Evidence-based Decision Making for Urban Change: Global Data Tools in Action in Africa and West Asia

The New Urban Agenda lays out a framework for integrating equity and sustainability into international development. An effective use of data is one of the most important means of implementing the NUA. Data collection is especially powerful when it is tailored to local contexts and forms the foundations of evidence-based decision making that leads to positive change in urban policy. As part of the Development Account 12th Tranche project, 9 pilot cities across 5 regions have worked to implement the NUA. Strengthening the cities’ data monitoring and reporting capacities has been done primarily through the use of two UN-Habitat tools: the Urban Monitoring Framework (UMF) and Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs). This event will share the experiences of cities in the African and West Asian regions who have successfully leveraged these global tools at the local level, and provide an opportunity for other cities, in these regions and beyond, to learn how they can adapt the use to their own contexts. This one hour, online event will hear experts in the UMF and VLRs introduce the tools, followed by testimony from city representatives from Maseru (Lesotho), Amman (Jordan), and Agadir (Morocco). There will be opportunity for discussion and questions afterwards.