So far, UN-Habitat has supported several urban policy development processes, for instance in Burundi, Malawi, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka, where it helped to set up national urban sector policy frameworks. UN-Habitat’s contribution to such projects includes a country assessment, advice on setting up of national processes and stakeholder participation, as well as documentation of good practices to support national processes. UN-Habitat also assists with analysis of urban planning policies and instruments, and facilitates local to national dialogue on reforms, as well as dissemination of and capacity development for the urban policy among all relevant actors.
At the city-region and metropolitan area levels — for instance in the Greater Cairo area in Egypt; the Lake Victoria region; the Mekong River Basin in Vietnam; Palestine; and South Sudan — UN-Habitat has worked towards increasing efficiency in the use of resources in urban agglomeration through the identification of urban and regional functions and patterns that contribute to sustainable development within the territory. UN-Habitat places special focus on the spatial development of the city-region or the metropolitan space – generally the area inside a 100 km radius within which interactions between one or more cities and the surrounding hinterlands are intense.
In regards to city expansion and densification, UN-Habitat offers its assistance to draw citywide designs for compact, medium to high build densities, enabling efficient public transport and thresholds to support concentrations of economic activity, services, and facilities. It also helps to create plans for mixed use environments and public open spaces that lend themselves to small and informal businesses. At the country level, UN-Habitat carries out assessments of urban design requirements for intermediate cities and market towns, including the identification of partners interested in engaging in innovative urban design initiatives. UN-Habitat has, for instance, supported Egypt in defining new city limits and in structuring the expansion for 50 small towns. Using expansion and densification techniques, it also assisted in the integration of internally displaced persons in Somalia and South Sudan.
Furthermore, UN-Habitat has successfully assisted in the design of public spaces in Kosovo, and in the participatory design of urban markets in Somalia. In Kenya, India and Mexico, public space design approaches have been applied systematically to improve safety and social cohesion in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. The role of public spaces for economic revitalization and community mobilization has been explored in slum upgrading programmes in both Colombia and Kenya. The objectives of urban design interventions in public spaces are to enhance the cultural and functional characteristics in a specific context, to enhance social interaction and cohesion, and to maximize economic vitality. This is achieved by maximizing access and use of public spaces by all citizens, resulting in an overall improvement of urban quality of life.