UN-Habitat groups urban planning recommendations into six thematic areas

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has grouped its urban planning recommendations into six thematic areas.

Report informs that Ombretta Tempra, head of UN-Habitat's Land, Housing and Shelter Section and lead specialist on housing provision, said this at the "Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Adequate Housing for All: Intersessional Meeting on Housing Resilience and Sustainability," held as part of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13).

According to her, these recommendations address the key drivers of environmentally sustainable and resilient housing systems. They are as follows:

• Integrating a rights-based approach into environmental policy and housing strategies to ensure that the right to adequate housing and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment are advanced in a complementary and mutually reinforcing way. It is very important that we demonstrate a rights-based approach even when applying sustainability.

• Strengthening the governance framework for sustainable housing systems by increasing institutional capacity, promoting coordination, incorporating joint decision-making, and improving implementation mechanisms, monitoring and accountability.

• Mobilizing and aligning various sources of financing to expand sustainable, resilient and equitable housing systems. The biggest gap in aligning financing with scalability arises precisely in the context of housing sustainability. The solutions being promoted are mostly highly market-oriented ones developed in the West, intended for a different target group or way of working on housing provision, and are not realistically suitable for all regional contexts.

• Strengthening knowledge ecosystems for sustainable housing provision, especially in developing countries.

• Advancing social awareness and behavioral transformation to support the transition to environmentally sustainable and resilient housing conditions.

• Reducing environmental and housing pressures arising from rapid and uncoordinated urban expansion through integrated and sustainable regional development strategies.

"These genuinely cover the urban morphology and territorial development aspects of the housing solutions we propose. Thus, we promote polycentric growth, reduce inequalities between regions and strengthen urban-rural linkages," she said.