29 February 2016: Participants at the Africa Regional Meeting for the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) identified priorities for sustainable urban development in the coming decades, with a focus on regional urbanization to strengthen transitions and improve existing conditions. The conference resulted in the Abuja Declaration for Habitat III, titled ‘Africa’s Priorities for the New Urban Agenda.’ Habitat III will convene in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016.

UN-Habitat highlights that Africa’s expected population growth to two billion people by 2040 likely will also increase the rate of urbanization. People living in cities are projected to increase from 400 million (or 40% of the population) in 2010 to around one billion (50%) by 2035, the press release notes.

Representatives from national governments, local authorities, civil society and international organizations participated in the meeting, held from 24-26 February 2016, in Abuja, Nigeria.

In his opening statement, Kumaresh Misra, Habitat III Secretariat, said rapid urbanization in African countries can provide benefits and opportunities, as long as key challenges are addressed. Such challenges include changing demographics, limited urban industries, infrastructure needs, environmental degradation and climate change. Other speakers emphasized the role of local authorities in sustainable urban development in Africa, and the importance of investing in urban infrastructure, public health and nutrition, water and sanitation, education, vocational training and skills development.

The main conference outcome, the Abuja Declaration, recommends: allocating adequate financial resources to promote sustainable urbanization and human settlements development; promoting inclusive economic growth to realize full employment, decent jobs and improved living standards; enhancing connectivity between rural and urban areas; integrating urbanization into national development planning; and prioritizing planning and investment for sustainable urban mobility systems that link people, places and economic opportunities. The Declaration also calls for ensuring access to affordable basic services, strengthening institutions and spatial planning systems to foster urban safety and security, ensuring access to sustainable, affordable and adequate housing and land, promoting slum upgrading, developing and implementing clean air policies to reduce health risks, adopting integrated national urbanization policies, and accommodating cultural differences, promoting localized sustainable urban development systems and preserving cultural heritage.

The Declaration also provides recommendations on: promoting effective decentralized urban management; enhancing the contribution of urban and human settlements development to continental integration; enhancing environmental sustainability, resilience and effective responses to climate change in cities and human settlements, including by fostering the use of sustainable renewable energy and investment in low carbon production systems in urban centers; enhancing efforts to advance a global partnership to facilitate the implementation of the New Urban Agenda; and strengthening UN-Habitat to make it politically visible, as the key player in mobilizing actors and implementing the urban and human settlements component of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To this end it calls for establishing universal membership of UN-Habitat’s Governing Council.

The declaration will contribute to the Habitat III preparatory process and the formulation of the New Urban Agenda, which will constitute the final outcome from the Habitat III Conference. Habitat III will provide the opportunity to discuss the challenge of how cities, towns and villages are planned and managed in order to fulfill their role as drivers of sustainable development, and shape global development and implementation of climate change goals.

The Asia-Pacific regional preparatory meeting for Habitat III took place in October 2015. The regional preparatory meeting for Europe is expected to convene in March 2016, and for Latin America and the Caribbean in April. The Habitat III preparatory process also includes a series of seven thematic meetings taking place from September 2015-April 2016. In addition, a series of informal meetings over the next few months will culminate in PrepCom3, which will take place from 25-27 July 2016, in Surabaya, Indonesia.

The Habitat meetings are convened every 20 years. Habitat I was held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1976, while Habitat II convened in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1996. [Africa Regional Meeting Website] [Abuja Declaration] [Habitat III Press Release on Africa Regional Meeting] [About Habitat III] [Regional and Thematic Meetings] [Asia-Pacific Preparatory Meeting] [IISD RS Story on Habitat III Preparations, Inclusive Participation]