Looking Beyond Quito — The U.S. Agency for International Development and the New Urban Agenda

Urbanization is today’s defining development trend. With over two thirds of the world’s population projected to be living in urban areas by the middle of the century, it is vital that we take steps to ensure that well-governed, inclusive cities are able to offer residents access to livelihoods, education, nutritious food, clean water and sanitation, health care, and the opportunity to participate in responsive, accountable government.

While cities are powerful engines of opportunity, innovation, and progress, they are also home to growing concentrations of poverty and vulnerability.

Currently 880 million people live in inadequate housing in cities. Slum dwellers, whose numbers are projected to double by 2030, face overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. In cities, women, youth, the disabled, and a growing number of refugees and internally displaced persons are disproportionately vulnerable to malnutrition, unemployment, and other barriers to opportunity.

This week at Habitat III, the UN Conference on Housing and Urban Development, the global community will formally agree to an ambitious and comprehensive framework to guide sustainable urbanization for the next 20 years: the New Urban Agenda. This will help advance progress on the landmark agreements of 2015, including the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the Paris Agreement. All of these agreements recognize the importance of urbanization to achieving our most pressing development concerns: eliminating extreme poverty, enabling broad-based economic growth, addressing global climate change, and building more resilient societies.