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State of Latin American and Caribbean cities 2012

With 80% of its population living in cities, Latin America and the Caribbean is the most urbanized region on the planet. Located here are some of the largest and best-known cities, like Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota, Lima and Santiago. The region also boasts hundreds of smaller cities that stand out because of their dynamism and creativity. This edition of State of Latin American and Caribbean cities presents the current situation of the region’s urban world, including the demographic, economic, social, environmental, urban and institutional conditions in which cities are developing.

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State of the world’s cities 2010/2011. Cities for all: bridging the urban divide

The world’s urban population now exceeds the world’s rural population. What does this mean for the state of our cities, given the strain this global demographic shift is placing upon current urban infrastructure? Following on from previous State of the World’s Cities reports, this edition uses the framework of ‘The Urban Divide’ to analyse the complex social, political, economic and cultural dynamics of urban environments. The book focuses on the concept of the ‘right to the city’ and ways in which many urban dwellers are excluded from the advantages of city life, using the framework to explore links among poverty, inequality, slum formation and economic growth. The volume will be essential reading for all professionals and policymakers in the field, and a valuable resource for researchers and students in all aspects of urban development.

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The state of Asian and Pacific cities 2015. Urban transformations: shifting from quantity to quality

This report on the state of Asian and Pacific cities is the second in the series first published by UN-Habitat (the United Nations Human Settlements Programme) and ESCAP (the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) in 2010 then 2011. Building on the findings and baseline data provided in the 2010 report, and in capturing both rapid change and new policy opportunities, The State of Asian and Pacific Cities 2015 seeks to further contribute to policy-relevant literature on the region’s urban change. Specifically, as reflected in its subtitle, the report highlights growing gaps between current urbanisation patterns and what is needed to shift to a more inclusive and sustainable urban future, in which the role of the region’s cities is unquestionably tied to national, regional and global development prospects.

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Cities and climate change: global report on human settlements 2011

Cities and Climate Change reviews the linkages between urbanization and climate change, two of the greatest challenges currently facing humanity in the 21st Century, and whose effects are converging in dangerous ways. It illustrates the significant contribution of urban areas to climate change while at the same time highlighting the potentially devastating effects of climate change on urban populations. It reviews policy responses, strategies and practices that are emerging in urban areas to mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as their potential achievements and constraints. In conclusion, the report argues that urban areas have a pivotal role in both climate change mitigation and adaptation and identifies strategies and approaches for strengthening this role.

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Birth registration and armed conflict

The research theme was identified within the framework of the European Network for the Research Agenda on Children in Armed Conflict and has been developed by UNICEF IRC with the co-operation of a number of Network partners and UNICEF offices in the field. It reviews the problem of non-registration in conflict-affected countries while drawing on case studies to analyze successful or promising initiatives to ensure registration. The ultimate goal is to assist practitioners in the field in conflict and post-conflict environments to promote emerging encouraging practices in ensuring the right of the child to birth registration and thereby to the enjoyment of many rights.

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Intersectional discrimination against children

This paper adds a perspective to existing research on child protection by engaging in a debate on intersectional discrimination and its relationship to child protection. The paper has a two-fold objective: (1) to further establish intersectionality as a concept to address discrimination against children; and (2) to illustrate the importance of addressing intersectionality within rights-based programmes of child protection.

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Child rights and governance roundtable: report and conclusions

The objective of this Roundtable was to reflect on the linkages between governance and child rights and initiate a dialogue between both constituencies. It brought together actors from the governance sector and child rights experts. Various studies have evidenced that good governance brings both an intrinsic and an instrumental value to a wide range of development outcomes, including poverty eradication, the reduction of inequities, economic growth and broader social objectives.

