Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, took place in Quito, Ecuador, from 17 – 20 October 2016.
It gave the opportunity to open discussions on important urban challenges and questions, such as how to plan and manage cities, towns and villages for sustainable development.
The process towards Habitat III includes the elaboration of national and regional reports -that will converge in a Global Report- to provide evidence-based knowledge on the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and a comprehensive analysis on the global state of urbanization as well as good practices and tools both at the policy and intervention level.
Beyond the governmental participation in the process through the General Assembly, the engagement to the Conference will include the General Assembly of Partners (GAP) to serve as a broad-based deliberative platform for non-governmental partners in order to develop a consensus for a joined outcome document and other related matters for Habitat III.
[16] Together Towards Habitat III campaign also promote a Global Citizenship Survey (2015/16) to embrace all contributions on the path to the final outcome of the Conference harvested through activities and initiatives to raise awareness on the New Urban Agenda.
[19] The NUA makes frequent references to related UN agreements, including the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development passed in 1992, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015–2030), and the Paris climate agreement, all issued in 2015.
In ¶66 the parties endorse a smart city model:[1] We commit ourselves to adopting a smart-city approach that makes use of opportunities from digitization, clean energy and technologies, as well as innovative transport technologies, thus providing options for inhabitants to make more environmentally friendly choices and boost sustainable economic growth and enabling cities to improve their service delivery.The NUA includes language about a "right to the city", a debated concept referring to popular control over urban processes, but without definite implications for who will prevail when different parties' interests are in conflict.
[1] Private funding is envisioned especially for real estate and housing; the NUA encourages the participation of a diverse range of multilateral financial institutions, regional development banks and development finance institutions, cooperation agencies, private-sector lenders and investors, cooperatives, moneylenders and microfinance banks to invest in affordable and incremental housing in all its forms.