UN-Habitat Arena - Our Collective Efforts on the New Urban Agenda for the next 10 years (WUF13)

Hello, everyone. Hello. Good morning. I know this is the first session and today's the last day. I heard so many people left last night. But we are going to record this one. This is also aired live. So we could start. We are going to have our collective effort session on the new urban agenda for the next decade. So this is Buberi, program management officer from UN-Habitat. Who is in charge of global reporting processes of the New Urban Agenda under Adelam Yemenu, who is here. So we are building off from last session, from last— if you can see there, that was from World Urban Forum 12. We had really rich conversations. So we are building up on that last conversation. So now we are going to have Adelam Eberra Yemenu, Chief of Knowledge and Innovation Branch from UN-Habitat, to give the opening remarks.

Thank you so much, Bobé. And I think we're still going to have a great conversation, even though the audience is a bit sparse. But as Bobé said, this is Friday morning for all of us. So let me start first by expressing our sincere gratitude to all of you on the panel, as experts, as leaders, dedicating your time to this conversation. And also, of course, I'm sure your commitment to the New Urban Agenda through respective areas of work. So, at UN-Habitat, today's session is really about marking the moment that we are at. I don't know how many of you were in Quito in 2016, but maybe some of you were there. You were? Fantastic. Yes, so in 2016, I think the world showed up in Quito. We all showed up for a common purpose, which was the New Urban Agenda, and that's where the journey of the New Urban Agenda really took shape as we adopted the New Urban Agenda. 10 years on, a decade later, we are at a moment where we need to ask critical questions. We need to reflect on the progress that has been made, the progress that has not been made, and ask questions as to what happened, why it happened, and perhaps much more importantly, reflect on the next decade ahead of us. We have another 10 years to 2036, to the end of the New Urban Agenda. And as much as 10 years seems like a long time, we know it's not, because we have arrived in 2026 very fast from 2016. Today's conversation is really about that. Just to give you a sense of what has been happening at UN-Habitat in terms of assessing progress 10 years later, we have been working for many months with many stakeholders, many decision makers around the world to assess the progress. We've had several different ways of assessing this progress. One of the most important ways in which we have assessed progress is the voluntary national reports of countries and of member states. And what I can tell you is positive is that we had a lot more reports submitted by member states. And now this is not just about the number of reports submitted because that itself is not an indicator of success. But I do think that the fact that 70 member states submitted a national report took the time and resources to invest in this process demonstrates their commitment to the New Urban Agenda, their commitment to its implementation, and their commitment for the next 10 years ahead of us. And that's 36% of UN membership that reported on the New Urban Agenda. So we do think that that's extremely positive. It's an increase from the last time we were reporting on progress 4 years ago., and we're very happy to see this increase. But in addition to national reporting, we have had a globally inclusive process because we have engaged with stakeholders and other actors around the world. And in this respect, I'm happy to share with you that we had over 20 United Nations institutions participating in this midterm review progress. We had over 120 stakeholders providing their dedicated feedback on the progress, and we've had many, many Conversations. We've had webinars, we've had discussions, and they were extremely vibrant in their nature, in the contributions that we got. And we also had capacity-building-oriented sessions around the New Urban Agenda, and over there we had thousands of participants with all stakeholders represented. So we have had this process in place to ensure that The assessment of progress at this very important moment for the New Urban Agenda is inclusive. It reflects the perspectives and the voices of all of those that have a stake in this agenda. Our expert panelists here are also going to share additional perspectives on what is at stake and for who and why, and how do we actually make the best of the next 10 years, because as I said, 2036 will come upon us very fast. So this is the time to be as focused as possible in terms of our recommendations. What we want to see coming out of this conversation here, but also the entire World Urban Forum, is concrete recommendations on how to accelerate progress. It's an easy question, it seems, but the answers are very complicated and the implementation is very complicated. I'd like to share with you also that Our main finding from assessing progress for 10 years is one that is perhaps not going to be new to any of us. There has been progress. Commitment is high. Policies and legislation have been put in place by many governments and local governments and stakeholders, but implementation is lagging behind. As I said, not a new finding, but still the same finding. And therefore, I think the conversation we're having here today is extremely important in that respect. So really, just to say thank you for your time here. We at UN-Habitat will not stop here at the World Urban Forum. We're going to the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly in July. We need all voices there with us, all perspectives represented there as well, because there will be a political declaration at that high level around the next 10 years of implementation. So please stay with us. Enrich that conversation, make it impactful, and let's have a conversation where we are as frank as possible and really as concrete as possible in the recommendations that we make. So we appreciate you here today, and also as you go away from the World Urban Forum, please stay as champions of the New Urban Agenda and help us really in the next 10 years to make the New Urban Agenda a reality everywhere that it is implemented. So I will hand over back to our moderator, Boubey. And thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Adelaine. So now we are going back to the— going to the panel discussion with really rich representation of the stakeholders we have been engaging. Maybe when I introduce one by one, if you could give the big round of applause. So the first one is Ole Stoppdorp, Senior Advisor Urban Development Infrastructure from African Development Bank. He is from Denmark. And next one is Asna Manadur, Secretary General of the Asia Coalition for Housing Rights. She is from Nepal.