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Mainstreaming human rights in development: stories from the field

Human rights mainstreaming has become part of the core work of the United Nations development system. A United Development Group Human Rights Mainstreaming Mechanism (UNDG-HRM) was established in 2009 at the request of the United Nations Secretary-General. This mechanism aims to bolster system-wide coherence, collaboration, and support to Resident Coordinators and United Nations country teams, so that they can better provide support to Member States to strengthen national capacity for the promotion and protection of human rights. This publication is a first step in collecting the experiences of UN country teams in integrating human rights into their development work. The six case studies presented herein reflect the growing number of United Nations country teams supporting governments to fulfill international human rights commitments and to integrate human rights into national policies and programmes.

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Gender, remittances and asset accumulation in Ecuador and Ghana

The central question motivating this study is whether processes of migration can contribute to women’s economic autonomy by facilitating their acquisition of physical and financial assets, either as migrants or as managers of remittances sent to their households. Drawing on representative national-level household asset surveys for Ecuador and Ghana, the authors find that 24 per cent of all households with migrants in Ecuador and 17 per cent in Ghana have acquired at least one asset through the use of remittances, predominantly international remittances. In Ecuador, where international migration is gender balanced, male and female international migrants are equally likely to send remittances to their households of origin; in Ghana, men are much more likely to be international migrants than women and predominate among the remitters. Remittances have contributed towards strengthening women’s ownership of assets (especially consumer durables) in both countries. In Ghana, most businesses acquired with remittances are owned by women, as are the majority of the residences so acquired. In Ecuador, women managers have benefited through the build-up of their savings and as joint owners of the homes built with remittances; also, return female migrants are more likely than their male counterparts to have acquired a home through their use of savings earned abroad. Nonetheless, a minority of migrant women and female remittance recipients are able to acquire assets. Enhancing the capacity of migrants to channel their foreign savings towards asset accumulation will require policy interventions at various levels, including a focus on their conditions of employment in destination countries (see Sustainable Development Goal, recommended SDG 8.8); reducing the cost of remittance transfers (recommended SDG 10.c); and specific policies to facilitate the acquisition of assets in the home country (recommended SDGs 1.4 and 5.a).

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Gender on the move: working on the migration-development nexus from a gender perspective

The training manual aims to build the gender analysis capacity of those working in the field of migration and development to bring about a model of development that is centered on people, human rights, and on the principle of gender equality. It also offers a series of tools to help design programmes and policies that strengthen the positive effects of migration in terms of development, both in origin and destination countries. The manual, which is available in English and Spanish, is divided into a facilitator’s guide and four training guides, each of which has a self-directed learning section and an activities section for designing face-to-face trainings. The manual aims to provoke thinking and action around migration and development from a gender and rights-based perspective, bringing to the fore migration for care, the importance of putting the right to care on the development agenda, and migrant women’s rights. The manual is divided into the following sections: 1. Introduction to Gender, Migration, and Development; 2. Impact of Remittances on Local Economies in Origin Countries from a Gender Perspective; 3. Global Care Chains; 4. Migration Policies and Migrant Women’s Rights

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Guide for the evaluation of programmes and projects with a gender, human rights and intercultural perspective

In recent years, we have advanced progressively in the development of a conceptual and methodological basis for improving the processes of programme and project evaluation. Similarly, there is an important body of resources for the gender equality approach, and the same is true for the field of human rights. With respect to the intercultural approach, progress has been slower and, in many cases, partial. It has been associated with the processes of consultation to Indigenous peoples when preparing or evaluating a project in a region or area where they live. All these approaches share certain characteristics: they emphasize human rights and social justice; analyse asymmetrical social relations; promote competent cultural relations between the evaluating team and the members of the community or social organizations; use mixed and culturally appropriate methods for social action; and apply feminist theory, critical race theory, post-colonialist theories, etc. This Guide has been elaborated with the intent of integrating these approaches into the UN Women evaluation cycle. It is a practical tool for those who undertake, manage and/or use evaluations.

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Policy and operational messages to support UN Country Teams in integrating human rights into the implementation of the 2030 Agenda

The messages in this document are envisaged to provide a common understanding for the UN system on how human rights can be integrated and should inform the planning and programming process as well as policy guidance for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The messages focus on: a) how to align the SDGs with the country’s existing human rights commitments; b) how to fulfill the pledge to ‘leave no one behind’ and ‘reach the furthest behind first’; c) how to ensure active and meaningful participation in the preparation of the national SDG action plans; and, d) how to build robust accountability frameworks in the implementation of these national plans.

