National Urban Policy (NUP) is a key instrument to achieve sustainable urban development in a shared responsibility across countries, regions and cities. The scale and urgency of the current urban challenges has given prominence to NUPs. The COVID-19 crisis has amplified the potential of NUPs in...

The policy paper presents the results of an OECD-European Committee of the Regions joint survey on how local and regional governments are leveraging the SDGs to shape their recovery strategies from the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings underline a solid engagement of local and regional governments in...

The Addis Ababa Action Agenda raises the urgency to address growing financing and capacity needs at all levels of government in developing countries (para. 34) while the 2030 Agenda calls to “localise” the SDGs. In its High Level Communiqué of 31 October 2017, the DAC stressed that...

This report provides an assessment of spatial inequalities and segregation in cities and metropolitan areas from multiple perspectives. The chapters in the report focus on a subset of OECD countries and non-member economies, and provide new insights on cross-cutting issues for city...

Cities are not only home to around half of the global population but also major centers of economic activity and innovation. Yet, so far there has been no consensus of what a city really is. Substantial differences in the way cities, metropolitan, urban, and rural areas are defined across...

By 2050, the global population living in cities is projected to reach 5 billion, growing from 3.5 billion in 2015. Massive investment in infrastructure will be needed to accommodate this growth, and to adapt infrastructure to climate change and benefit from the digital transition. This report...

The blue economy is a major driver of urban and regional development, creating millions of local jobs in water-dependent sectors such as fisheries, tourism, and shipping. However, it can also contribute to carbon emissions and ecosystem degradation, while its reliance on freshwater, coastal and...