The Global Challenge
The existential threat of climate change has been
exacerbated by ongoing global disruption caused by
the pandemic. These challenges have been
compounded by international conflict occurring in
numerous regions, and the overarching impact of
climate change. Their combined effect threatens the
hope for the UN Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and their delivery through the New Urban
Agenda (NUA). Although the NUA is internationally
agreed, progress in applying its principles has been
too slow. Even greater urgency must be therefore
given now by governments to the implementation of
the NUA. The question is:
"If we know what needs to be done,
why are we not doing it?"
This Roadmap seeks to address this question by
setting out an action plan that strengthens the
resilience of our villages, towns, cities and regions to
both ongoing and new global shocks. Although it was
initiated in response to disruption caused by pandemic
it is as relevant to post conflict and disaster recovery.
We must work beyond boundaries spatially, visually,
ecologically, and economically, working across
institutional silos, disciplines, and sectors. Therefore
this Roadmap seeks to harness the full potential of the
cross-disciplinary community of HPF professionals, in
providing relief, recovery and reconstruction wherever
it is needed. It proposes professional support ranging
from direct engagement with local communities to
mobilising international professional support where
need is greatest.
The Roadmap is a call to governments at all levels that
if they truly want to deliver a sustainable and just
future for citizens and a healthy regenerative world,
they must provide the political push for us to do the
job. We stand ready.
The Post-Covid Urban Impacts
The pandemic has been regressive in its impacts. The
pressure to recover quickly and return to "business as
usual" would however be a huge error. COVID-19 has
laid bare long-standing inequities faced by people
around the world. Inequality in gender, race, and
disability have come to the fore. Gaps in healthy life
expectancy and opportunity have deepened. The
recent progress that has been made in reducing
poverty and in improving living conditions in the most
vulnerable communities has been put risk.
The spatial impacts of Covid-19 have exposed the
deep-rooted inequalities both within and between
nations. This has been demonstrated in vaccination
rates, with a ten-fold difference between the richest
and poorest countries. Cities have been most affected
by the pandemic, compounding their existing
challenges, and creating one billion slum dwellers. The
pandemic is reshaping towns, cities, and regions. If
urban and territorial planning is to make its
contribution to recovery and long-term regeneration,
there must be much greater clarity about what
traditional assumptions need to be challenged.
An age of radical uncertainty has been created which
calls out for a Roadmap that leads the way to just and
regenerative recovery. A Roadmap based on
transformative policy, education, guidance, and action.
The Roadmap therefore addresses the challenges for
the future planning of cities, towns, and regions if
urban planning is to be human-centred, in terms of:
• The need to give greater urgency to embedding
the New Urban Agenda;
• The specific spatial impacts of the pandemic of
towns, cities and regions; and
• The need to be better prepared for future global
shocks.
The Roadmap
This Roadmap provides a framework for enabling
healthier, more resilient and regenerative communities
in all Recovery Plans by;
• Illuminating the vital contribution that territorial
planning and design can make to Recovery;
• Illustrating the need and potential for more
effective interventions; and
• Identifying the system-changes needed to recover
not only from the current pandemic but also to
provide resilience to future ‘global shocks’.
The Roadmap identifies where there is a need for
better national urban policies, urban planning and
design and urban legislation and regulations. In doing
so it has direct relevance to the findings and
recommendations of the UN's Quadrennial Review on
the progress in the implementation of the New Urban
Agenda. This is set out in more detail in the
Background Report.
The Roadmap has four components.
1. An Executive Summary of the Roadmap included
in this report, which is set out fully in Parts A & B
of this document.
2. Part A of the Roadmap sets out propositions to
tackle the general challenges to the NUA created
by the combined impact of the pandemic, climate
change and international conflict.
3. Part B of the Roadmap develops the propositions
in Part A in the context of key themes.
4. The Roadmap Background Report which sets out,
in a separate web-based report, in more detail the
reasoning and evidence that supports the
Propositions in the Roadmap
