March 2016: The Europe Regional Meeting for the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) set out policy recommendations for the New Urban Agenda, and held discussions on ensuring access to decent, adequate, affordable and healthy housing for all, and reducing the housing sector’s impact on the environment. Also in March, a thematic meeting on financing urban development took place as part of the Habitat III preparatory process.

The Europe regional meeting for Habitat III took place in Prague, Czech Republic, from 16-18 March 2016. The resulting ‘Prague Declaration: European Habitat’, which will feed into preparation of the Habitat III draft outcome document, underscores the need to: enable and empower cities to be key actors in implementing sustainable urban development; assure compliance with legal requirements by independent institutions in land governance and land registration; ensure tenure security, transparent and efficient land use, property registration and a sound financial system; promote long-term and non-speculative, risk informed investments in housing and urban development to stimulate employment; promote resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns; protect and safeguard cultural and natural heritage; ensure affordability and planned urban development that minimizes environmental impact and urban sprawl; and increase resilience through risk-informed urban development. The Declaration reiterates that cities should be “people-centered” and enhance conditions for wellbeing, development and the realization of human rights.

Also during the Prague meeting, Habitat III Policy Units officially handed over their policy papers and key messages to UN-Habitat Secretary-General Joan Clos and the bureau of the Preparatory Committee, as official inputs for preparing the draft outcome document. Clos said the policy unit process represented the most extensive consultations with experts outside the UN system, and would set a precedent for informing future conferences with “independent expert knowledge.” The papers highlighted the need for smart data as a tool to design and appraise policy, and for cities to harmoniously accommodate disaggregated and diverse needs while precluding social segregation, among other findings.

Each Policy Unit was led by two organizations and composed of up to 20 experts. The Policy Units are: The Right to the City and Cities for All; Socio-Cultural Urban Framework; National Urban Policies; Urban Governance, Capacity and Institutional Development; Municipal Finance and Local Fiscal Systems; Urban Spatial Strategies: Land Market and Segregation; Urban Economic Development Strategies; Urban Ecology and Resilience; Urban Services and Technology; and Housing Policies.

Alongside regional preparatory meetings for the Conference, a series of thematic meetings is also underway. ‘Financing Urban Development: The Millennium Challenge,’ convened in Mexico City, Mexico, from 9-11 March 2016, to discuss solutions for strengthening municipal finance and identify strategies for financing urban development policies. Clos’ remarks stressed that funding urban development has traditionally been viewed as a cost, but that, in fact, “financing cities is an investment for the future and for development.”

The meeting emphasized that the New Urban Agenda, which will be agreed at Habitat III, should enable appropriate rules and regulations, strategies and tools to ensure adequate access to funding for sustainable urbanization at the local, regional, national and international levels. Financing sustainable urbanization implies empowering local, metropolitan and regional governments, as well as private and social sector partners, to address the need for quality urban services and infrastructure in an equitable and inclusive manner.

The meeting’s outcome, ‘Mexico City Declaration: Localizing finance for inclusive change,’ includes recommendations related to the following drivers for action: fiscal and financial decentralization; endogenous resources and land-based financing; access to banking, capital markets and innovative financial intermediation; promotion of private sector investments; financial empowerment, capacity building, transparency and accountability; metropolitan finance and intra- and inter-municipal coordination; social and solidarity economy and finance; informal economy and new consumption and production patterns; climate and resilience finance; social production of habitat and the right to adequate housing for all; and local and regional governments as world actors. The Declaration will be an input to the New Urban Agenda.

In addition to the regional and thematic meetings to develop the New Urban Agenda, a series of informal meetings will take place in the coming months, culminating in PrepCom 3 from 25-27 July 2016, in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Habitat III will convene in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016. Habitat I was held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976, while Habitat II convened in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1996. [Website for Thematic Meeting on Financing for Urban Development] [Thematic Meeting Programme] [Conceptual Note for the Thematic Meeting] [Mexico City Declaration: Localizing Finance for Inclusive Change] [Press Release on the Thematic Meeting] [Europe Regional Meeting Website] [Europe Regional Meeting Agenda] [Prague Declaration: Europe Habitat] [Press Release on Europe Regional Meeting] [Press Release on Handover of Policy Papers] [Policy Units Website] [UN News Story on Homelessness]