11 academics and staff members from the Development Planning Unit are currently in Quito, Ecuador for the United Nations third conference on Human Settlements – Habitat III. Over 40,000 people are attending the conference, where national stakeholders will decide on the New Urban Agenda, intended to guide national governments in urban development policies over the next 20 years. Outside of these official negotiations, hundreds of side events and other gatherings with government officials, NGOs, private companies and civil society members are taking place, advancing dialogue on a wide range of urban issues.
The DPU has organised and participated in a number of events. On Monday morning researchers from the DPU presented their project on Reducing Relocation Risk with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. In addition, Vanesa Castan Broto presented at an ESRC event on Transforming research into practices and policies, looking at the implementation and evaluation of the New Urban Agenda.
On Tuesday morning, Habitat International Coalition, which has partnered with DPU to conduct research into how Habitat III preparations have involved civil society groups, held a side event looking at the New Agenda in light of Human rights and Habitat II commitments. Other events with DPU participation included Planning and Governance for Climate Compatible Development in Latin American and Carribean with the CDKN Climate and Development Knowledge Network and ‘Cities in the 21st Century’, looking at sustainable energy for sustainable cities.
On Wednesday, Barbara Lipietz participated in a panel on financialisation and planning with academics and policy makers from France, Brazil, and Myanmar. The panelists discussed how the topic of financialisation is not adequately addressed in the New Urban Agenda, and how more attention needs to be paid to this process that is increasingly impacting city development. In the afternoon, Julio Davila and Le-Yin Zhang participated in the UN-Habitat policy dialogue on Urban Economic Development Strategies, where the need for productive, sustainable, and inclusive urban economies was discussed.