Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs and UN-Habitat sign MoU for sustainable development in urban areas

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) cementing the long-standing partnership towards sustainable and inclusive urbanisation in India, the global body said in a release on Friday.

The agreement emphasises the need for shared prosperity with social, economic and environmental integration of cities, city regions and rural areas, recognising India’s ambition to grow from a USD 3 trillion economy to a USD 5 trillion economy within the next few years.

The move is likely to address the disparities in the cities’s resilience to face social, environmental and economic shocks, with some more prepared than others, and some better financed than others. Cities must be smarter than ever about how they position their development trajectory to respond to affordable housing and reduce inequalities manifested in slums and informal settlements, the global body said explaining the need to reduce inequalities.

Other areas of cooperation cover, the circular economy of water, wastewater and municipal solid waste catalysed and embedded in planning and investment in cities; enhanced action to respond to the crisis of pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss in cities and human settlements; and strengthened capacity of local and sub-national governments and public institutions for planning, management and financing in cities and human settlements.

Katikithala Srinivas, Secretary, MoHUA and Kazuko Ishigaki, Regional Representative, Asia and the Pacific region, UN-Habitat along with the respective delegations met to sign the agreement marking this momentous milestone at the Twelfth World Urban Forum in Cairo, Egypt.

Through this cooperation framework, UN-Habitat and MoHUA will collaborate through knowledge, policy advice, technical assistance and collaborative action for inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable development in urban areas and human settlements in India.

Demonstrating the potential of this collaboration with immediate results, Srinivas and Ishigaki launched the Urban RAASTA (Resilient and Accelerated Advancement with Sustainable and Transformative Actions) framework.

Urban RAASTA is developed for local stakeholders and actors, especially in India’s intermediary cities, to endeavour towards a healthy, sustainable, and green development pathway which is rooted in India’s traditional ways of conservation and moderation.

The framework emulates a T-shaped approach, i.e. multi-sectoral horizontal integration and intra-sectoral comprehensive vertical deep dive, which is necessary to develop “fit for purpose” recommendations for urban development instruments and financing, as per the release.

Urban RAASTA is jointly developed with MoHUA, national and subnational partners, with four cornerstones, namely, spatial equity, SDG localization, climate resilience, and inclusive economy to inform urban planning and local financing, the release added.