16 March 2016: The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) are launching a pilot project to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Albania, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, and strengthen national capacities for developing evidence-based policies for sustainable housing and urban development. The project will support achievement of SDG 11 (Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable).

Through the project, participating countries will develop a policy paper and guidelines on the collection and analysis of national data on housing and urban development. The project will also provide advisory services and training materials to promote capacity building, inter-sectoral cooperation and the development of evidence-based policies.

Participants discussed the project during a side event at a Habitat III Regional Meeting, ‘European Habitat’ in Prague, Czech Republic, on ‘Implementation of the 2030 Agenda and achieving the SDGs towards a New Urban Agenda,’ which convened from 16-18 March 2016. The meeting discussed proposals for monitoring systems for the SDGs, with a focus on housing and urban development at regional and national levels. The meeting’s recommendations will be submitted as official inputs to Habitat III, which is expected to complement the SDG indicators on urbanization and housing with additional indicators for monitoring the New Urban Agenda.

The project builds on UNECE’s and UN-HABITAT’s efforts to establish evidence-based policies on housing and urban development, including through the UN-HABITAT Global Housing Strategy; Geneva UN Charter on Sustainable Housing; and the Strategy for Sustainable Housing and Land Management in the UNECE region for the period 2014-2020.

The UN Development Account is funding the pilot project. [UN-HABITAT Press Release] [Habitat III Regional Meeting Website] [UNECE Event Website]