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Working together to support implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Joint annex on implementation of the common chapter of the Strategic Plans 2018-2021 of UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN-Women

This joint annex presents progress on the implementation of the common chapter of the Strategic Plans, 2018-2021, of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), in response to a request by the Executive Boards of the four agencies for “details on the implementation of the common chapter in [their] annual reporting and, when applicable and as appropriate, at the joint meeting of the Executive Boards”. The approach of working together is also measured annually by indicators from the 2016 quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system (QCPR) contained in the QCPR annexes attached to the respective annual report of each agency.

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Collection and analysis of bilateral or tripartite work collaboration in Latin America and the Caribbean

The core mission inspiring the work of the United Nations region wide is to eliminate hunger and overcome the current levels of poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean. To this end, several agencies have shared challenges and carried out similar activities to respond to the needs of countries and their people. Particularly, FAO, IFAD and WFP have been engaged – in many occasions and in various sectors – in actions driven by the common goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition while promoting sustainable agriculture and rural transformation, as they offer their specific capacities as agricultural knowledge organization, investment fund for rural areas, and development and humanitarian assistance programmes.

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Building urban resilience: assessing urban and peri-urban agriculture in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

This report presents the findings of a knowledge assessment on urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) for the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania that was conducted in 2012. It examines the state of UPA in the city through the lens of intensifying urban pressures and increasing climate risks with the objective of identifying how these and other drivers potentially interact to affect the long-term sustainability of UPA, and what response options are needed to address existing and emerging challenges.

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Building urban resilience: assessing urban and peri-urban agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria

This report presents the findings of a knowledge assessment on urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) for the city of Ibadan, Nigeria that was conducted in 2012. It examines the state of UPA in the city through the lens of intensifying urban pressures and increasing climate risks with the objective of identifying how these and other drivers potentially interact to affect the long-term sustainability of UPA, and what response options are needed to address existing and emerging challenges.

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Building urban resilience: assessing urban and peri-urban agriculture in Dakar, Senegal

This report presents the findings of a knowledge assessment on urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) for the city of Dakar, Senegal, that was conducted in 2012. It examines the state of UPA in the city through the lens of intensifying urban pressures and increasing climate risks with the objective of identifying how these and other drivers potentially interact to affect the long-term sustainability of UPA, and what response options are needed to address existing and emerging challenges.

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Building urban resilience: assessing urban and peri-urban agriculture in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This report presents the findings of a knowledge assessment on urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) for the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that was conducted in 2012. It examines the state of UPA in the city through the lens of intensifying urban pressures and increasing climate risks with the objective of identifying how these and other drivers potentially interact to affect the long-term sustainability of UPA, and what response options are needed to address existing and emerging challenges.

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Guidelines for integrated environmental assessment of urban areas

Planning and management for sustainable development require an understanding of the linkages between environmental conditions and human activities and encourage participation by all sectors of society in decision-making. This publication is a useful tool that will help strengthen institutional capacity to prepare environmental assessments and comprehensive reports on cities in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

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Water and sanitation interlinkages across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

This UN-Water Analytical Brief analyses the central role of water and sanitation to describe the links and interdependencies between the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation and those of other Goals. It aims to stimulate United Nations Member States’ consideration of the water-related linkages within the Goals to facilitate an integrated approach to implementation. The Brief highlights the importance of mainstreaming water and sanitation in the policies and plans of other sectors, and how the management of interlinkages supports the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

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Promoting livelihoods to build the self-reliance of urban refugees in Nairobi

