Habitat III Resolution Passes the UN General Assembly

In relation to the issue of stakeholder modalities for the preparatory process for Habitat III which already has had two prepcoms some people might say at last.....

The governments produced in the end a very good resolution which addresses all the issues that were outstanding and did so in a constructive and forward looking way.

First on the stakeholder engagement the approach builds on the open way that stakeholders engaged in the 2015 process and not the more restrictive approach that the same governments were looking
to introduce in Nairobi at prepcom 2.

Individual local authorities as is normal will have to accredit through their associations and this enable the issue of the Falklands to be put to rest as it will be the responsibility of the associations to ensure any one they accredit abides by the rules.

There was as i indicated in a  previous posting the recognition that they needed many more days than were allocated in the original motion establishing the preparatory process for Habitat III. Added are five days in April before the submission of the zero text by the co-chairs of the bureau in order to provide the opportunity for feedback on the conclusions of the policy units and the thematic and regional meetings. In New York there will be a further three days in May, June and July also in May will be a two day hearings for local authorities and in June two days for other stakeholders. This is all before the final prepcom in July (25-27) in Indonesia.

They have also left themselves open to 'convene additional consultations, as required'.

Habitat III must address the New Urban Agenda but it needs to do this inline with the SDGs agreed this year. It offers the opportunity to develop a plan that will help implement both and focus on the areas such as municipal finance that the Financing for Development process did not.