7 April 2015: The Fourth Pacific Urban Forum (PUF 4) highlighted urban challenges as a priority issue for development, focusing on the areas of social equity, urban economy, environment and governance. Outcomes will feed into Asia-Pacific regional input to the Habitat III conference, which will convene in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016, as well as to ongoing discussions of the post-2015 development agenda. The Forum preceded the Sixth Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF 6), which will take place in May 2015.

UN-Habitat and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) jointly organized the Forum, which took place from 23-27 March 2015, in Nadi, Fiji, on the theme, ‘Towards a New Pacific Urban Agenda: Harnessing Opportunities in a Post-2015 Environment.’ The Forum took place as the island nation of Vanuatu, Kiribati and Tuvalu struggled to recover from the impacts of Cyclone Pam.

The Forum concluded with a call for sustainable solutions to the challenges of urbanization. In this regard, participants identified several priority actions, including: slum upgrading and ensuring access to affordable housing for all; providing basic infrastructure and services; building urban resilience to climate risks and other shocks; creating jobs; and strengthening capacity for urban governance.

Since the development of the Pacific Urban Agenda (PUA) in 2003, five Pacific Island countries – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga – have developed their own urbanization policies. [UN-Habitat Press Release] [Habitat III Website] [Pacific Urban Agenda]