A New Urban Agenda is adopted at Habitat III

October 31, 2016 - Last update: July 4, 2022

From 17-20 October 2016, Habitat III, the first UN global summit on urbanization since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was held in Quito, Ecuador. The United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development offered a unique opportunity to discuss the important challenges of how cities, towns, and village can be planned and managed, in order to fulfill their role as drivers of sustainable development, and how they can shape the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

In Quito, world leaders adopted the New Urban Agenda which set global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development, rethinking the way we build, manage, and live in cities through drawing together cooperation with committed partners, relevant stakeholders, and urban actors at all levels of government as well as the civil society and private sector. This adoption follows the release of the Surabaya Draft of the New Urban Agenda at the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the Habitat III Conference in Surabaya, Indonesia in 2016 and its agreement at the Habitat III Informal Intergovernmental Meeting in September 2016.

The #NewUrbanAgenda has been formally adopted today in #Quito. #Habitat3 – deciding the future of cities together! pic.twitter.com/9RLRIPQs83

— Habitat III (@Habitat3UN) October 20, 2016