INPUTS TO HABITAT III

INPUTS TO HABITAT III

The process of the SDGs is coming to the end of the negotiation stage with the Summit 25-27^th September. The focus will shift onto the agreement on which global indicators we will have for SDGs, how the UN will deal with monitoring and review and the toolkits for implementation. In the next year Habitat III will play a critical role as the first major conference to deal with what this will mean. I wanted to produce a report on this processThe Habitat III process will have four major inputs. These are:

National Reports: National reports from countries which should have or should involve national stakeholders.

Regional Meetings: There will be regional meetings in four of the UN regions. The output in each case would be a Declaration. There is NO template for the Declarations so it will be up to each meeting to produce what they want. The Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting is in Jakarta, Indonesia is on 21-22 October 2015; the Africa Regional Meeting is in Nigeria on the 31 January 2016 (tbc); the Europe Regional Meeting is in Prague, Czech Republic on the 16-18 March 2016; the Latin America and the Caribbean is in Toluca, Mexico on the 11-13 April 2016.

Thematic consultations: September 2015 to April 2016: These will be on: Social Cohesion and Equity - Livable Cities, Urban Frameworks, Spatial Development, Urban Economy, Urban Ecology and Environment, Urban Housing and Basic Services. Issue papers can be found here: https://www.habitat3.org/the-new-urban-agenda/knowledge .  

The Urban Dialogues will be an additional online opportunity to bring together a broad range of stakeholders, as well as citizens, to discuss major ideas and outcomes of the Habitat III Policy Papers elaborated by the United Nations Task Team. The Urban Dialogues will be hosted on the www.Habitat3.org  site

Thematic Consultations

1.       Civic Engagement                                    Tel-Aviv, Israel                                           6-7 September 2015 2.       Metropolitan Areas                                Montreal, Canada                                  6-7 October 2015 3.       Intermediate Cities                                 Cuenca, Ecuador                                  9-11 November 2015 4.       Smart Cities                                               Barcelona, Spain                                17-19 November 2015 5.       Renewal Energy and Cities                      Abu Dhabi, UAE                                   18 January 2016 6.       Informal Settlements                             Johannesburg, South Africa                       February  2016 (tbc) 7.       Financing the New Urban Agenda         Mexico DF, Mexico                            9-11 March 2016

Policy Units: The Policy Units will meet twice once in October and once in November (venues yet to be confirmed) they will produce 10 Policy Papers. These will be in first draft by the end of December and then open for online input in January and finalized in February. Habitat III wants to try and bring together the Policy Units together after the production of the Policy Papers. This would then enable cross sectoral issues to be addressed such as:

1.       Indicators (in parallel to SDGs),

2.       localising the agenda, including the role of Local and Regional Authorities ,

3.       Financing,

4.       Pro poor agenda.

Policy Units

1. Right to the City and Cities for All 2. Socio-Cultural Urban Framework 3. National Urban Policies 4. Urban Governance, Capacity and Institutional Development 5. Municipal Finance and Local Fiscal System 6. Urban Spatial Strategies: Land Market and Segregation 7. Urban Economic Development Strategies 8. Urban Ecology Resilience 9. Urban Services and Technology 10. Housing Policies

THE WAY FORWARD

Just when you thought it was going to get less crazy we start the Habitat III process seriously. I thought it would be useful to put together this overview. 

The four inputs will feed into what we call the zero draft this will be out in April or early May 2016. The zero draft  is put together by the secretariat overseen by the Bureau and is a first draft of the outcome document.  The structure of the zero draft has not yet been agreed but it makes sense to build it around the Policy papers. Looking back at Habitat II outcome document:

 (http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G96/025/00/PDF/G9602500.pdf?OpenElement )

It seems likely there will need to be a number of additional sections to the Habitat III output document. I would suggest that these could include:

Preamble: Likely to be explaining how the challenges facing human settlements and how they have been addressed in the past. It will also show how they fit in with the previous UN Conferences but particularly the SDG outcome.

Goals and Principles: This was a section in the Habitat II outcome document and could eb where the SDGs are addressed in more depth in relation to this agenda.

Assessing Progress: If there was more time in the preparatory process there could be a section based on some of the national reports looking at the success of implementing Habitat II.

