City Space Architecture was accredited as a stakeholder to attend the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City on 28 April 2022, to review progress on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda six-years after its adoption at the Habitat III Conference in Quito, Ecuador. The accreditation has been granted to our Founder and President Dr Luisa Bravo by the UN office in New York. She was previously engaged in another High Level Meeting, that took place at the UN Headquarters in New York City on 5-6 September 2017, she was selected and invited to attend by a Committee appointed by UN NGLS Non-Governamental Liason Services.

The General Assembly is one of the six main organs of the United Nations, the only one in which all Member States have equal representation: one nation, one vote. All 193 Member States of the United Nations are represented in this unique forum to discuss and work together on a wide array of international issues covered by the UN Charter.
The High-Level Meeting on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda was action oriented. Member States, local and regional governments, and other constituencies of the New Urban Agenda such as professional associations, grassroots organizations, and business leaders utilized the platform to highlight policy directions and programmatic initiatives they have been engaged in, and to put forward concrete commitments for the next two years.

Takeaways from our President Dr Luisa Bravo from the High Level Meeting:

We are experiencing unprecedented crises and challenges, at the social, environmental and political levels, with increasing inequalities, raise of poverty, conflicts, migrations and marginalization of most vulnerable individuals and communities with insufficient or inadequate housing solutions. Cities are at the core of the actions towards resilience and urban sustainability, to improve the quality of life of urban and rural residents, leaving no one and no place behind.
The quadrennial report of the Secretary General of the United Nations highlights the centrality of the right to adequate housing, including access to land, publics pace and public services. Public spaces contribute directly to local development, social cohesion, climate mitigation and economic recovery. The pandemic has underlined the role of public space in public health and, in response, many cities have developed temporary solutions that have translated into longer-term action on mixed-use neighborhoods, alternative mobility and urban regeneration (notably Barcelona, Milan, Nairobi, New York and Paris).
Considerable progress has been made since 2018 on public space reclamation, greening and inclusive use, including through gender-sensitive design. Design and management of public spaces have become more participatory and the legally required urban green area per capita has increased in many countries.