Urban labs for urban extension and urban renewal

The Special Session aims at strengthening partnerships and scaling up the results achieved by the Urban Labs in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, both through bankable projects and through normative outputs, including in areas such as:

• Strategic Planning and evidence-based decision-making
• Planned city extension and urban regeneration
• Urban Crisis, conflict, migration and reconstruction
• Climate Change and Planning
• Innovation and Planning
• Capacity development in planning
• Participatory planning processes

The UN-Habitat Urban Planning and Design Lab and the Network of Urban Planning and Design Labs have implemented concrete projects and deducted normative outputs in over 60 cities and 30 countries. Now is the time to bring on-board strategic partners that can support scaling up the work and delivering sound urban planning and design policies, strategies and projects that promote the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.

The Urban Labs are an integrative facility focused in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda that provide the space to create strategic and holistic proposals for the integrated development of cities and human settlements.

The visions and strategies produced by the Urban Labs provide quantitative and qualitative evidence for decision-makers to anchor political programmes into long-term strategic visions of the city. Each of the visions, strategies and projects developed following this integrative methodology, link to the existing local context and develop sound spatial, financial and legal frameworks to ensure the sustainable urban development of people and cities.

The concrete approach of the Urban Labs has produced practice-based knowledge on integration and coordination of national and local governments, private sector, non-governmental organizations, community groups and residents.

The working methodology of the Urban Labs promotes open and participative processes to achieve consensus in the development vision of the city. Equal participation of all stakeholders in the process informing the future development of the cities ensures that all voices are heard and that human rights are promoted and fulfilled as part of the implementation process.

Q1: How can regional partners contribute to establishing regional Urban Labs that can support the implementation of the New Urban Agenda?

Q2: How can the urban labs be positioned at the national and local scale to make sure that they can provide evidence to policy and decision makers in urban development?

Q3: Which are the actions that need to be taken to create an active network of Urban Labs that are connected to each other, sharing their knowledge, human and financial resources?

Q4: What type of institutions can benefit from the knowledge and technical expertise of the labs for the local implementation of the New Urban Agenda?

Q5: How can we ensure that the visions, strategies and projects that are developed by the urban labs are appropriated and implemented by countries and cities? Should the Labs have a direct role in implementation?

Q6: What is needed to bridge the gap between potential bankable projects and actual financing mechanisms for implementation?

Q7: How to create global and public private partnerships for implementation?