Measuring quality of life and stimulating forward-looking action

On 18 September 2025, the GCH in collaboration with UN-Habitat and the Quality of Life Initiative organized the webinar “Measuring Quality of Life in Cities: Connecting Local Action and Global Agendas”, as part of our Geneva Urban Debate series.

We introduced the Initiative and explored how it can contribute to the different global agendas of international organizations. Implemented by UN-Habitat and sponsored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Initiative works with more than 100 cities. It is a perfect example of multilevel collaboration among the local, national and international levels.

Local and regional governments play a crucial role in offering a decent quality of life to their citizens and are key contributors to the common efforts of a people-centered sustainable development. The views of the audience – visualized by a word bubble poll – show the complexity of the task to define the right priorities and align global goals with local needs.

Graham Alabaster, Head of UN-Habitat Geneva office emphasized that half way through the SDGs we see that the local aspect is not sufficiently reflected. The Localization of the SDGs is key for the global success. Kawther AlKhudairy, Head of International Affairs of the Quality of Life Program Center explained how the initiative translates the abstract notion of quality of life to people’s every day needs – following a future-oriented vision. Anh Thu Duong, co-director of GCH underlined the importance of multilevel collaboration including LRGs and pointed out that the initiative not only measures quality of life in cities but also helps to improve it.

During the discussion Agata Krause and Abdulrahman Mohammed presented the key pillars of the initiative. It aims to better understand urban priorities and capabilities. It helps to equip local leaders with the knowledge and tools to enhance quality of life in their communities – advancing the localization of SDGs and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. Its index uses global and local parameters, fully aligned with the SDG framework.

Ronald Jackson from UNDP put emphasis on the complex question of resilience in socio-economic, environmental as well as risk-aversion terms. Ownership of development by the local community is crucial. The use of AI for futuristic urban planning might be an area of further development. Domenico Zipoli from the Geneva Human Rights Platform added the important angle of fulfillment of human rights to the discussion. He explained why quality of life makes part of the human rights framework and how he sees the complementarity with existing digital human rights tracking tools. Tom Selby, Lead for the Davos Baukultur Alliance within the Centre for Urban Transformation at the World Economic Forum pointed out in his intervention the added value of public-private partnership for good quality outcomes in the construction industry. Increasing the living conditions in the built environment is closely linked to the quality of life of citizens.

We consider it of high importance that we heard from a city representative. Peter Norris, Strategy and Economic Policy Manager of the City of Manchester, explained how the city uses this approach and how they integrate it in their work of transforming the city services. Economic prosperity need to be people-centred, inclusive and sustainable. He underlined that the Quality of Life Index helps to measure recovery and stimulate to think forward.

Speakers agreed that digital space might become a common platform for collaboration among the local, national and global levels, including numerous stakeholder groups. AI might be a useful tool for futuristic urban planning, community building and meaningful consultations.

In his closing remarks Robert Lewis-Lettington from UN-Habitat echoed the power of the collaboration between the global and local levels, acknowledging the importance of financial support from the national governments. Pursuing higher quality of life succeeds if built on a solid human rights base. The initiative will hopefully continue in long-term, allowing a positive circularity of feedback from LRGs, adjustment of the offerings of the program and providing continuously improving tools for the local users.

Rewatch the event