Preface
The OECD, UN-Habitat and Cities Alliance are delighted to introduce the Global State of National Urban Policy 2021: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Delivering Climate Action, the second edition of the joint report developed as part of the National Urban Policy Programme (NUPP), launched in 2016 at the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador, to share experiences in NUP and support countries through the expertise of the three organisations and partners.
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the health, lives and work of urban dwellers, magnifying and exploiting, in turn, many persistent urban challenges. But it also triggered paradigm shifts in considerations of how to plan and design cities to deliver resilient and sustainable growth, inclusiveness, well-being and opportunities for all. Lessons from the accelerated experiences with teleworking, accessibility, mobility, public space, local services, green amenities, the built environment and city governance pave the way towards a ‘new normal’ for the cities of tomorrow. Local and national governments share responsibility to shape green, smart and inclusive cities that can be more resilient to shocks and pressures, notably in the face of global megatrends such as climate change, demographic shifts and digitalisation.
Long before the pandemic, our three institutions called for ambitious and integrated national urban policy (NUP) to enable cities to thrive and drive national prosperity through government-led processes co-ordinating various actors in the move towards a common vision and goal of urban development. Policy instruments to harness high quality and polycentric urbanisation exist in many countries. However, Habitat III’s New Urban Agenda and other global agendas adopted in 2015 – the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) elevated the momentum. COVID-19, which has seen cities on the frontline of the crisis, further reinforced the importance of NUP in the multi-level co-ordination needed for integrated recovery strategies.
This report showcases and analyses state-of-the-art knowledge about NUP in 162 countries, highlighting how governments across the world use NUP to address the challenges that COVID-19 has now spotlighted and amplified. This edition reveals the remarkable progress since 2018 in mainstreaming environmental objectives, the SDGs and other global agendas into NUP. The report also identifies remaining challenges where action is needed, included in addressing policy siloes, and data and capacity gaps.
We believe that NUPs and this report provide valuable instruments to guide, develop and implement short-, medium- and long-term urban reforms and, ultimately, to deliver better urban policies for better lives for all in an urbanising world.
Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, OECD