Policy Paper themes: The 10 areas could form the core part of the agenda.

Capacity-building and institutional development: What are the capacity building requirements for ‘The New Urban Agenda’ and what institutional development needs to be undertaken eg strengthening local and regional governments?

International Cooperation and coordination: This is where financing the agenda might be addressed.

Implementation and follow-up of ‘The New Urban Agenda’: What should the UN, development banks, governments and stakeholders do to implement ‘The New Urban Agenda.’

DIARY FOR HABITAT III

HABITAT III KEY DATES
Date	Type of Meeting/instructions	Issue/region/global	Venue
7 September 2015	Thematic	Civic Engagement	Tel-Aviv, Israel
6-7 October 2015	Thematic	Metropolitan Areas	Montreal, Canada
21-22 October 2015	Regional	Asia-Pacific	Jakarta, Indonesia
26 - 28 October 2015	Global	Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs)	Bangkok
9-11 November 2015	Thematic	Intermediate Cities	Cuenca, Ecuador
17-19 November 2015	Thematic	Smart Cities	Barcelona, Spain
18 January 2016	Thematic	Renewal Energy & Cities	Abu Dhabi, UAE
31 December	Policy Paper drafts
1-31 January 2015	Policy Paper Consultations
31 January 2016 (tbc)	Regional	Africa	Nigeria
February  2016 (tbc)	Thematic	Informal Settlements	Johannesburg, South Africa
February (tbc)	Policy Paper finals
8-11 March	Global	Statistical Commission meeting	New York
9-11 March 2016	Thematic	Financing the New Urban Agenda	Mexico DF, Mexico
16-18 March 2016	Regional	Europe	Prague, Czech Republic
11-13 April 2016	Regional	Latin America & the Caribbean	Toluca, Mexico
April/May	Zero draft	Global
May	German	Conference dealing with key Habitat III issues	Berlin, German
May/June/July	Informal consultations on zero draft	Global	New York??
25-27 July 2016	3rd Preparatory Meeting	Global	Jakarta, Indonesia
August/September	Possible 4th Prepcom	Global	New York
17 – 20 October, 2016		Global	Quito, Ecuador

                                                             COMMUNICATION

The UN has set up a series of communication and social media outlets for the preparation for Habitat III. These are:

Website: http://www.habitat3.org

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Habitat3UN

Twitter: @Habitat3UN

 YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkvY-LKBX6vYYL4F8xBh7A

Hashtags

#Habitat3

#H3

#H3Urbandialogues

#NewUrbanAgenda

HABITAT III BUREAU

Bureau

The Bureau's main functions are to propose the agenda, draw up a programme of work and organize the session with the support of the United Nations Habitat III Secretariat. It is made up of two countries per UN region.

María Duarte (Ecuador)

Jaime Silva (Chile)

Maryse Gautier (France)

Tania Roediger-Vorwerk (Germany)

Eric Miangar (Chad)

Mamadou Mbodj (Senegal)

Daniela Grabmüllerová (Czech Republic)

Elena Szolgayova (Slovakia)

Purnomo A. Chandra (Indonesia)

MajidHasan Al-Suwaidi (United Arab Emirates)

HABITAT III SECRETARIAT

Secretariat

The secretariat prepares the documents for the Habitat preparatory process, supports the Bureau in the management of the prep coms. Supports the involvement of stakeholders in the process and produces whatever background or ongoing documents that member states request.

Dr. Joan Clos is the Secretary-General of the Habitat III Conference.

Habitat III Secretariat: email Habitat3Secretariat@un.org

Website: www.Habitat3.org

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PARTNERS (GAP)

The General Assembly of Partners (GAP), which will carry out its work until the end of the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016, is a special initiative of the World Urban Campaign. GAP aims to support stakeholders' engagement and contributions to the conference. It consists of 14 Partner Constituent Groups (PCG) with members from the United Nations' major groups and other relevant stakeholders.

GAP held its inaugural meeting on 13 April 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya where it adopted its Constitution and By-­laws. It elected the PCG chairs and engaged a process of outreach to all PCG constituencies. At this inaugural meeting, GAP adopted the Nairobi Declaration that outlines its commitments for contributing to the elaboration of the New Urban Agenda and that requests for recognition and engagement in the Habitat III process. GAP is composed of 14 Partner Constituent Groups representing the 9 major groups, Habitat Agenda Partners and other stakeholder groups relevant to Habitat III.

