Professionals Roundtable

The Role of Urban Professionals in Implementing the New Urban Agenda, and Achieving Sustainable, Inclusive, Resilient Cities

Cities are the result of interactions between human beings and their interrelations, and as such the new urban paradigm must identify new people-oriented forms of partnerships in the development process. This discussion will further redefine our relationships with informal settlements and slums. Urban informality and climate change issues should therefore be recognized as a vital element in the metropolitan planning processes.

In order to achieve a successful implementation process of the New Urban Agenda, there will be a tremendous need for capacity building and knowledge transfer at all levels in the southern hemisphere. It will further require a new process of data collections through participatory and bottom-up approaches, which must be an integral part of a monitoring and sharing system.

The Roundtable will particularly analyse some critical issues facing cities today, including chaotic/ unplanned development, informality, segregation and exclusion, climate change, disasters, conflict and urban violence. It will open a debate on how professionals can contribute to facing these challenges, and in the active implementation of the New Urban Agenda. 

Objectives of the Roundtable

• Identify priorities for urban professionals in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
• Specify the role of urban professionals in addressing urban crises.
• Analyse how to address informality and exclusion through the professional-political interventions.
• Develop commitments to the Quito Implementation Plan.

Guiding Questions

• Which should be the role of urban professionals in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda?
• How can capacity development for urban professionals be guaranteed in order to enhance a long-term change in urban development policies?
• How can major challenges, such as climate change, be dealt with in the process of rapid urbanization in the developing world and how professionals can contribute to it?
• What are the determining factors for risk assessment in informal settlements in dense urban areas? How can the urban professionals contribute?
• Will it be possible to make progress on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda without political will and involvement at the local and global levels?

Roundtable Follow Up

• How do you propose to monitor the outcomes of this session in order to report back on progress at the 9th Session of the World Urban Forum (2018, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)?