the success of the New Urban Agenda, we are committed to the principles and agreements encompassed in predecessor agreements. These include the Declaration of Human Rights, Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Convention on the Right of the Child, Beijing Platform of Action, Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing, Habitat Agenda, Local Agenda 21, the
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Habitat III Policy Unit 3 National Urban Policy, p. 3.
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Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, Framework for 2030 Development and the Paris Agreement.12 Operating collectively, we have developed and will advocate the common positions and multi-stakeholder commitments of this document, “Partnerships for the New Urban Agenda,” arrived at through broad-based inclusive and democratic consultative processes. We believe that this document is a model of the balance that can be created, consensus that can be developed, and integration that can be achieved, in the creation, execution, monitoring of policy by multi stakeholder partnerships. We strongly urge member states to incorporate its essence, as well as its key recommendations, into the New Urban Agenda.
2. PRINCIPLES This section fully embraces the following ten principles of the World Urban Campaign’s City We Need 2.0 that resulted from the 29 Urban Thinkers Campuses held throughout the world in 2015-2016. They are: PRINCIPLE 1: The City We Need is socially inclusive and engaging PRINCIPLE 2: The City We Need is affordable, accessible and equitable PRINCIPLE 3: The City We Need is economically vibrant and inclusive PRINCIPLE 4: The City We Need is collectively managed and democratically governed PRINCIPLE 5: The City We Need fosters cohesive territorial development PRINCIPLE 6: The City We Need is regenerative and resilient PRINCIPLE 7: The City We Need has shared identities and sense of place PRINCIPLE 8: The City We Need is well planned, walkable, and transitfriendly PRINCIPLE 9: The City We Need is safe, healthy and promotes well-being PRINCIPLE 10: The City We Need learns and innovates The following are principles that are seen as critical to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. These are principles that would address the challenges faced by a rapidly urbanizing world, but at the same time enhance the opportunities to realize the NUA through collaborative efforts of a range of stakeholders. The development of cities and human settlements must be based on, and must reinforce, a renewed urban governance paradigm that aims to ensure [people’s, workers’ and communities’] equal, informed and effective participation and representation, transparency and accountability. Social equity, gender equality, and socio-economic inclusion must underpin all strategies to achieve sustainable urbanization. 1. Human rights-based approaches must continue to anchor and guide global human settlement policy and corresponding commitments. Particular attention must be paid to people’s right to essential public services and to adequate housing, land and environmental rights, social and workers’ rights,
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URL references to each to be added.
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the right to food [security], as well as the right of access to information, and the right to non-discrimination and equality. 2. New and effective multi-level and collaborative governance systems must be established at community, local, sub-national, regional, national, and global levels, to better manage the complex challenges of interconnected urban spaces, taking into account but not being constrained by the limits of administrative and political boundaries. 3. All efforts must be made to ensure equal and meaningful participation and leadership of women, children and youth, and other marginalized groups, including through organized structures and mechanisms, in socio-economic and political decision-making, at all levels, for sustainable urbanization. 4. Stakeholder needs and priorities, particularly gender perspectives and those from vulnerable groups of all ages, must be integrated into the formulation and strengthening of urban plans, policies and practices, as well as regulations and financing arrangements, to create an enabling environment for all people to access the benefits of urbanization. 5. [Clear, equitable, and enforceable rules and mechanisms must be established for local authorities to generate and manage revenues, and to maximize their ability to link growth and development to a foundation of sustainable governance and fiscal stewardship.] 6. Spatial quality of cities and territories of the future should reflect compactness, connectivity, mixed use, integration of housing and services, affordability, adequate and quality public and green space, and socially diverse neighborhoods. Urban renewal must be inclusive and equitable, and must always aim to avoid negative socio-economic impacts such as the privatization and commercialization of public commons as well as displacement. 7. Sustainable urbanization requires well-focused strategies and programmes, accompanied by people-centered investments, to alleviate urban poverty and reduce inequalities. These include, among others, the provision of adequate land, security of land tenure, infrastructure, affordable housing, access to basic services [such as water and sanitation, waste management, public transport, education, healthcare and energy], including for informal settlements and to address homelessness. 8. Integrated territorial development must be promoted to ensure that cities and territories of the future are regenerative, low-carbon, and increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources. Urban utilization of water, land, and energy must be contextualised within local and global environmental thresholds, biocapacity and planetary boundaries, in harmony with its surrounding hinterland, and supportive of urban and peri-urban agriculture. Villages and cities must be seen as ends of a human-settlements continuum in a common ecosystem.
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9. Cities and territories must place health, safety and well-being at the core of their development strategies. This can be achieved by investing in public health, including the right to quality and affordable health care and social services, as well as in safe and accessible public spaces. Safe and healthy living environments for all would encompass, inter alia, safe mobility, safe public spaces, and reduced urban violence in the public realm. 10. Pro-poor strategies must be developed and implemented to reduce vulnerability, manage urban risks and improve resilience. Particular attention must be paid to those facing (or emerging from) humanitarian crises, such as migrants, refugees or displaced persons. 11. Sustainable urbanization must aim to realize economic vibrancy and diversity, ensuring accessibility of jobs and livelihoods. Efforts must be made to create opportunities for decent work and enterprise in the local economy, across formal and informal sectors, through active labour market policies – including education, vocational training and skills development; access to finance and/or sponsorship; and simplified administrative procedures for aspiring self-employed and entrepreneurs. 12. [The urban public realm and physical infrastructure must be democratically managed by the public. Mechanisms for government, community, or cooperative ownership of public space and infrastructure must be explored and pursued. This includes, but is not limited to, energy generation and transmission, water, open space, and sites of urban food production.]