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Mainstreaming the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: reference guide to UN country teams

This document is designed as a reference guide for UN Country Teams (UNCTs), under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinators, that wish to support Member States and national stakeholders in adapting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to national contexts (“mainstreaming”) while protecting its integrity. The document covers eight implementation guidance areas that can serve as the basis for UNCT assistance at the national level, sub-national and local levels.

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Country-level needs for SDG implementation in Europe and Central Asia

In view of its interconnectedness, the new agenda of SDGs will require holistic approaches and coherent action by global, regional and country level actors. In order to ensure interlinkages between the regional and country levels, the ECA Regional UNDG Team undertook a consultation with ECA UN Resident Coordinators (RCs) and Country Teams (UNCT) through a survey to identify needs and requirements at country level with regard to SDG implementation. This document presents the finding of the survey as well as conclusions drawn.

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Delivering together facility for sustainable development

With the growing call for the UN development system to go beyond business-as-usual coordination and rise to the challenge to support implementation of the more ambitious and integrated 2030 Agenda, United Nations Development Operations and Coordination Office (UNDOCO) has reviewed the data and practice evidence, as well as the policy and resource mechanisms at its disposal, and established the Delivering Together Facility for Sustainable Development (DTF), to be operational in 2017. The DTF is set up as a flexible funding mechanism to provide seed funds to RCs and UNCTs, to help them leverage joined-up UN development system’s efforts in support of Member States implementing the 2030 Agenda. This document presents the design features, strategic framework, implementation arrangements and fund management of the DTF, which will become operational in 2017.

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Expanding health-care access in the United States

This paper focuses on the ways in which women in the United States are impacted by the 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (usually referred to as ACA or ‘Obamacare’). The ACA’s three main goals of expanding access, increasing consumer protections and reducing costs while increasing quality of services will improve coverage, access to services and types of services that benefit women (and men). However, universal coverage remains illusive due to employer-based insurance coverage that allows firms to make decisions about coverage type. This patchwork universalism is the result of political decisions to extend rather than transform the current health-care system and as such reproduces many of the previously existing problems of uneven costs and coverage. The paper argues the ACA is consistent with other sets of US social welfare and labour market regimes that stratify access to social protections by income, race/ethnicity and gender as well as provide individual states with administrative and policy authority. The paper concludes that the passage of ACA will vastly improve health-care coverage in the United States, however, will continue to leave millions of people uninsured.

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Are governments catching up? work-family policy and inequality in Latin America

This paper examines government policies that aim to balance work and family life, focusing on employment based leaves and early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Latin America. The paper charts the policy reforms across the region in both maternity, paternity and parental leaves and ECEC services, focusing especially on services for 0–3-year-old children. To illuminate regional trends and best practices, it provides more detailed case studies of policy reforms in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay, with regard to both policy design and implementation. Drawing from these case studies, the paper finds that Latin America is moving in an equity-enhancing direction, particularly in terms of social equity, both in employment-based leaves and in care services. Care policies have a window of opportunity to become equity-enhancing policies both in terms of socio-economics and gender. Because these policies are being defined and implemented against the backdrop of deep familialism and high degrees of social inequality, equity enhancement is a challenging policy goal. The paper concludes with identifying the key factors in that are important in designing equity-enhancing change in work-family policies.

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Looking back, leaping forward: moving from MDGs to SDGs in Europe and Central Asia

This report takes stock of the progress achieved in Europe and Central Asia under the MDGs with the aim to chart the elements that are crucial for a successful transition to the SDGs. It draws on the experiences derived from the implementation of the MDGs, but also addresses the new challenges and opportunities for integrated interventions that come with the much more complex 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The report is structured into three parts. First, it takes stock of the progress achieved in the implementation of the MDGs. It aims to identify the main challenges at the beginning of the MDG period, how these were addressed and what has been achieved. The second section places the MDGs in the context of the wider SDG framework by identifying the unfinished agenda under the MDGs and discussing how the areas covered by the MDGs are now reflected in the 2030 Agenda. The final section describes some of the initial steps that governments in the region are taking to implement the 2030 Agenda and the ways in which the regional UN system can support these efforts. It concludes by identifying and assessing a number of risks that may influence SDG achievement and stressing the importance of collaboration for successful implementation.

