The Global Cities Hub hosted on Monday 20 April 2026 a workshop to discuss the SDG11 Synthesis Report ahead of the 2026 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in partnership with UN-Habitat. It brought together UN agencies, national/local governments, academia, civil society, and private sector stakeholders to refine key messages, identify data gaps, and consolidate policy recommendations to accelerate progress on SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities. This Synthesis Report is particularly important as it is the last review of SDG11 at HLPF, unless the SDGs are reconducted post-2030.
The discussion was very rich, with some of the key issues being:
- Housing: one of the central pillars of SDG11, housing is a key issue all over the world. The issue of housing takes different forms in developed and developing countries: developed countries face housing affordability crises coupled with urban sprawl and aging populations, whereas developing countries have problems with housing informality coupled with rapid urbanization.
- Data: in urban areas, data quality and availability to effectively monitor and assess SDG progress are often not good enough. For instance, lack of granularity (e.g., city/neighborhood-level data) can obfuscate intra-urban inequalities and differences in outcomes within the same city. Solutions include bridging the gap between geospatial, statistical, and citizen-generated data and integrating Earth Observation (EO) and AI.
- Climate: we need to integrate climate risks into urban planning and infrastructure, especially since extreme weather events risks skyrocketed (urban flood exposure +95%, extreme heat exposure tripled) and nature-based solutions are underutilized.
- Multi-level governance: strengthening collaboration between global, national, and local levels is essential to remove implementation bottlenecks that slow down innovative, effective solutions. In this context, three themes were highlighted: financing, capacity building, and political momentum. Local governments should be co-creators of National Urban Policies and have decision-making power and fiscal space.
- Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs): a key tool for local governments to influence global agendas through national reporting (Voluntary National Reviews – VNRs) as well as to assess, monitor and implement local policies that align with the SDGs and contribute to their achievement. VLRs should be formally recognized in HLPF outcomes (our UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development side event focused on the follow-up to a first VLR, to ensure that VLRs become tools for implementation).
During the review of SDG11 at HLPF, Dr. Eckart Würzner, Mayor of Heidelberg and Chair of the Bureau of the UN Forum of Mayors, Ms. Christina Kitsos, Mayor of Geneva, Vice-chair of the Bureau and President of the Global Cities Hub, and Mr. Conradin Cramer, President of the Canton of Basle-City, will be in New York to defend, together with other local and regional governments, the role of cities and regions in multilateralism.
In this context, the GCH is hopeful that Member States might agree to an ECOSOC and HLPF outcome document mentioning local and regional governments and localization and encouraging Member States to refer to VLRs in their VNRs.
Finally, the World Urban Forum (Baku, Azerbaijan – 17-22 May 2026) will be a key meeting to review the progress of SDG11, of the New Urban Agenda and to reflect on the broader set of issues that affect urban areas worldwide. We encourage LRGs to engage and participate to shape the future of sustainable urban areas. The GCH is committed to make a substantial contribution to all relevant discussions.