Eugenie L. Birch is Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research and Education at the Penn Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania, and President of the General Assembly of Partners (GAP) for Habitat III. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and an honorary member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
The New Urban Agenda's Road Map for Planning Urban Spatial Development: Tangible, Manageable and Measurable
The recently drafted New Urban Agenda, which Governments will adopt in Quito, reaffirms Member States' support of all the components of Goal 11. Both parts of the outcome document—the Quito Declaration on Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements for All and the Quito Implementation Plan for the New Urban Agenda—clearly enunciate three priorities that will frame the successful execution of Goal 11 and the urban aspects of the other SDGs, and lead to the achievement of sustainable urbanization in the coming decades. These priorities are: having a supportive governance structure, inventing and maintaining twenty-first century planning and managing urban spatial development, and establishing sound financing mechanisms.