3. ROLES, RIGHTS, AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARTNERS [STAKEHOLDERS] As members of the global community, GAP acknowledges the need for a clear recognition of partners’ [stakeholders’] roles, rights and responsibilities to assure the smooth crafting and implementation of the New Urban Agenda. GAP views these three terms (roles, rights and responsibilities) as embodying an agreed-on set of behaviors and obligations to be undertaken with mutual respect and cooperation. They exist in a symbiotic relationship that cannot be severed. Roles
We recognize that different partners [stakeholders] have different roles related to their respective missions
We acknowledge that partners [stakeholders] can form multi-party commitments and action alliances
Rights
We affirm the right of all partners [stakeholders] to be engaged in the planning and decision-making of our communities, cities, and nations.
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o We are engaged when we are involved at all stages of an initiative, program or policy including consultation, participation, decisionmaking, monitoring and follow up or feed-loop activities
We affirm the right of all partners [stakeholders] to be empowered o We are empowered when we are recognized in our nation’s legal and administrative frameworks and when we take meaningful part in creating the content of an initiative, program or policy
We affirm the right of all partners [stakeholders] to be capacitated to take effective part in planning and decision-making of our communities and cities o We are capacitated when we have access to data and information and the necessary technical and financial resources, including raising overall literacy levels and overcoming the digital divide
Responsibilities
We will reinforce the principles articulated in this document
We will share our collective knowledge, expertise and experience among ourselves, with our constituencies and with the general public
We will work across disciplines and across jurisdictions and will break down strictly compartmentalized approaches that create significant barriers to sustainable urban development
We take responsibility for building consensus, amplifying community voices, and working together towards convergence and prioritization of common values
We are committed to consider the voices of all our members, speaking with one voice on areas of agreement and to working together to make tangible commitments supportive of the New Urban Agenda
We are further committed to open GAP deliberations to all interested stakeholders in the spirit of sharing ownership and building trust
We will act ethically, responsibly and transparently
4. ENABLING FACTORS: PARTNERSHIPS [ALT.: COLLABORATIVE ACTIONS] FOR SUSTAINABLE URBANISATION Sustainable urbanization in itself appears to be both an aspiration, as well as a driver for new partnerships to emerge and sustain. The enabling factors listed below are necessary to achieve sustainable urbanization, and will be equally necessary to realize successful partnerships towards the same. There are both endogenous and exogenous factors, and partnerships should build bridges between them. These enabling factors have been categorized loosely into four categories: legal and policy frameworks; institutional capacities; fiscal interventions; and technology. Once again, it should be 10
noted that these relate closely to, but do not necessarily duplicate, the drivers proposed in the World Urban Campaign submission, The City We Need 2.0. Legal and policy frameworks would entail, inter alia:
Legislative reform to realize the equitable distribution of resources among urban populations, accommodate formality and informality, and recognize a continuum of land rights
Effective policies for, inter alia, housing, basic services, infrastructure, land, environment, safety, upgrading of informal settlements, including overarching national urban policies, that ensure the common good and fulfilment of human rights, empowering people of all segments and ages of the population
Inclusive planning and budgeting, taking into account the needs of different stakeholder groups, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized
Formalized mechanisms for engagement with stakeholders, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized, not only in the planning of human settlements and services, but also in their delivery, as well as in monitoring and evaluation
Ensuring access to justice while maintaining the rule of law, and without human rights violations, such as forced evictions
Institutional capacity would include, inter alia:
Policy coherence and improved coordination between different spheres of government, between different arms of the same institution, and between government agencies and stakeholders [Alt: duty bearers and rights holders]
Transparent, legitimate, and institutionalised consultative processes, partnerships, and capacity building, for coherence and coordination
Institutionalized mechanisms for sharing/ exchange of information, knowledge and expertise, including the collection, analysis and dissemination of disaggregated urban data
Fiscal interventions would encompass, inter alia:
Devolution of resources in accordance with responsibilities, to sub-national and local governments [Alt: Subsidiarity when it comes to the collection of tax shares to fund local infrastructures and public services, so that local growth and economic development is reinvested in the local economy]. Leveraging of financial resources from different stakeholders through innovative structures & mechanisms, including, for example, land-base financing, [social impact bonds], [progressive taxation], revolving funds of various kinds, community financing, private-sector financing, crowdfunding, and public-private partnerships.
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Technology for barrier-free information access, greater engagement in decisionmaking and sustainable urbanization would include, inter alia:
Analyzing and expanding technological capabilities, social network capacities, ICT infrastructures and crowd mobilization.