Welcome.

We have Lana Kinnear, Head of Creative Innovation Practice, Polis Lab UK, from United Kingdom. She is actually the co-facilitator of the 2022 New Urban Agenda workshop. So she is really well aware of how it has been from even last reporting cycle. Thank you so much. Welcome. We do have Esther Nagate, Youth and Gender Advisor of the International Disability Alliance, representing persons with a disability and youth, and also gender lens from Ghana. Welcome, Esther. We have Zaina El Zayn. She's a UN-Habitat Youth Advisor and also Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Design in Helwan University from Egypt. Thank you so much. So now we could have this really rich panel discussion. So now the first question is to all of you. Looking back over the past decade, what concrete impact has implementation of New Urban Agenda had in your context, in your sphere, and to what extent did outcome meet expectations and what factors explain success or gaps. So maybe Zaina, if you could also start, then Esther could come follow.

OK. Thank you, Povey. And it's my pleasure to be here. And thank you, Adeline, for the introductory notes. So speaking from my context as an academic and also focusing on architecture and the built environment and also working in a very unique region, the Arab region, While I was engaging also with youth through UN-Habitat, I have seen the UN Habitat— the New Urban Agenda create an important shift in conceptual thinking about how we talk about cities. So a decade ago, conversations started about cities more physically, more about infrastructure, buildings, and expansions. But now what I have noticed lately is that the shift about the understanding of the built environment is more about systems, about resilience, about social inclusion, climate adaptation, public spaces, housing, mobility, and participation of all stakeholders. And actually, in my own field, I have noticed this because I'm an educator. So I have seen also this shift in education and how we teach architecture and urban planning to the new generation. We started focusing on different systems, on creating an environment for nature-based solutions, for example, on connecting different systems to together, intersectionality. And I have also seen a strong momentum about youth inclusion in this new urban agenda. And I can see this through how youth are introduced in different platforms such as WOOF and different UN-Habitat engagement spaces. So the vision has progressed, but also I would like to say that institutional implementation is also limited. So we have the vision now, but we still need more focus on how these are implemented, are actually implemented. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Jane, for highlighting the youth inclusion, because we are looking forward of the next 10 years, and youth is the power to keep this momentum. So it is really happy to have you here. That's why we also have two youth representatives in the discussion. Thank you so much. And Esther, over to you.

Thank you, Bobby. So it's my pleasure being here representing a very dynamic group of people, as we are not just persons with disabilities, but we live at the intersection of multiple identities, and we don't have to always choose between being persons with disabilities or the many other identities we find ourselves in. Moving on to the question, over the past decade, the New Urban Agenda has helped strengthen the global recognition that cities must be inclusive, accessible, safe, and sustainable for all. For persons with disabilities, and youth. This has created an important entry point to advocate for inclusive transport, for inclusive transport accessibility, public spaces, housing, and participation in urban Decision-making. For me, as a person with disability, for me as a woman with disability from Ghana, disability-inclusive infrastructure is not an abstract concept. It determines whether I move freely and whether I live and am able to participate in society fully and equally. However, in many contexts, implementation remains uneven because accessibility is still treated as an as a technical add-on rather than a human rights obligation for cities and communities. Cities and communities still remain is inaccessible, and persons with disabilities continue to face barriers in housing, transport, public spaces, and digital access— digital services. The gap is not due to lack of commitments, but often due to lack of implementation and the exclusion of persons with disabilities from decision-making spaces. As Africa urbanizes rapidly, we have an opportunity to accelerate dignity that's built— to accelerate design that builds dignity and equality. So we must continue to use the entry points of the New Urban Agenda to ensure that cities are inclusive for all. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Esther, to bring also highlighting the multiple identities we all have and we have human rights which identities we have, and this is fundamental to have you and also persons with a disability, youth, and women in our discussion. So for the next New Urban Agenda or the next global agenda could be more inclusive based on the rights. So for this, by the way, we have the interpretation, so if you need a device, you could also ask one of the volunteers. Now we are going to ask Lajna to represent civil society organizations' view of the first question. Lajna, over to you.

