In an already urbanized world, an increasing concentration of people, development assets, infrastructure, socio-economic vulnerabilities and convergence of risks of multiple hues in cities and urban agglomerations underscores the need for an integrated approach towards resilience building.

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.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating impacts on cities – putting unprecedented pressure on municipal budgets and public services, exacerbating inequalities and revealing their extreme fragility to shocks.

This new report explores how climate and urban challenges could be addressed in tandem to set African cities on a path of prosperity and sustainable long-term development.

This report analyses and compares the low carbon city policies and practices of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, with the goal of identifying sector-specific and city-specific good practices that may be instructive to researchers and policymakers in the wider NEA region.

Developing countries suffer from rising urban pollution levels, with associated negative effects on health and worker productivity. This paper studies how managers in developing country cities cope with the polluted environment. High-resolution pollution measurements were collected in Ugandan cities and matched with a novel firm survey.

The master plan is a roadmap for the future development of the city. It assesses the present condition of the city and works as a guideline to achieve the desired development.

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.

Culture and creativity have untapped potential to deliver social, economic, and spatial benefits for cities and communities. Cultural and creative industries are key drivers of the creative economy and represent important sources of employment, economic growth, and innovation, thus contributing to city competitiveness and sustainability.