The Communitas Secretariat was active in the meetings and negotiations during the Third Preparatory Committee of the Habitat III process. It participated in a number of events, including the Steering Committee of the World Urban Campaign and the General Meeting of the General Assembly of Partners (GAP), and played a direct role in the informal negotiation sessions among UN member states. For more information, please read the activities report below:
The latest draft of the New Urban Agenda has now been released. Compared to the original, there are powerful improvements, but also some important losses and frustrating missed opportunities, for instance on follow-up and review. Nevertheless, we should applaud all parties involved - co-chairs, co-facilitators, the bureau, member states, the secretariat, policy unit experts and major groups and other stakeholders for this. A concise and comprehensive outcome document is already a leap forward. The big looming question that remains open is whether this is enough and rises to the opportunity of a once-in-generation cycle, such as HIII is.
This document has been elaborated in coherence with the priority areas addressed in our work programme and has been nourished by the individual reactions to the original and revised zero draft produced by the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments, Cities Alliance, ICLEI, nrg4SD, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the UN Major Group for Children and Youth, the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport - SloCaT, Habitat for Humanity, and the General Assembly of Partners (GAP), as well as the discussions and outcomes of the 31 May workshop on integrated territorial development and urban-rural linkages organized by Communitas in collaboration with GIZ and UN-Habitat, and the 12 May Expert Group Meeting on Integrating Food in Urban Planning organized by FAO in collaboration with the Habitat III Secretariat. The Communitas Secretariat will further detail and continue evolving its inputs, in parallel to the deliberations of this Member State-driven intergovernmental process.
You can access the Communitas Secretariat reaction here.
You may also download the in-text edits and comments of the Secretariat here.
Throughout the week of the CSO hearings and intergovernmental negotiations on the zero draft of the New Urban Agenda, the Communitas Coalition Secretariat played an active role in the efforts and work of the stakeholders engaged in the Habitat III process. Christopher Dekki moderated the panel discussion on the Preamble, Vision, and Quito Declaration of the zero draft and Maruxa Cardama was a speaker during the panel discussion on Follow-Up and Review. These efforts helped to further bring the positions of the Communitas Coalition into the discussions around the zero draft.
As part of the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations towards the elaboration of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), the outcome of the Habitat III conference, the Communitas Coalition has produced a reaction to the zero draft. It does not represent the individual views of any of the core partners or Advisory Committee members of the Communitas Coalition.
This document presents the preliminary inputs of the Communitas Secretariat to the zero draft and has been elaborated in coherence with the priority areas addressed in our work programme and has been nourished by the individual reactions to the zero draft produced by the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments, Cities Alliance, ICLEI, nrg4SD, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the UN Major Group for Children and Youth, the Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport - SloCaT, Habitat for Humanity, and the General Assembly of Partners (GAP). In the months ahead, the Communitas Secretariat will further detail and continue evolving its inputs, in parallel to the deliberations of this Member State-driven intergovernmental process.
Communitas, as part of its work on integrated territorial development, co-organized a side event on the topic during the Habitat III Latin America and Caribbean Regional Meeting in Toluca, Mexico. Together with the Government of Colombia, GIZ, UN-Habitat, and the Ford Foundation, this event sought to highlight achievements made in promoting urban-rural synergies as a means of informing the zero draft of the New Urban Agenda.