Sustainable Urbanization

At the sidelines of the Sixth Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) in Bangkok, Thailand, a first official exchange of letters took place between UN ESCAP and the city of Nadee, Samut Sakhon, Thailand. The Letters of Exchange are a partnership commitment between UN ESCAP and Nadee - one of the five competitively selected pilot cities under the United Nations Development Account project “Integrating the Sustainable Development Goals into local action in support of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in Asia and the Pacific”.
 

This publication was produced by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board with technical assistance from UN-HABITAT in partnership with the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners, and funding support from the Government of Spain and Development Account Project.

To access the publication, follow this link.

When three decades of conflict ended in May 2009 in Sri Lanka, approximately 450,000 people had been displaced, with many having to rebuild their lives after having their houses destroyed, having lost family members and with no proper means of livelihood.

The project “Participatory Land Use Planning and Implementation in Designated Districts: Surkhet,Nawalparasi and Morang” is first exercise in the area of participatory land use planning in Nepal. It was initiated in March 26, 2014 and was completed in June 30, 2015 with seven land use plans ready for implementation that were prepared by adopting a blend of technically top down and practically bottom up planning approach.

The Evaluation Report highlights key achievements on issues such as relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability, among others, and in doing so, guide future programming within the country towards better programme implementation alongside partners in the country. Relationship between HQ, Regional and Country offices is also addressed, detailing evaluation of five key projects from 2012 to 2016.

The National Solidarity Programme (NSP) was a flagship programme of the Government of Afghanistan benefiting from more than $2.3 billion of donor funding. The programme had the goal of building peace and solidarity amongst the people and to empower them to be responsible for local level governance and  development.

Afghanistan’s future is urban. The population of Afghan cities is expected to double within the next 15 years and by 2060, one in every two Afghans will be living in cities. This transition represents already and will continue to represent, an enormous challenge but also an opportunity for the Government, the private sector, Afghanistan’s international development partners, and, most importantly, households themselves, to deliver adequate housing for all Afghans. Meeting the housing challenge will be an opportunity to build peace and stability in the country.

Since 2002, over 5.6 million Afghans have returned from neighbouring countries and as many as 40% of them have not been able to reintegrate in their original locations. The total number of recorded IDPs in Afghanistan is more than 1.2 million. These returnees together with IDPs, rural-urban migrants and high natural population growth have resulted in an unprecedented expansion of Afghan cities. During the past decade, returnees, IDPs and low-income migrants face major obstacles to accessing basic services, adequate shelter and tenure security in cities.

Organisational Background

Since 1961, UNESCO Bangkok has had a dual role as both the Regional Bureau for Education and as a Cluster Office in Asia-Pacific.

As a Regional Bureau for Education, UNESCO Bangkok provides technical expertise and assistance and serves advisory, knowledge production and sharing, monitoring and evaluation functions to assist Asia-Pacific Member States and other UNESCO field offices and antenna office in the area of education.