Havana 8 January 2018— Within the framework of the project “Support for sustainable urban development programs in Latin America and Central America: Implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Cuba”, the Tool for the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) in Cuba was recently unveiled in Havana, Cuba.

The purpose of this document is to support the orientation of the urban policy of Cuba so that the cities and human settlements of the country, on the one hand, are closer to the ideal proposed by the NUA and, on the other, serve as catalysts for development of the Cuban Economic and Social Model.

The proposals of this tool have a direct relation to the National Action Plan (NAP) of Cuba, for the implementation of the NUA, constructing its work proposal from the Regional Action Plan of Latin America and the Caribbean promoted by ECLAC and UN-Habitat, which articulates the regional priorities for an inclusive, prosperous and sustainable development, seeking the application of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development in the region.

According to the evidences obtained from the Cuban context, the indicative framework of the NUA and the inputs obtained from the realization of participatory workshops with national and international experts, the Tool was developed, the main of result of which was 24 lines of work to improve the cities and human settlements of Cuba. These 24 lines of work are organized into 8 groups or thematic areas. The first three are related to three key aspects for the New Urban Agenda: Planning, Legislation and Financing. The five remaining thematic areas were identified as priorities by national experts: Urban Economics; Living place; Technical infrastructures; Mobility / accessibility and Risks and Climate Change.

The Tool indicates the next steps to be taken, focused on the implementation of the proposed policies; in the creation of monitoring, evaluation and adjustment systems; and in the necessary strengthening of capacities for the development of new policies.

During the presentation of the document, Pablo Vaggione, Coordinator of UN-Habitat in Mexico and Cuba announced: “At UN-Habitat we have been working together with the Physical Planning Institute (PPI) for months, holding workshops, writing drafts, reviewing documents, aligning versions, always with the purpose to serve as humble help for the formulation of national policies that Cubans will do for Cubans. The collaboration has had a character of “learning by doing”, demonstrating the commitment of working together based in respect, and valuing the competences of each member of the team. The result of the collaboration is this tool that serves to keep going in the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Cuba “.

Likewise, the President of the Physical Planning Institute, Samuel Rodiles Planas, emphasized the success of the work when it’s concretized contextualizing the reality of the countries and working as a team with the national counterparts.

Moreover, the meeting was attended by officials, urban planning experts, physical planning institutions and the National Habitat Committee specialists.

The Tool is an advance in the work plan of the Technical Assistance within the project “Support for sustainable urban development programs in Latin America and Central America: Implementation of the New Urban Agenda in Cuba” financed by the Andalusian Agency for International Cooperation for Development.

Source: https://unhabitat.org/un-habitat-presents-tool-for-the-implementation-of-nua-in-cuba/