By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion people will be living in the world’s towns and cities, with almost 50 per cent of that growth taking place in the Commonwealth. Member States, both large and small, are facing the impacts of climate change and rapid urbanization.

In this report, the transformation of 100 cities across India as part of Smart Cities Mission (SCM) is examined through the lens of SDGs. The mission has reached the lives of more than 100 million urban dwellers in India. The 100 Smart Cities are representative of India’s urban geography.

This Global Report on Sanitation and Wastewater Management in Cities and Human Settlements is a global reference on sanitation and wastewater in urban settings. It takes stock of the sanitation and wastewater management situation, both in terms of service levels and the supporting functions required to enable service provision at scale.

This report contains a comparative analysis of five African cities in terms of their air pollution problem, as well as their attempts to manage and improve air quality. Also included is an analysis of the impact of counter measures to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 in those cities, and the impact that these had on air pollution levels.

This report provides an overview on the importance of the Informal Waste and Recovery Sector (IWRS) for ending plastic pollution. It outlines how the current negotiations towards a global instrument to end plastic pollution can leverage a just transition of the IWRS.

India's urban population is estimated to stand at 675 million in 2035, the second highest behind China's one billion, the UN said in this report, noting that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the global urban population is back on track to grow by another 2.2 billion by 2050.

The Global Urban Competitiveness Report (GUCR) is a cooperative research conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and UN-Habitat focusing on sustainable urban competitiveness, urban land and urban finance. Led the project is participated by experts from CASS, UN-Habitat and well-known scholars in relevant fields.

This socio-economic assessment report informs and supports further planning processes undertaken to analyse refugee hosting settlements within the municipality of Arua (classified as a secondary city in north-western Uganda).

The intention of the initiative is to identify lessons on how to strengthen urban finance, building on a range of city case studies from countries selected to represent different levels of urbanisation and structural transformation, examples, and discussions with key stakeholders.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted an opportunity and the potential for national urban policy (NUP) to shape more resilient, green and inclusive cities as part of countries recovery packages. The scale and urgency of pressing and emerging urban challenges has become evident and has given prominence to NUP as a tool to build back better.