The majority of the urban poor in Nairobi, including asylum seekers and refugees, find employment and self-employment opportunities in the highly competitive informal sector. Poor regulation, poor physical infrastructure and limited access to institutionalized business support services, limit the viability of the informal sector. Those without specialized skills or capital to start a business earn daily wages as casual labourers or as low-level employees. For asylum seekers and refugees the odds are worse, encumbered by a lengthy asylum seeking process, limited engagement with local administrative authorities which deprives them of critical protection and support, and a business community hesitant to engage them as a potential market. Without ownership of fixed assets those seeking to start or grow a business fail to meet the collateral requirements to access business loans. The March 2012 livelihoods baseline indicates that food alone comprises between 45 percent and 55 percent of monthly costs for the very poor. After spending on food and housing, very little remains for other essentials. Additional expenditure on limited health care, hygiene, energy and water deplete the modest monthly wage. UNHCR and the urban refugee’s livelihoods working group are implementing livelihoods projects targeting refugees and Kenyans. With limited funding and experience the UNHCR chaired urban refugee’s livelihoods working group is implementing a range of livelihood support projects. To improve the effectiveness of current livelihoods programming resources are required to build partner technical capacity in designing, implementing, and monitoring and evaluating interventions, institutionalizing the use of best practices and models that are proven to work, and scaling up to reach more beneficiaries.

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Who will be accountable? Human rights and the post-2015 development agenda

This publication is intended to help fill some of the more pressing accountability gaps that impede the realization of global and national development goals. We approach this challenge from the perspective of human rights, as a universal normative and legally binding framework embodying the minimum requirements of a dignified life, encapsulating universal values that a post-2015 agreement should strive to prioritize and protect as well as essential features of a road map to take us there.

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Home sweet home: housing practices and tools that support durable solutions for urban IDPs

Despite a long-standing recognition of the need to improve the response of actors addressing urban displacement, there is a lack of guidance on how to do this and a limited knowledge of practices that have successfully addressed the housing, tenure security and livelihood needs of urban IDPs. This report, the result of collaboration between IDMC and the MIT Displacement Research and Action Network (DRAN), presents different approaches and case studies that have been used to overcome recurrent challenges to adequate housing in urban displacement situations. It advocates for the use of a rights-based approach that supports the achievement of durable solutions by providing options that can guide and inform response when designing, funding or implementing housing policies and programmes in urban settings for policy makers and practitioners.

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Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2016. Education for people and planet: creating sustainable futures for all

The Incheon Declaration for Education 2030 has been instrumental to shape the Sustainable Development Goal on Education to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. It entrusts UNESCO with the leadership, coordination and monitoring of the Education 2030 agenda. It also calls upon the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report to provide independent monitoring and reporting of the Sustainable Development Goal on education (SDG 4), and on education in the other SDGs, for the next fifteen years. The ultimate goal of this agenda is to leave no one behind. This calls for robust data and sound monitoring. The 2016 edition of the GEM Report provides valuable insight for governments and policy makers to monitor and accelerate progress towards SDG 4, building on the indicators and targets we have, with equity and inclusion as measures of overall success.

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Cities ending the AIDS epidemic

Cities have inherent advantages in responding to complex health problems such as HIV. They are dynamic centres of economic growth, education, innovation and positive social change. Cities have large service infrastructures and—through the power of networks—have the potential to deliver services where they are most needed, in a way that is both equitable and efficient while respecting the dignity of its citizens.

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City size, distance and formal employment creation

Cities thrive through the diversity of their occupants because the availability of complementary skills enables firms in the formal sector to grow, delivering increasingly sophisticated products and services. The appearance of new industries is path dependent in that new economic activities build on existing strengths, leading cities to both diversify and specialize in distinct areas. Hence, the location of necessary capabilities, and in particular the distance between firms and people with the skills they need, is key to the success of urban agglomerations. Using data for Colombia, this paper assesses the extent to which cities benefit from skills and capabilities available in their surrounding catchment areas. Without assuming a priori a definition for cities, we sequentially agglomerate the 96 urban municipalities larger than 50,000 people based on commuting time. We show that a level of agglomeration equivalent to between 45 and 75 minutes of commuting time, corresponding to between 62 and 43 cities, maximizes the impact that the availability of skills has on the ability of agglomerations to generate formal employment. Smaller urban municipalities stand to gain more in the process of agglomeration. A range of policy implications are discussed.

