This week, UN Habitat released their annual World Cities Report, the Agency's flagship publication on the state of the world's urban centers. This year's report is particularly salient as the global community heads into Habitat III in October to discuss and agree on global commitments on sustainable and equitable urban development. 

The report is quite long, and delves into topics such as sustainability, governance, planning and finances. IHC is very pleased to see that both housing and urban equity are at  the very forefront of the report, each receiving their own chapter. The report frankly acknowledges the global community's disengagement on housing, presents the effects of this shift as well as recommendations for the future. 

The report provides examples of where progress has been made on many fronts, and recommendations for further work and research. 

Read a press release about the report here. Read the full report here. 

The first ever Global Humanitarian Summit will be held next week in Istanbul Turkey, with the aim of setting a new agenda for global humanitarian action. The summit will bring together the humanitarian community along with those engaged in development, and peace and conflict resolution, to agree on common approaches to delivering emergency assistance. 

At the Summit, a Global Alliance for Urban Crises will be launched, bringing together U.N. agencies, international aid groups, the private sector and researchers to address the unique challenges of providing aid in urban areas. G ang violence and security, as well as strategies to more effectively involve local government will be initial topics addressed by the Alliance. 

IHC  is encouraged to see that the need for aid groups to adapt to fast-changing realities in growing cities in the developing world will be a key issue addressed at the Summit. 

Read more about the Humanitarian Summit here and about the Global Alliance here. 

Last year, through a structured dialogue with the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), urban programming was selected as a topic area that needed greater collaboration between the the agency and NGOs. 

To address this need, UNHCR and InterAction are facilitating two regional urban learning visits. One was completed in November 2015, and and the call for applications is now open for the second, to take place in the spring/summer of this year. The goal of these visits is to connect program staff working in non-camp urban settings with successful projects that demonstrate good practices, facilitating peer-to-peer learning.