Yeah, thank you. Since this New Urban Agenda came in in 2016, we were very excited, all of us working in this field, in the housing, in the community, slum upgrading. So we are all very excited that whatever has been happening, taking place, is now again reinforced by New Urban Agenda. So it was a very exciting moment, and we still work on that to ensure that this agenda gets implemented and the communities, the poor communities, the informal settlers in the settlements, they all get benefit from that. So while talking about your participation in In the preparation of the progress report, of course, they were invited, consulted in the meetings, and there's an opportunity for the civil society and the communities also to contribute from their own perspective to say what is happening or even what's not happening, like what's lacking, you know. So there's, of course, an opportunity for them. They are invited to the meetings., right? And also for the voluntary national reviews meeting, also it's also combined with the NPR as well for SDG 11. So there's an opportunity for them. But then what is lacking is, or what needs to be done, I think, for the effective reporting in the next 10 years, as you have said, is it would be better if there's a bottom-up process in reporting. So it's all very much kind of like centralized. In the cities, right? And one big meeting or some consultation with specific groups, but it's not really localized. So many times the data information are acquired from the local level, but then there's a lack of the community consultations at the local level. So people are not aware about this, about how this thing is happening. So there's not much opportunity for the people to speak about at the local level. So I think if you can, like, you know, if you can have a system that this is made a bottom-up process, get the information, data, experiences, you know, the feelings of the people from the bottom, from the communities, also from the local governments as well, the real city stakeholders from the cities, and that is actually compiled at the national level, I think that would be more effective. People will have opportunity, really, you know, to discuss, to get engaged in the agenda. So this is like, it's not only like contributing in the reporting process, but I think that opportunity will also help the people to understand what, what, what the New Urban Agenda is like, you know. So this will also help them to clarify, because we still have a long way to go. But still, next years, and there will many people will be joining in the process, right? Old people will be leaving and new people will be coming. Youth, you know, now we are getting more youth getting engaged in the process. So they have to learn. So this is reporting. It's not only for the sake of reporting, but also to train, to sensitize the new people in the agenda, and the local level discussion will be helpful. So bottom-up process. And then the other, I think, you know what, would be possible or maybe would be helpful is maybe institutionalizing citizen report cards for allowing the people to assess the performance of the governments to see like, you know, what is working, what is not working from the people's perspective. If it is possible to institutionalize and, you know, to recognize the citizens' report card, that will also help and also contributing strengthening the accountability of the governments, I think. So if that is possible, so maybe we can think of like how that can be promoted, or not even at the national level. So the national level, at the national level also this can be done, and then again at, you know, at the regional level also it is possible, like, you know, national level and at the regional level institutionalize the citizens report card. And like the other thing is like, you know, systematic regular consultations, a platform for systematic regular consultations on this agenda. It's not like you get together when you need to report. Like it's not like, you know, at the last minute you get together, you talk about it, but it has to be a regular systemic process where you keep on continuing discussing on the agenda. Make reflections, learn, share, so that you can, like, if there is any limitations happening, going on, or you can make corrections and move ahead. You learn, you share your experience. So that has to be a systematic, regular consultation. So then you can also report, like, you know, the process of reporting. It's not one-time meeting, but then you keep on continuing discussing, especially with the women. People with disabilities. So you try to be inclusive more and more, include the youth, the girls, the children, people, you know, with aged people. So everyone can be included. So I think that is also important. And also, like, you know, so because it's also already mentioned, but then, um, try to see, integrate, integrate with other commitments, because this is— it's not a standalone agenda. It It is interconnected with the SDGs and also with the Sendai Framework, with the COP, you know, the commitments, like all these. So this is very much integrated. So we can also see when these discussions, when the assessments happening, like this agenda, NUA agenda, also can be integrated and see in a whole, like not in isolation. So I think that would also be very helpful. I think also, like, you know, to make the work of the communities, the community organizations, to make it visible. Because when you are reporting, when you are reporting, you have to see, you know, what is happening. Like, many times the work of the communities, community-led activities, are not visible, not seen, or, you know, They have not been able to make themselves visible. So if the work, the initiations of the community organizations, civil society organizations, best practices, although has happened in a small scale, that has to be made visible so everyone knows about it. So that means like proper communications, documentations, and making visibility through various medias. If that can be supported, then when the reporting need to be done. So then you know about it, oh, this thing has happened and this need to be scaled up, right? So I think it's very important that also we try to promote the visibility and recognition of the work of the communities and strengthen the partnership with the stockholders to co-create knowledge. So that is also, I think, very important. There has to be a strong partnership between the communities, governments, because The government is reporting, and then if the partnership is strong, so they will be consulted, their opinions will be heard, their recommendations will be taken, and the limitations that the communities are pointing out, that will be— that is well taken by the government. So it is very important that we also strengthen the partnerships. And also, like, you know, when we are actually making it a very inclusive kind of consultations Even like having platforms, discussion where you are talking, it has to be accessible to the people with disabilities. I'm just reinforcing this because she's here to, you know, speak. And, you know, so it is very— it is possible because the space is available for her. Like, you know, it's, it's friendly space for her. So we also have to ensure if you really want to be inclusive, we have to take care of the needs of the people who have special, uh, you know, Knee facilities that is required, that has to be provided. So that is also very important. I stop here now. Thank you.