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What is the role of urban growth on inequality, and segregation? The case of urban Argentina's urban agglomerations

We analyse the relationship between urban sprawl and changing patterns of inequality and segregation in metropolitan areas of Argentina. The existing literature has endeavoured to study the determinants of the expansion of cities, but less attention has been placed in understanding the effects of this sprawl on the livelihood of the people that live in them. Understanding whether different patterns of urban extension determine both segregation and inequality is extremely relevant in the context of fast growing urban agglomerates of Latin American countries. Among other findings, we provide evidence that there is segregation of the poor and not of the rich in all urban agglomerates but in Greater Buenos Aires, where segregation of the affluent, not the poor, prevails in the areas of greater informal urban expansion, measured by the extension of informal settlements. Yet, not all the patterns of urban development and built-up growth have the same effect. More leapfrog appears to explain greater segregation -particularly of the poor - while both infill and extension are positively related to more homogeneous urban agglomerations. This means that the most disadvantaged are more evenly distributed in agglomerations that have not seen much of their sprawl due to discontinue urban expansion of their borders. Finally, we also find a positive association between more unequal municipalities and greater slum expansions. The causality of this relationship is unclear and further analysis could be promising. It might be the case that more unequal municipalities allow for institutional environments in which slums can grow faster. Or it might well be that places which have experienced more accelerated slum growth have become more unequal because of the arrival of new families that accentuates such disparities.

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Gearing up for competitiveness: The role of planning, governance, and finance in small and medium-sized cities in South Asia

This book focuses on local government’s role in increasing city competitiveness through planning, governance, and finance, particularly in small to medium-sized cities in South Asia. Existing studies on city competitiveness tend to focus on megacities, and yet smaller cities house an increasingly large portion of South Asia’s population. This study seeks to initiate a more systematic thinking on the role of planning, governance, and finance to overcome the challenges of urbanisation, improve the investment climate, and provide greater opportunities for more people, especially in small to medium-sized cities.

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The housing challenge in emerging Asia: options and solutions

This publication provides new insights and ideas to best design and implement housing policies aimed at improving access to affordable and adequate housing. The book offers an innovative theoretical framework to conceptualize and analyze various housing policies. It also critically reviews housing policies of various countries and draws lessons for others. The countries studied include advanced economies within and outside Asia, such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as emerging countries within Asia, such as the People’s Republic of China and India.

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Housing system and urbanization in the People’s Republic of China

This paper examines how transformations in the housing system in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) influence the PRC pattern of urbanization. It first discusses how housing policies determine the supply and demand of housing in urban PRC and subsequently analyzes how the changes in the mode of housing provision have affected rural–urban migration, intercity labor mobility, the financing of urban infrastructure, and general urban economic activities in the PRC. The PRC experience of the interaction between the housing system and urbanization is unique, but it clearly indicates that an effective housing system that can responsively provide adequate and affordable housing is crucial to the success of inclusive and equitable urbanization.

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Human capital and urbanization in the People’s Republic of China

The relationship between human capital development and urbanization in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is explored, highlighting the institutional factors of the hukou system and a decentralized fiscal system. Educated workers disproportionately reside in urban areas and in large cities. Returns to education are significantly higher in urban areas relative to those in rural areas, as well as in large, educated cities relative to small, less-educated cities. In addition, the external returns to education in urban areas are at least comparable to the magnitude of private returns. Rural areas are the major reservoir for urban population growth, and the more educated have a higher chance of moving to cities and obtaining urban hukou. Relaxing the hukou restriction, increasing education levels of rural residents, providing training for rural–urban migrants, and guaranteeing equal opportunity for all residents are necessary for a sustainable urbanization process in the PRC. In terms of health, rural–urban migration is selective in that healthy rural residents choose to migrate. Occupational choices and living conditions are detrimental to migrants’ health, however. While migration has a positive effect on migrant children, its effect on “left-behind” children is unclear.