Application of a range of information and communication technologies to streamline the management of existing resources, save energy costs, provide improved service and enhance the quality of life.
[Investment in active labour market policies for the development of skills and professional paths related to new technologies, including towards the creation of decent green jobs that are critical to sustainable urbanization.]
[Enable greater access to technologies critical for implementing sustainable urbanisation, through the full use of TRIPS flexibilities and Technology Facilitation Mechanisms.]
[Technology impact assessments on the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of development to promote harmonious co-existence with urban landscapes, inclusive participation, and resilient development.]
5. POST-HABITAT III CIVIC ENGAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE A new path to sustainable urbanization requires a departure from business as usual, and adoption of new systems, tools and institutional arrangements. The New Urban Agenda is based on a wide range of inputs, including National, Regional and Global Reports; Issue Papers and Policy Units; Regional and Thematic Meetings; Urban Thinkers Campuses; as well as the deliberations of the General Assembly of Partners, which have resulted in the present paper. These contributions have come against the backdrop of the Sendai Conference, Financing for Development, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The post-2015 architecture for implementation of the New Urban Agenda should establish new and effective ways to harness all these inputs and resources. The General Assembly of Partners proposes the establishment of a Global Urban Partners’ Platform for Sustainable Urban Development, to support and facilitate the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. The Global Urban Partners’ Platform will take advantage of the intellectual and social capital created by the preparatory processes for Habitat 3, especially the strength, energy, inspiration of the Policy Units and the General Assembly of Partners. An [independent] entity with ties to the World Urban Campaign, the Platform would operate in four areas critical to sustainable urban development: knowledge, advocacy, experimentation and monitoring. It would aim to: 1. Encourage and promote evidence based policy making; 2. Develop, channel, and advocate shared priorities; 3. Advance and evaluate pilot programs organized by multiple partners; and
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4. Monitor the local implementation of the SDGs as they apply to the New Urban Agenda. The Global Urban Partners Platform will actively advocate for and support the International Decade of Sustainable Urbanization… [text to come] Structurally, its members would be organized into the 14 partners’ groups as in GAP and governed by an executive committee composed of the chairs and co-chairs of the partners’ groups. Functionally, its work would be organized around four [tasks] each reflecting its objectives. Administratively, it would be located organically within UN-HABITAT, supported by a small secretariat, with each of its functional components hosted by a partner and will feed into the post Habitat III architecture crafted in the New Urban Agenda. The Platform would have four interdependent hubs, each focused on one of its functions and employing feedback links to fortify its overall goal of promoting the New Urban Agenda. They are: 1. A Knowledge Platform (provisionally titled International or Intergovernmental Panel on Sustainable Urbanization [IPSU]) is a knowledge platform built on the legacy of the Issue Papers and Policy Unit process that provides an interactive meta-platform for the open sharing of knowledge, expertise and experience. It will consolidate links to existing knowledge platforms of relevance to the New Urban Agenda. It will also evaluate and generate policy relevant, but not policy prescriptive, research around topics critical to sustainable urban development, for instance, the form and configuration of cities and regions, livability, human rights, labour rights, equity, and governance. 2. An Advocacy Arm (provisionally titled United Nations Advisory Committee on Sustainable Urbanization [UNACSU]), an advocacy entity built on the Habitat III engagement process, notably the General Assembly of Partners representing major groups and other stakeholders to offer advocacy and advice on matters of participation, pragmatic guidance on issues of sustainable urbanization, based on our knowledge, experience and expertise. It would propose to serve as the Advisory Committee to the World Urban Forum, as well as to the international community on other urban-related matters. In its work, it would promote and strengthen unheard voices, develop trust leading to establishing and advancing common positions among the partners’ groups. The UNACSU will be modeled on the General Assembly of Partners, and will strongly advocate for civil society representation on the Governing Council of UN-HABITAT. 3. A Laboratory (provisionally titled Partners Lab for Urban Sustainability [PLUS]) would serve as a neutral test bed for implementation mechanisms and for the creation of pilot programs sponsored by multiple partners, in areas such as: inequalities in access to land, housing, decent employment, transport, public space, and basic services; integrated urban and territorial planning (including adjustments to the regulatory and administrative 13
frameworks); the regenerative and the circular economy; livability: health, safety and well-being; innovative technologies; and new sustainable financial mechanisms. 4. A Monitoring Mechanism (provisionally titled Partners’ Dashboard for Sustainable Urbanization [PDSU]) will complement the monitoring of the NUA, and will be integrated with the local implementation of the SDGs. It will focus on participatory data collection for both qualitative and quantitative indicators, particularly those that are not included in the ‘formal’ monitoring framework for the SDGs, NUA, the Sendai Framework, and others. This monitoring mechanism could also feed into recognition for urban innovations, for example through the UCLG-Metropolis-Guangzhou Award and Institute for Urban Innovation, or the Habitat III/Barcelona Smart City Expo World Congress Award for Promising Sustainable Urbanization Projects in the Global South.
CONCLUSION [To follow]
APPENDICES This section will contain representative partnership agreements and/or examples of the work that provide evidence of the abilities of GAP partners to undertake the obligations supportive of the recommended Global Partnership Platform [To follow]
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