Over the past 40 years, since the First United Nations Conference on Cities – Habitat I, held in 1976 in Vancouver, when 37.9% of the world’s population lived in urban areas, the world has changed significantly. These changes, both positive and negative, have primarily taken place in cities.
Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities and settlements, and by 2050 it is expected that at least 70% of humanity will live in them. The current trends of urbanization present a challenge the world has not encountered before. Cities are driving forces and generators of economic growth, but at the same time, they also face major challenges, ranging from environmental to social problems. Poverty, increasing inequality, environmental degradation, social and economic exclusion, and spatial segregation are real problems facing today’s cities and represent key obstacles to achieving the goals of sustainable urban development worldwide.
Aware of the fact that sustainable urban development cannot be achieved without a fundamental change in how we build and manage urban space, the member states of the United Nations at the Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development – Habitat III, held in Quito in October 2016, adopted the New Urban Agenda – a shared vision and political commitment to achieving sustainable and transformative urban development over the next 20 years.
The New Urban Agenda is an action-oriented document which, as a response by the international community to the rapid growth of urban areas, sets out a global urbanization strategy. Through the Quito Declaration on Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements for All and the Quito Implementation Plan, the New Urban Agenda outlines new strategic directions as well as global goals and priorities for sustainable urban development, rethinking the way we plan, develop, build, and manage cities – and how we live in them.
The New Urban Agenda should be seen as a logical continuation of, and a document that contributes to, the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations in 2015, which recognized the power of cities and settlements as drivers of sustainable growth in the future. This especially applies to the achievement of Goal 11 – "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable" – by guiding the planning and governance of cities in such a way that their inhabitants can enjoy a dignified life.

Since it cannot be denied that urbanization is the foundation of socio-economic transformation, prosperity, well-being, and progress, and is inevitably closely linked to development, the New Urban Agenda aims to further strengthen their interconnection with the idea that these two concepts become parallel tools for achieving sustainable urban development.

And finally, in the words of Joan Clos, Secretary-General of the Habitat III Conference and Executive Director of UN-Habitat, at Habitat III:

“We have analyzed and discussed the challenges facing cities and agreed on a common roadmap for the next 20 years. Therefore, the New Urban Agenda is, above all, a commitment by which we all jointly take responsibility for the direction of development of our shared urbanized world.”