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The emergence of Pacific urban villages: urbanization trends in the Pacific islands

Village-like settlements such as squatter and informal settlements are seen as a type of urban village. The report examines the evolution of different types of settlement commonly known as native or traditional villages, and the more recent squatter and informal settlements. It looks at the role these and other urban villages play in shaping and making Pacific towns and cities and presents key actions that Pacific countries and development partners need to consider as part of urban and national development plans while achieving a more equitable distribution of the benefits of urbanization.

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Nature-based solutions for building resilience in towns and cities: case studies from the Greater Mekong Subregion

Urban populations are projected to increase from 54% to 66% of the global population by 2050, with close to 90% of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. Cities and towns—a growing source of greenhouse gas emissions—will need to address challenges posed by climate change. A nature-based approach in identifying climate change vulnerabilities and developing relevant adaptation options was conducted in three towns of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Working with local governments, non-government organizations, women’s groups, and professional associations, town-wide adaptation measures were defined by overlaying climate change projections on town plans and zoning schemes for strategic infrastructure. This publication captures valuable experience and lessons from the project.

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Enhancing urban climate change resilience: seven entry points for action

Growing interest in the concept of urban climate change resilience (UCCR) recognizes the complexity of rapid urbanization and uncertainties associated with climate change. This working paper synthesizes existing knowledge on urban climate change resilience to identify seven entry points for actions. It is expected that the proposed entry points will benefit ADB’s developing member countries, development partners, staffs and projects under the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund to take actions for strengthening urban resilience.

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State of the Least Developed Countries 2016

The current report builds on the first and second editions, which considered the issues of productive capacity building as well as extreme poverty eradication in the least developed countries (LDCs) and the post-2015 development agenda. These reports provided analysis relating to the inclusion of LDC issues in the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. This year’s report is dedicated to the implementation of the SDGs in LDCs using synergies with the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA). Part 1 of the report assesses progress towards achieving the goals and targets of the IPoA, particularly in the eight priority areas; reviews efforts towards this end; and identifies challenges ahead. The report argues that enhanced, coordinated and targeted support to the LDCs fulfilling ODA commitments but also going beyond, will remain critical to effectively implementing the IPoA. Part 2 of the report assesses the complementarities of the IPoA and the 2030 Agenda. It maps the goals, targets and actions of the IPoA with the SDGs, focusing on means of implementation. Furthermore it looks at how the implementation of the SDGs in LDCs can be fostered, including its mainstreaming and monitoring and followup. The conclusions and policy recommendations cover the findings in both parts of the report. As the report finds significant synergies between the IPoA and the Agenda 2030 it highlights the importance of leadership and political will and effective global partnership.

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The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: achieving the industry-related goals and targets

UNIDO’s vision to address today’s economic, social and environmental challenges is enshrined in the Lima Declaration, which was adopted by UNIDO Member States in December 2013. On this basis, the Organization pursues Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID) to harness industry’s full potential to contribute to lasting prosperity for all. The mandate is based on the recognition by Member States that poverty eradication “can only be achieved through strong, inclusive, sustainable and resilient economic and industrial growth, and the effective integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.” The present document summarizes the contribution of UNIDO’s mandate as well as current and planned future activities vis-à-vis the SDGs, with a special focus on SDG-9, which highlights and affirms the critical importance of ISID and its contribution to all 17 goals.

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Science, technology and innovation for sustainable urbanization

This report aims to contribute to the sustainable urbanization discourse by addressing the specific role of science, technology and innovation. It is based on literature review and an analysis of cities in developed and developing countries that provide examples that can be reapplied elsewhere. The report provides a fresh perspective on the discussion on sustainable urbanization, drawing on current research and case studies from around the world. The report identifies key sectoral planning challenges posed by rapid urbanization, particularly in developing countries, and proposes practical guidelines to city planners and other decision makers for addressing these challenges through the use of science, technology and innovation.

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