Thank you so much. All right, uh, thank you so much for last. Now we are going to hear from Lara on the academic perspective, then we are going to move to Fatima for the member So, Lara first, then Fatima.

So would you like us to still answer the first question?

Yeah, first question, 2 minutes please.

So in terms of what concrete impacts implementation of New Urban Agenda has had in my context, so I'm going to speak as a lifelong learner and as an educator, which I've been for the last 20 years across different universities and different programs, and I started life as an architect and realised very quickly that the boundaries that architectural education puts up very quickly are— is not what we need if we're going to have significant impact on our cities, if we're going to think about the life of people from different backgrounds, whether it be socio-economic or other. We needed a much more holistic approach to what architecture, planning, urban design could offer the complexity of urban conditions that we have to try and solve. So that took me on a journey of about 15 years across different universities, um, gradually expanding architecture into something that became interdisciplinary problem solving. And that was one course that really focused on the complexities across quantitative and qualitative approaches, across science, across art, across mathematics. Even maths can offer something to the future of our cities, because wherever you look in the world, too much urban development still works like patchwork. One housing scheme can be in one place, one transport scheme is somewhere disconnected from that housing scheme, one climate project is in another location in a city. And what the New Urban Agenda offered me as an educator was the possibility of thinking like an ecosystem and for students to see that, to see that this was a global agenda that the world was signing up to. And so it was affirming in many ways when it came out in 2016 because it is a framework where housing, nature, mobility, energy, and social infrastructure reinforce one another, and so that's carried me through now into UK government where I work in an interdisciplinary team where we have scientists, we have artists, we have educators all working on complex policy issues. So in many ways I'm really grateful that NUA came out and has continued in its way, in the way it has. We all know that we want to make the next 10 years have even greater impact than we've seen in the last 10.

Thank you so much. We also emphasize of the academia's role in the roundtable for the next decade of the New Urban Agenda, and also quite a lot of stakeholders, they were asking for us to have capacity buildings, data, information, so the role of academia gets to grow together with the role of the youth. So now we We invite Fatma Chihab, Secretary General of the National Housing Council of Morocco, and she was also government focal point for the Habitat III preparatory process, so she has been there for the beginning of the New Urban Agenda. Fatma, over to you.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I will speak in French. Porter un regard rétrospectif sur la décennie écoulée depuis l'adoption du nouvel agenda urbain permet de mesurer le chemin parcouru.

Le Royaume a inscrit la durabilité et l'équité territoriale au cœur de sa vision, notamment à travers le prisme de—

Not only in the new model of development, but also the marginalization. On the plan of the concrete impact, the implementation of the new agenda was marked by a historic change of our paradigm. With the new program on the housing, the Kingdom had a direct funding with more than 100,000 housings that benefit from these funds and also more than 40,000 women. And this brought a lot of transparency By the agenda, and thanks to the different efforts of this program, we helped more than 3,000 rural areas, and we managed to, to work in these rural areas. We need also to focus on the transition towards a better mobility. We introduced as well high-level bus and trams. This helped us to have more decarbonized means of transportation and also the resilient water transportation. And this helped us in our affordability, and we— and how we can use better water, how we can clean our waters. The— if you look our perspective, I think our infrastructure project are quite positive. We have a lot of support from the government and we have different policies that are converging in the same points and we have a good system. The main difficulties that we have is we have a lot of inequalities in our society. We have the big cities that are near the sea and small cities in the rural areas. We are having a more operational and inclusive urbanism, and this should be focused on help our societies and in all the territories. In order to sum up, we are trying to consolidate our means of transportation in the next years, and this we need to put human and our governance in our— in the center of our agenda. And this should be a reality in each city of the Kingdom. Thank you very much.

