WRI Responds to the Zero Draft of Habitat III’s New Urban Agenda

Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, will convene in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. The conference will bring together national governments, sub-national actors and decision-makers and civil society to create a vision for the next 20 years of sustainable, equitable, prosperous urban development – a document referred to as the New Urban Agenda.

The Zero Draft of the New Urban Agenda was released on May 6, after bringing together groups of stakeholders to curate the best of current urban development theory. WRI sees the Zero Draft as a laudable start and that it comprehensively integrates many of the key issues throughout the text. However, there are a number of areas where the Zero Draft can be improved to create an actionable and ambitious agenda for the next generation of urban development.

Experts at WRI have reviewed the draft and highlighted nine key themes for the negotiating parties to consider to strengthen future drafts of the New Urban Agenda:

• Prioritize actionable ideas
• Role of local governments
• Role in achieving national economic growth
• Link to the Sustainable Development Goals
• Implementable action agenda
• Sustainable mobility policies
• Safe, accessible mobility
• Cities are central to achieving climate action
• Decentralized, renewable sources of energy 

To view WRI's full response to the Zero Draft, please click here.