The New Urban Agenda: Implementing Sustainable Urban Development in an Accessible and Inclusive Way
The meeting took place at the GIZ-Haus in Berlin and provided information on the New Urban Agenda (NUA), which was adopted in the course of the United Nations HABITAT III Conference. The NUA is intended to contribute to sustainable and inclusive urban development at the global level. The aim of the conference was to inform about the NUA, to create awareness for its implementation and to present good examples of inclusive urban development projects from all over the world and Germany. At the end, the participants discussed in a panel the question of how Germany can contribute internationally to an inclusive implementation of the NUA.
'Our Struggle for Global Sustainability Will Be Won or Lost in Cities'.
Ban Ki Moon
Following the adoption of the 2030 Agenda with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Climate Change Conference in Paris, the United Nations HABITAT III Conference on Sustainable Urban Development took place in October 2016. At this conference, the New Urban Agenda was adopted, which is intended to contribute to sustainable and inclusive urban development at the global level.
Cities play a decisive role in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals - currently, about half of the world's population already lives in them. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, about 75% of the world's population will live in cities. In addition to the challenges of making urbanisation environmentally friendly and sustainable, it is also about reducing poverty, creating liveable cities that offer decent working, housing and living conditions for the people who live there, and contribute to the social participation of all.
Like the 2030 Agenda, the New Urban Agenda follows the guiding principle of 'leaving no one behind'. The topics of accessibility and inclusion are explicitly anchored in it. It therefore offers an important prerequisite for urban development that includes all people.
The design of barrier-free infrastructure, mobility, communication and information, is not only beneficial for people with disabilities, but benefits everyone - especially the elderly. Accessibility is a future topic in view of the increasing ageing of the world's population.
Kumaresh Misra, Deputy Secretary General for Habitat III
Victor Pineda, activist for the rights of people with disabilities and president of the Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environment (GAATES)
Presentations by the Speakers
Following the introduction to the New Urban Agenda, speakers from Ecuador, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico presented good practice examples from their home countries.
On the German side, too, there are already cities and projects that are taking an inclusive approach. In addition to good practice examples, city networks such as Connective Cities or the Cities Alliance were also shown, which include the topic of inclusion in their planning.
Below you will find the presentations of the speakers:
The Inclusion Imperative (pdf, 729,8 KB)
Dr. Victor Pineda, World Enabled, Berkeley/USA
Inclusion in Urban Development - Design for All (pdf, 3,5 MB)
Barbara Berninger, Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz & Ingeborg Stude, Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Wohnen, Berlin
oder: Vortragstext Inclusion in Development (pdf, 131,5 KB)
Sunarman Sukamto from Solo City, Indonesia
Working Groups
In working groups, the participants of the conference developed recommendations for policy-makers and those responsible for urban development. Here you can find the documentation of the working groups:
Working Group 1: Wohnen und öffentliche Plätze (pdf, 7,7 KB)
Moderation: Helle Deertz, GIZ, Bonn
Poster Exhibition
Participating projects in the poster exhibition were:
- the Social Heroes with Wheelmap
- PPRBM Solo City (Indonesia)
- Accessibility Index Ecuador
- Arbeitskreis Wiesbadener Behindertenorganisationen und Interessengemeinschaften Behinderter
- Can Lah S.C., Mexico City
- Architekturbüro Frey mit Heidelberg Village
- Stiftung Liebenau mit Inklusionsprojekten in Dusslingen und Lindau
- Bochumer Claudius Höfe
The poster exhibition can be borrowed from the bezev office (info@bezev.de).
Have a look at the posters of the exhibition here.
Organizer
The event was organised jointly with Caritas international/Germany and Misereor and in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. The approximately 80 participants came from governmental and non-governmental development cooperation, universities and science, municipal and local administrations, politics and urbanism.