Together to Quito: Special Bulletin Issue #2

Dear colleagues,

It is important to be aware that UN-Habitat has provided robust and consistent help in the formulation of the Habitat III zero draft outcome document you learned about last week, and will continue to have an important role in the lead-up to Habitat III, in the following ways:

• UN-Habitat led the Working Group of the CEB HighLevel Committee of Programmes (HLCP) on sustainable urbanization in preparation of a CEB Statement on sustainable urbanization, which constitutes the UN System’s input to the New Urban Agenda and commitment to its implementation – with ten key principles of Sustainable Urban Development and ten levers of change. The ten levers of change are fully aligned with UN-Habitat’s vision on the NUA. (Naison)
• UN-Habitat has provided advisors to the multi-stakeholder teams that have produced the ten policy papers on the NUA and has co-led Policy Unit 3 on National Urban Policies(Raf, Remy, Jane).
• UN-Habitat led preparation of 19 out of 22 Issue papers of the UN Task Team for the NUA under the 6 areas: Social Cohesion and Equity – Liveable Cities (Juma, Angela); Urban Frameworks (Marco, Robert); Spatial Development (Laura, Robert, Raf); Urban Economy (Marco); Urban Ecology and Environment (Andre, Marcus); Urban Housing and Basic Services (Andre, Christophe, Kerstin).
• UN-Habitat has contributed to a number of thematic and regional meetings, including Jakarta (Yoshi and team); Abuja (Banji and team); Toluca (Elkin and team); Cairo (Dyfed and team); Pretoria (Alioune, Kerstin and team); Barcelona (Laura and Cecilia); Mexico City (Marco); Abu Dhabi (Andre and team); Prague (Paulius and team).
• Side events in both Surabaya and Quito. Programme Division will be hearing a lot from External Relations in the next six weeks as we try to prepare excellent marketing and explanatory tools for Surabaya, where UN-Habitat will demonstrate its capacity to carry out the New Urban Agenda, to coordinate, and to leverage partnerships.
• World Cities Report
• World Urban Campaign
• Urban Thinkers Campuses: a series of events for nonState Actors engagement coordinated by the World Urban Campaign
• The City We Need 2.0: a manifesto of Non-State Actors towards Habitat III coordinated by the World Urban Campaign based on the results of 26 Urban Thinkers Campuses (as per above)
• The General Assembly of Partners for Habitat III created by the World Urban Campaign
• Zero Draft Outcome Document. Clear inputs to the Zero Draft from the 10 policy papers, 4 Regional Meetings and 7 Thematic Meetings in which UN Habitat has participated.
• Exhibition and Habitat III village. There will be a UN Expo space dedicated only to UN agencies. UN-Habitat will exhibit 18 projects plus 5 flagship programmes, first at Surabaya in some form, and then at Quito.
• Preparation of 5 Flagship Programmes to mobilize partners and resources, and to present them at Surabaya and Quito as the way forward.
• A multi-stakeholder trust fund. This is well-advanced and there will some some exciting developments in the next few months.
• A partnership with the World Economic Forum – High Level Forum on Public Private Partnerships for SUD (just before Quito in NY). Expected participation at HOS and CEO levels