Fatma, to share the Morocco and also member states' view view in this table. So last one is Olufsenutu representing the development partners' view in the first question. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much. I mean, the African Development Bank has worked in cities for many decades, but within the last 10 years, we also supporting cities directly and working with cities directly because they're very crucial part of the solutions on the challenges we see on the ground. In 2018, we established the urban and municipal— no, the urban division in the bank, and we also in '19 established the Urban and Municipal Development Fund that works and supports cities directly with planning, project preparation, and governance and other things. I think this is a very important step for us. There's a lot to do and we feel the demand is really increasing, but the role of cities and the voices of cities is so important in the whole dialogue with national level. It's also where the citizens have an access, more direct access, it's more inclusive, and as we heard from Esther, the disability aspects and inclusiveness of civil society is very important for the whole design of projects from very early stage, so these two measures from our side is key to deliver and make the cities strengthen their capacities to deliver on the New Urban Agenda. Thank you.

Thank you very much. For one of our panel, last night, need to leave for the next session, but she has well presented of the civil society view of it, but thank you so much, biggest applause for her. Thank you. So we've spent quite really intensive conversations on the first question, so I'm going to shorten a little bit of other questions because I want to have more interactive session with the audience. So maybe what we could do is that we could move to Jaina and Esther to bring— give us the— what was the women and youth meaningfully engaged in the national progress report processes in your country? What will be the suggestions that how should inclusion empowerment should be strengthened for the next decade? Over to you, Jaina, and then Esther.

Thank you, Bube. I think I would speak for women and youth for the national urban agenda. So when I looked at least my country's national report, what I have noticed is that they were clearly present in the narrative as a demographic group linked to employment, skills, inclusion, but as a beneficiary rather than as a contributor. So I think there is a big difference between being mentioned as a beneficiary and being mentioned as a supporter of the implementation of the report. Because when we talk about meaningful participation, we are not just asking if youth or women were considered in the urban policies, but whether they were actually part of being an evidence builder and having the reflections and responsibility in building this report. And from what I observed, the reporting process appears to be quite institutional and also governmental-led. Poses a little barrier to those who are— who should be participating, and some of the informal participation are actually not accounted for in these reports. So I would just think that having a more broad participation mechanism would make this work better. But also, on the other side, in these reports, there is an inclusive approach that is being followed, so this inclusive approach is not very specific to specific group, but it means that every— all stakeholders were included. It just— what the difference is how these stakeholders were included.

So that's it. Thank you so much for highlighting that this mechanism for the stakeholder engagement is crucial for the national progress report mechanism. Over to you, Esther, then we'll come back to Lara.

Thank you, Bobby. Engagement has improved in some spaces, but it is still too often symbolic rather than meaningful. In many cases, women, youth, and persons with disabilities are invited to consultations, consultation spaces, but not always in ways that allow meaningful influence. Women and youth with disabilities still face barriers such as inaccessible information, inaccessible meeting formats, and limited resources to participate. The key lesson is that inclusion must begin from the design stage, not after decisions have already been made and contributions are secondary. Over the next decade, consultations must be accessible, well-resourced, intersectional, and connected to real decision-making. National progress reporting processes should include organizations of persons with disabilities, youth and women-led organizations as co-creators with accessible formats, digital disability disaggregated data, reasonable accommodation, and clear feedback clear feedback mechanism showing how our inputs shapes final outcomes. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Esther, to highlight that inclusion must start from the designing phases and not afterwards. So for this, we did the Global New Urban Agenda platform renovation. We enabled accessibility feature. However, we know that that is only one step forward. We also need to include more of stakeholders. That's why we are having this conversation. It's the first step for the next decade. So moving back to Lara, we have this publication, Agenda to Action. So from this insight from the Agenda New Urban Agenda to action, what key enabling factors help some cities translate the New Urban Agenda into action? And maybe you could share your view.

