A-7: Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Strengthening Urban Governance, Planning, and Coordination
- Create integrated urban governance frameworks to ensure cooperation across numerous agencies while avoiding duplication, inefficiency, and blame-shifting.
- Introduce legal and regulatory measures that will allow cities to pursue both short-term urban management and long-term sustainability objectives.
- Address Data Gaps and Enhance Urban Monitoring Systems
- Create robust local data collection methods to fill large data gaps for SDG 11 indicators.
- Allow local communities and municipalities to collect, manage, and utilise urban data for planning and monitoring.
- Create national-to-local data-sharing systems to facilitate joint monitoring, transparency, and cross-country learning (as demonstrated by Nepal's coordination mechanisms).
- Invest in developing technical ability for city officials and planners to use urban diagnostic tools like the UN-Habitat City-Wide Tool.
- Ensure Financial Sustainability and Localised Climate Financing
- Create multi-level finance mechanisms that direct national climate and development funds directly to districts and municipalities.
- Introduce social impact bonds and risk-reduction mechanisms to encourage commercial and community investment in sustainable urban projects.
- Prioritise long-term urban development plans (20-30 years) over short-term projects for continuity and resilience.
- Promote Inclusive Urban Development
- Implement bottom-up approaches where residents are not only beneficiaries but also co-creators of sustainable systems.
- Recognise and scale youth-led climate solutions (e.g., “Saans Lene Do”, Modulus Tech, Concept Loop) that empower vulnerable groups.
- Encourage Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to implement clean water, waste management, and renewable energy projects as demonstrated in Sukkur, Pakistan.
- Strengthen collaboration among policymakers, academics, and practitioners to develop context-specific urban solutions.
- Increase investment in Research and Development (R&D) for sustainable building materials, green infrastructure, and low-carbon technologies.
- Adopt integrated national urban policies to bolster multilevel governance: Governments should adopt national urban policies to enhance multilevel governance to direct robust investments (and financing) in infrastructure and inclusive urban planning to address the needs of burgeoning urban populations.
- Plan for urban demographic changes with strengthened spatial planning and inclusive social policies to address rapid growth, international migration informality in urban areas.
