The Global Planners Network is a plurality of voices with diverse and relevant experience to advocate for effective planning. Member organizations work to advance inclusionary and sustainable planning practice worldwide.

Spring 2017: Habitat III Update

Global Planners Network encourages each member to share how they are engaging their own members in an effort to both share the results of Habitat III and find ways to inform local plans with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In New York at the National Planning Conference, May 6–9, 2017, there will be two sessions on Habitat III.

Graphic of San Jose, California's Sustainable Development Goals.
San Jose, California’s Sustainable Development Goals. Image from Report to the City of San Jose: Implementing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals at the Local Level, December 2016.

One is related to three U.S. cities — Baltimore, New York, and San Jose, California — that are integrating the SDG metrics and indicators into their plans: “Implementing the UN’s Global Agenda for Cities” on Sunday, May 7, 1 p.m.–2:15 p.m. The second is “Implementing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals” on Saturday, May 6, 1 p.m.–2:15 p.m. This will be a broader look at the goals themselves and the metrics recommended to track progress.

Together, these two sessions will give members a good understanding of the goals and recommended indicators, and how to adapt them to the local level.

APA Director of Outreach and International Programs Jeff Soule, FAICP, attended an early February working group meeting on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, hosted by the Turkish government, which is chairing the working group. The meeting focused on SDG 11, the Urban Goal.  Among the variety of topics developed in detail at this working group meeting is the role of cultural heritage as it relates to sustainability. A concept paper on this topic may be found at www.usicomos.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Final-Concept-Note.pdf. Soule will be highlighting the results of this working group at a session of the APA National Planning Conference.

If members have examples of ways they are incorporating these goals and indicators in their own planning — public, private, and NGO — please share them with us.  We have many outlets to showcase what’s going on in the U.S. that can inform other planners’ effort as well as sharing the great work going on globally.

Global consulting firm ARCADIS published a very detailed and data-driven analysis of the world’s cities in terms of sustainability last fall. While not one U.S. city cracked the top 25 (New York was ranked 26th), other GPN members boast cities which ranked in the top. There are things cities as diverse as Zurich, Singapore, London, Hong Kong, and Sydney can share with all our members.