Sure. So for those that don't know, and hopefully the title of the publication makes the intent clear, it was very much about capturing where people had translated the agenda into local action. We looked at 9 cities across very different regions around the world, and the focus was on implementation rather than policy declarations. And what we found was implementation succeeded when the New Urban Agenda was translated into local systems of decision-making rather than treated as a standalone global framework. So it was when that integration really happened, when the housing minister, the housing policy connected with the economic policy, connected with the transportation implementation policy. That's when the magic happened. And the strongest enabling factor was the alignment between national policy, local implementation. So when we saw contexts which had national, regional, local conversations, again the magic happened, and there was the SDG localization into even budget systems. We also noticed that cities with stronger urban data and monitoring systems were much better able to identify progress gaps and trade-offs. When they didn't have access to data or when the data was fragmented between departments in government, between local networks and government, that made the job really hard and delayed a lot of the implementation. A couple of other things: urban action plans, which were often urban created in response to NUA proved more effective than isolated sector-based interventions. So again, creating a plan that everyone could get around the table, whether it be a scientist or an architect or a designer or a citizen, that urban action plan really helped set a vision for everyone to then follow through on. A couple of other quick things: institutional continuity and leadership mattered a lot. Long-term implementation requires mandates, routines, capability, and partnerships. There was a lovely moment where someone was describing how they picked up the phone and called people that they hadn't spoken to for 10 years since the Millennium Development Goals, but because they had built relations around Millennium Goals, they, they were able to pick up the phone and then work to SDGs and newer. So it really speaks to how relationships partnerships at the end of the day are really critical for us to work locally and globally. And another really important point about voluntary local reviews, they demonstrated the value of locally grounded evidence and public accountability. We've already spoken about VLRs being really critical in the coming together of different types of evidence base. The second part of the question was about how we could move to more action-oriented integrated national progress reports going forward. I have a few small tweaks that perhaps could help based on what we saw across these 9 cities. Firstly, national progress reports really should connect national policy with local implementation realities. The report not only needs to report on outcomes, but also the enabling conditions. Who made what happen where and why? What were the tactics that they used to unlock perhaps new ways of working? How can we make sure that governance, finance, data capacity, and partnerships are really part of the reporting and not just what happened at the end of a process? And if we were being really bold and brave, I would say that there's there's a real opportunity where it's not about reports being better, but it's about reports being part of a shared intelligence system. Um, we, we have so much data at our fingertips, we have so much technological advances that we could really use in, in this example where a next generation reporting system would be continuous and live and digital and evidence-rich and locally grounded and comparable and adaptable. There's nothing like allowing different countries to compare their reporting and their process to perhaps bring a little bit of healthy competition and encouragement for people to take it seriously and to do it as quickly as possible. So we could really use technology to create digital workspaces that allow for continual assessment and checking rather than waiting for the official moment where you have to submit your report.

Thank you very much, Lara, for sharing the importance of the intersectional policies in multi-level and also embedding it in the technology and digital data platform and systems would also support the cities, not only cities, but also member states to report better for the next decade. For that, let me invite Fatna, because Morocco has developed Africa Regional New Urban Agenda platform, so it would be good for you to share with us how this regional platform is supporting not only member states but stakeholders in African countries.

Merci beaucoup.

Thank you very much. Compared to the African platform in partnership with UN-Habitat, and it is important to contribute and to see how you can participate, and the Moroccan platform in Africa, And this platform aims to quicker the urban intervention and regional cooperation and sharing knowledge and with local levels collaboration and in the process of putting into place And at regional level, the interaction, the platform that is supported by a multilingual platform, digital platform, it's important to show common indicators con— uh, applicated to African cities. And this will allow also to strengthen regional influence and the culture, the perspective, nationals and at national level, and it will allow solutions to be found. And you have concrete solutions such as experience, knowledge with abandoned housing and digitalization, etc. It's Africa, but they have to act collectively for their territory. As a matter of fact, this process divides in 3 phases, uh, uh, the contents, uh, displaying and culture, We are practically at the third phase, so we are keen to join as an African state to make it possible to allow this project be an instrument for the African states And this will be included in the new agenda, we hope.

We have these flyers and also QR code of the global platform which will connect to our Asia regional platform and also African platform. Thank you so much, Fatouna. Because we want to have Q&A session, so we are going to have one last question to Oulu, then we are going to turn into the audience. Oulu, so what role— this becomes really important for you as the development partners playing in supporting, implementing, monitoring, and reporting of the New Urban Agenda for the next decade? Over to you, Oulu.