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Standard operating procedures for countries adopting the 'Delivering as One' approach

Following the implementation of the ‘Delivering as One’ approach in 8 pilot countries, a second generation of “Delivering as One” was called for in 2012 and more than forty countries have formally adopted it. Efforts under 'Delivering as one' have now matured to the point where this set of Standard Operating Procedures is developed. They will enable the United Nations to function more effectively and foster greater collaboration and teamwork. The document is structured according to the core elements of the ‘Delivering As One’ approach: One Programme, Common Budgetary Framework (and One Fund), One Leader, Operating as One and Communicating as One.

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Eight case studies on integrating the United Nations’ normative and operational work

The United Nations System has shown the importance and use of international norms and standards for the UN Country Teams (UNCTs) in identifying and designing intervention strategies in various contexts. While the particular instruments and mechanisms vary from country to country, the common thread is the use of the human rights-based approach (HRBA) in every case study. This report shows how different UN agencies, in widely different situations, have developed and carried out joint programming for the implementation of United Nations norms and standards. Findings, lessons and recommendations drawn from the case studies are presented in this report.

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The Sustainable Development Goals are coming to life: stories of country implementation and UN support

This publication provides a glimpse into the early efforts of 16 countries across regions to bring the global SDGs to life, and the role United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs) play in the process. It illustrates how these countries are beginning to integrate the 2030 Agenda into visions, strategies and plans at the national, sub-national and local levels. The country efforts include raising public awareness, seeking engagement of different stakeholders, adapting the SDGs to national and local contexts, increasing coherence across policy areas and between levels of government, assessing risk and strengthening monitoring and accountability mechanisms.

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The Sustainable Development Goals are coming to life: stories of country implementation and UN support

This publication provides a glimpse into the early efforts of 16 countries across regions to bring the global SDGs to life, and the role United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs) play in the process. It illustrates how these countries are beginning to integrate the 2030 Agenda into visions, strategies and plans at the national, sub-national and local levels. The country efforts include raising public awareness, seeking engagement of different stakeholders, adapting the SDGs to national and local contexts, increasing coherence across policy areas and between levels of government, assessing risk and strengthening monitoring and accountability mechanisms.

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Design and testing of health promotion model to promote use of appropriate health services by migrant youth

This survey is part of a programme to protect the rights of vulnerable young migrants through improved access to social and labour protection. This baseline survey will help shed light on the access to health information and services for migrants in the pilot areas. Methods used were interviews, questionnaires, and focus group discussions. The policy and operational recommendations provided are intended for national and state officials inside China as well as development practitioners working on migrant rights’ programmes.

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An evidence-based review of MDG-F experiences: a contribution to the QCPR process

This document was prepared by the MDG-F in 2012 to systemize its experience to date in joint programming and implementation through its 130 joint programmes in 50 countries across five regions in eight thematic areas. The document includes evidence based lessons and good practices on issues closely related to those that were discussed during the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR), with the goal of contributing to this QCPR process. These issues include: 1. The coherence, effectiveness, relevance, and efficiency of development programmes; 2. National ownership of development processes and results; 3. Capacity development and sustainability of development results; and 4. Mutual accountability.

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Review of MDG-F joint programmes: key findings and achievements

The review presents the key findings and achievements of the 130 joint programmes across 50 countries supported by the MDG Achievement Fund (MDG-F) covering eight thematic areas: children, food security and nutrition; youth employment and migration; culture and development; gender equity and women’s empowerment; private sector and development; conflict prevention and peace building; environment and climate change; and democratic economic governance.

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English


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