“Urbanization and Sustainable Development: A United Nations System Input to a New Urban Agenda”

This paper addresses the challenges facing today’s urbanization patterns and the opportunities that urbanization offers. It presents, for consideration by the Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), ten guiding principles and ten key levers of transformative change towards sustainable urbanization as a United Nations system input to a ‘New Urban Agenda’, the expected outcome document of Habitat III. It also proposes a multi-stakeholder partnership based on the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign platform for the implementation of a ‘New Urban Agenda’.