19 April 2013: The 24th Session of the UN Human Settlements Progamme (UN-HABITAT) Governing Council (GC) adopted several resolutions, including on support for the 2016 Habitat III conference, and approved UN-HABITAT’s budget and work plan for the next two years. Over 1,100 participants from 107 countries attended GC, which convened under the theme, “Sustainable Urban Development: The Role of Cities in Creating Improved Economic Opportunities for All, with Special Reference to Youth and Gender.”

GC 24 met from 15-19 April 2013, at UN-HABITAT headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta opened the meeting, noting that over 70% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. The statement delivered on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) had recognized the role of cities in promoting “economically, socially and environmentally sustainable societies” through integrated management and planning. He called for cities to become “models and drivers of sustainability.” Joan Clos, UN-Habitat Executive Director, said quantitative achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target on improving the lives of urban slum dwellers masks the reality of increasing numbers of slum dwellers, and said this population rose from 760 million to 863 million from 2000 to 2012.

UN-HABITAT launched several initiatives and publications during the GC, including: a partnership between UN-Habitat and The Korea Transport Institute (KOTI) to develop sustainable urban transport systems; a bicycle sharing scheme in Africa; the “State of Women in Cities Report” and the “State of Urban Youth Report; and a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report, “City-Level Decoupling: Urban Resource Flows and the Governance of Infrastructure Transitions.” The women and youth reports recommended, inter alia: enhancing equity and gender equality in cities; and aligning educational and training systems with youth needs.

UN-HABITAT also announced ten partner cities for its City Resilience Profiling Programme, which aims to develop a comprehensive, integrated urban management and planning approach to monitoring city resilience. UN-HABITAT selected Balangoda, Sri Lanka; Barcelona, Spain; Beirut, Lebanon; Dagupan, Philippines; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Lokoja, Nigeria; Portmore, Jamaica; Concepcion, Chile; Tehran, Iran; and Wellington, New Zealand to test and refine the Programme’s guidelines and tools.

At a high-level roundtable on the role of urbanization in the post-2015 development agenda, Clos emphasized urbanization is an accelerator and source of development, rather than an outcome of development, and recommended that the post-2015 development paradigm focus on decentralization, gender policies and urbanization. Amina Mohammed, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, urged cross-sectoral approaches.

The GC meets every two years to examine UN-HABITAT’s work programme and discuss UN-HABITAT’s budget and policy guidelines for the next two-year period. [UN-HABITAT Press Release on GC Opening] [UN-HABITAT Press Release on GC Closure] [Statement of UN Secretary-General] [Statement of President Kenyatta] [UN-HABITAT Press Release on KOTI Partnership] [UN-HABITAT Press Release on Bike Sharing] [UN Press Release on Women and Youth Reports] [Publication: “Gender and Prosperity in Cities”] [Publication: “Youth in the Prosperity of Cities”] [UN Press Release on City-Level Decoupling Report] [UN-HABITAT Press Release on City Resilience Profiling Programme] [UN-HABITAT Post-2015 Roundtable]