Abstract

Abstract

This chapter presents UN-Habitat’s pilot experience in the localization of the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) in selected cities in sub-Saharan Africa. The pilot was conducted by UN-Habitat’s Urban Planning and Design Lab and the Regional Office for Africa, later consolidated in the Participatory Incremental Urban Planning (PIUP) toolbox. The PIUP toolbox was launched at the tenth session of the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi in February 2020 and it was rebranded in October 2021 as the Our City Plans toolbox. The selected cities were characterized by lack of data, resources, and local capacity. The chapter starts by contextualizing how urbanization is currently addressed in sustainable development and describes the pilot methodology to localize the SDGs and the NUA. It considers the main achievements, giving concrete examples of how the process was conducted in the cities of Bissau (Guinea-Bissau), Príncipe Island (São Tomé e Príncipe), and Hawassa and Bahir Dar (Ethiopia). It finalizes by touching on the main challenges and possible ways forward in the process of the localization of the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda in African cities.

Keywords - UN-Habitat, New Urban Agenda, Agenda 2030, SDGs, Participatory planning, Sustainable urban development, Small cities, Africa

Keywords