Yeah, thank you. I'm actually building on what we heard from different panelists— that what we support is exactly to build a bridge, national level with local level, and strengthen the conversation and make the local level more strong in that dialogue. We also support what we call the city action plans. It's not gathering a lot of new data. It's mainly to bundle what already exists. But the whole inclusive process around how do this turn into excellent investment projects is the main goal, so to say. So we, the stakeholders, civil society, all kinds of groups, of course the political level is invited and national level as well, and they together define what are the main priorities for this city to develop in the direction we want to see it goes. I think that's very important support from our side to deliver on that. Then again, as I briefly mentioned before, the strengthening of the capacities, administrative capacities and the governance of local communities is very important around all Africa. Thank you.

Thank you very much for sharing the development partners' role. I think you mentioned the really important part that defining together with the stakeholders for any aspect of the New Urban Agenda. So I'm really glad that you mentioned it, that please invite all of the stakeholders, youth, persons with disabilities, and also academia, all of the stakeholders when you are defining together as the development partner. So now I'm going to turn to the audience. I'm pretty sure you have some questions. If you have questions, you could raise your hand. However, because of the time crunch, I'm going to ask you to stick to the question, not to introduce yourself too long. So if you have a question— yep, we're also going to go for gender parity of the questions, so you could also have in mind that next we will invite other gender. Over to you.

Good Good morning. My name is Nelson Solly Jr. I'm from Policy Institute in Brazil and I'm a member of the Global Platform for the Right to the City. We work since Habitat III for this vision, the right to the city, is including this vision in some way in the New Urban Agenda. My question is for the next 10 years, one One important proposal we are doing for the political declaration of the New Urban Agenda is the UUFI became like a high-level panel for monitoring the implementation, because we don't have any kind of monitoring process for New Urban Agenda. Only 10 years, no, like this year in July in New York. This I would like I would like to know your opinion. The second, about the perspective of participation, you know, the communities, grassroots, and civil society in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda also don't have a clear mechanism, even in the international or global perspective, but also don't have any recommendation in the national or local perspective. I think it's What critical points for you are raised for this commitment in the member states in July? And the last point is, in special for Laura, what do you think for the next WUF we organize one reporter similar as the reporter IPCC, cities and the climate, for to bring for the next WUF with the perspective of strategic planning of UN-Habitat and implementation of the New Urban Agenda, engagement, a lot of the scientists, researchers, academics, professionals, like is this methodology for to elaborate this report for next year, the city and climate for IPCC.

Thank you very much. I'm going to break the questions into 2. So one, I will ask Zaina and Esther to answer in the angle of right to the city and how that inclusive mechanism for the next New Urban Agenda implementation monitoring and reporting could be for youth, women, and persons with a disability first.

Okay, thank you for highlighting this important point, and from the perspective of inclusion, I would highlight And also, as Laura mentioned, the importance of localization and regionalization of action, because, for example, in my region, the Arab region, we face very different challenges than other regions, and each region is very unique. So the actions that are local should be very focused on what youth, for example, are facing in this region, what women are facing as challenges, and what are the opportunities they have in this context. So I think regionalization matters not just to replace global dialogue, but also to make it more actionable, because if we are sharing a vision, it has to be implemented somehow. And as I mentioned, countries face different challenges than one another, and this opportunity provides more peer learning from country to country and from region to region. I believe this will offer more like an exchange of experiences and more— tangible impact in the long term.

Thank you so much. Over to you, Aissoudour.

Thank you.

So, I would say that going forward, we need to move from commitments and consultations to investing in universal designs, investing in accessible housing, and also partnering with organizations of persons with disabilities and their representatives as partners in co-creating the solutions. In most cases, when we are invited to the room, it's when most of the decisions are made already, designs have already taken place with no feedback from the users of these designs. So moving forward, I would say that we need partnership in co-creating these solutions. Thank you.

Thank you very much for highlighting the really importance of the mechanism for co-creating is inclusive from the beginning and every facet of the processes. Before we invite Lara for the academic review, maybe we could have one more question to collective answers. So, all right. No, I'm sorry, we are going to go for gender parity, so we are going to invite her first.

