Implementing the New Urban Agenda in Africa: Policy & Implementation Priorities

Effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda in the context of a multiplicity of priorities and interventions requires strategic policy prioritization and coherence, optimum operational convergence, and strong synergy. It is in recognizing this imperative that Ministers and representatives of the African Union Specialized Technical Committee (AU-STC 8) on Public Service, Local Government, Urban Development and Decentralization called on the African Union Commission to spearhead, supported by its partners, the development of a coherent and harmonized strategic framework for the follow-up to Habitat III. The UN-Habitat Governing Council also encouraged the Executive Director to collaborate with other partners and further develop the action framework for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.The African Union Commission together with the ECA and UN-Habitat has therefore developed a harmonized regional framework in consultation with African Ministries of Housing and Urban Development. The proposed side event will be a strategic opportunity to showcase the framework to a wider global audience, whilst also identifying opportunities and partnerships to support its operationalization. Importantly, the event on the harmonized regional framework in Africa will highlight the synergies of the New Urban Agenda in line with other regional developmental commitments such as Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union's Agenda 2063. The proposed framework puts at the centre, the aspect of transformative change emphasized in the New Urban Agenda and also the maintenance and enhancement of the linkage between vision and action.Additionally, the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Africa is taking place at a time when member States are also renewing their national development plans, which provides an opportunity for the urban dimension to be incorporated in overall national development planning beyond the sectorial urban policies. Therefore, the framework also provides guidance on the realignment and integration of the New Urban Agenda into ongoing strategies and programmes at the national level and on how member States could use the New Urban Agenda as for implementing the urban dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 11. Regional, sub-regional, national and local dissemination and advocacy through relevant platforms; informing and guiding the development of national action plans for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda; guiding regional reporting on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda through the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (AFRSD) which provides inputs to the High Level Political Forum that will consider SDG 11 in 2018; informing the activities of the Housing and Urban Development Sub-Committee under the AU. STC.No.8; informing regional inputs to the report of the Secretary General on the New Urban Agenda every four years; and informing the annual report of the Secretary-General to ECOSOC and the General Assembly on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda etc..