HABITAT III SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT RELEVANT ORGANIZATIONS

Multi-stakeholder coalitions

General Assembly of Partners: http://www.worldurbancampaign.org/about/general-assembly-of-partners/

Communitas  Coalition: http://www.communitascoalition.org/

Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport: http://www.slocat.net/

World Urban Campaign: http://www.worldurbancampaign.org/

Sustainable Development Solutions Network:  http://unsdsn.org/

Local and Regional Government

ICLEI: http://www.iclei.org/

Cities Alliance: http://www.citiesalliance.org/  

Network for Regional Government for Sustainable Development: http://www.nrg4sd.org/about-nrg4sd  

C40: http://www.c40.org/

UCLG: http://www.uclg.org/

Women

Huairou Commission: http://huairou.org/

GROOTS International: http://www.groots.org/about.html

NGOs

Habitat International Coalition http://www.hic-net.org/

Habitat for Humanity: http://www.habitat.org/

NRDC: http://www.nrdc.org/

Oxfam: https://www.oxfam.org/

Institute for Transportation and Development Policy: https://www.itdp.org/

CIVICUS: http://civicus.org/

Children and Youth

Children and Youth Major Group: http://childrenyouth.org/

Foundations

Ford Foundation: http://www.fordfoundation.org/

United Nations

Habitat III secretariat: https://www.habitat3.org/

GAP Members

Local and Subnational Authorities

Interim Chairs

Yunus Arikan, ICLEI and Organizing Partner Local Authorities Major Group (Germany)

Emilia Saiz, Global Task  Force (Spain)

2. Research and Academia

Chair Sahar Attia, University of Cairo (Egypt)

Co--‐Chair Enrique Silva, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (United States)

3. Civil Society Organizations

Chair Jane Katz, Habitat for Humanity International (United States)

Co--‐Chair (TBA)

4. Grassroots Organizations

Interim Chairs Juliana Brown Afari (WIEGO) (Ghana)

Rose Molokoane, SDI (South Africa)

5. Women

Chair  Katia Araujo, Huairou Commission (USA)

Co--‐Chair Theresa Boccia, AFEM (Assocation Femmes  Europe Méridionale) (Italy)

6. Parliamentarians

Interim Chair Jerko Rosin, Vice Chair, Habitat Agenda Partner Parliamentarians (Croatia)

Interim Co--‐chair (invited) Peter Goetz, Immediate Past Chair, Habitat Agenda Partner

Parliamentarians (Germany)

7. Children and Youth

Chair Hirotake Koike, UN Major Group for Children and Youth (Japan)

Co--‐Chair Jayati Das, World Vision International (Australia)

8. Business and Industries

Interim Chair Bert Smolders, Arcadis (The Netherlands)

Interim Co--‐chair Carina Larsfälten, World Business Council for Sustainable  Development

(Switzerland)

9.Foundations and Philanthropies

Interim Chair Ana Marie Argilagos, Ford Foundation (USA)

Co--‐chair (TBA)

10. Professionals

Chair Didier Vancutsem, ISOCARP (Belgium) 

Co--‐chair Ishtiaque Zahir Titas, (Bangladesh)

11. Trade Unions and Workers

Interim Chair Albert Emilio (Ambet) Yuson, Building and Woodworkers International

(Switzerland)

Co--‐chair

(TBA)

12. Farmers

Interim Chair Mildred Crawford, Caribbean Network  of Rural Women Producers (Jamaica)

Interim Co--‐chair Martha Ansah Conduah)ACAIRWF (Advocacy of Climate Change and its

Impact on Rural Women Farmers of Ghana) (Ghana)

13. Indigenous People

Chair Ndinini Kimesera Sikar Masai Women Development Organization (Tanzania)

Co--‐chair Analucy Bengochea Garifuna Emergency Committee of Honduras (Honduras)

14.

Media

Chair Nicholas You, International Mayors' Communications Center (IMCC) (Kenya)

Co--‐Chair Other Officers: (elected)

President:

Eugenie L. Birch, University of Pennsylvania (United States)

Vice President:

Shipra Narang Suri, ISOCARP (India)