Thank you so much. This is Sujata Govardha from Hong Kong. I'm also like a professor in various university, adjunct, former professor I should say, and also founded the Institute for Sustainable Urbanization. One of the questions, I think the New Urban Agenda is a great mechanism through which different countries can learn from each other and also come together. But when I looked at the Sustainable, you know, Development Goals, I feel we are missing one goal. And I want to— I talked about this earlier too, I want to, you know, emphasize that is being compassionate and conscious as human beings is very important. And I think instead of being subsumed somewhere, if it is the 18th goal of SDGs, it will be really instrumental in bringing people together. Because whenever we do actions or do planning or anything, if we have that frame of being compassionate and conscious, I think we'll have a better world. And the other thing is also, it's the— I think you have— we have one goal on economic growth. Growth is important, but I think everything talks about upward growing all the time, and I think we really need to come up with more balanced growth so that we are not destroying the planet as we speak, and we are still doing it, and this really bothers me. And so if we get that frame of the conscious and being compassionate to not only other human beings, animals, the planet, I think we'll come up with solutions that will make— create a better world. So hope it can be incorporated somehow. Thank you.

Thank you so much. It is A really important point. By the way, the New Urban Agenda is until 2036, 6 years after the SDG is concluded. So this New Urban Agenda could be a good guide to shape the next global agenda. So maybe we could turn to Lara about the academic view, and then we will invite Fatina, how member states— as a member state, how you are envisioning the next agenda could be reflecting the New Urban Agenda and how that means to development partners. To Lara first.

Thank you. Just to pick up on that last point as well, I think I use this quote weekly if not daily, and I think it really speaks to what we've all touched on this morning. Every attempt to write a new human story, whether that be an urban future or other, Converges upon just one mundane heartbreaking problem: how shall we come together, work together, create together? How shall we organize? And I think that the last two questions, you know, have touched on what we're all here to do, you know, for this week and beyond this week, that we have so many good examples of where we are testing, new approaches. We're bringing the biodiversity and environmental experts around the table with the policy writers and the funders, but that needs to become much more common practice. And so it's something we need to teach in primary schools, secondary schools, in university courses that have anything to do with people's lives—housing, city design, etc.—and into practice. That's why my team exists in government, to try and bring that interdisciplinary cross-sectoral approach to policymaking. And that practice doesn't come naturally sometimes, so we've got to really invest the skills in how we convene together. And then we have the, the, the newer quadrennial reports to pull evidence from, to pull data from, and if we can get a platform growing behind NUA, you know, that a new sort of platform could operate as an implementation commons that we all kind of learn from, we all contribute to, rather than some sort of static repository that perhaps we see a lot of in our work. You know, information dies in a PDF is something I always keep at the front of my mind. So let's think about how we can create shared implementation pathways, governance models, finance structures. Let's document both the successful and those that haven't been successful and learn from those things that haven't worked. Let's really invest in contextual information and citizen knowledge. Let's enable direct peer-to-peer exchange at the next World WFF and before the next WFF in the, in the next 18 months. And if we did all that, we really would move beyond case study storytelling to transferable implementation patterns. Sadly, proof doesn't travel. It's something I heard 2 days ago, someone used that quote, and it's really stuck with me. We've got to be the vehicles that brings proof to the places that can use it. Thank you very much.

She also has important message to all of us. We need to be the vehicle to carry this work for not only for the New Urban Agenda, but for next global agenda coming after 2030. So let's hear from Fatna of the member states' view of the question.

So if we look— so if we look at the next 10 years, the challenge, main challenge that we could be faced with— sorry. It was interference. So the main challenge for Morocco is not anymore only planifying and to have better instruments for assessments. We advise 3 main ideas. We have to have a better local government. We have to share international integration and we have to put into place regional agency cooperation. And these new structures will allow to to unite the intervention at the scale of each region. We have to underline and to center— focus the historical problems of our regions rapidly and not negotiable concerning the different problems. And as far as building the platform, the African one, our approach can only be collective approach and solidarity. On the deployment of this platform, this platform will have to share technological and digital information for housing in order to standardize the data. And we have to unite advising consultation. And in Morocco, it is regulating the reporting, urban reporting. And we have to access a new agency for a platform, and Morocco underlines the importance for the next 10 years. It has to be a sustainable and inclusive policy for solidarity.

Although we are exhausted our time, so really very short remark as a development partner, please.

Yes, thank you. I just want to reflect on the comment about peer learning, learning between each other. I think that's very important and often one of the most effective ways to really find a good solution on a problem, bringing cities together in the regions, in the countries, but definitely also across continents. There's a lot to learn. We are having visits to India, South America. I mean, that's really where something new is very inspiring, and how they talk together, city governors and mayors, is incredible to see and really inspiring. Thank you.