The New Urban Agenda recognizes the need for adequate and affordable housing within the framework of sustainable urban development. The New Urban Agenda provides an opportunity to achieve the overarching Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal, which calls for the eradication of extreme poverty by 2030 (currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 per day), and goal, which calls for access to adequate housing and basic services and the upgrading of slums. The challenge is how to implement the recommendations of the New Urban Agenda. This is not the first effort to address the global housing agenda, as an earlier attempt, Habitat II, did in fact layout many of the requirements for progress in this sector. However, the extent to which housing achievements were reached was never clearly identified. To make a real difference this time, we need clarifying principles, better strategies, and measurable outcomes.

The NUA document’s implementation guidance can be improved. The document provides a list of principles and anticipated outcomes but lacks an implementable vision that can bring all parts together and inspire action across and within sectors to achieve the “provision of affordable housing options with access to quality basic services and public spaces for all.” A major gap in the vision is the absence of discussion of financing. No meaningful discussion of the implementation of the housing component of the New Urban Agenda is possible without reference to housing finance. Since housing finance is an integral component of the financial system, the linkages to the financial sector and capital markets are essential. Also, implementable strategies should specify who will do what and by what means. In this regard, the division of responsibilities between markets and government, and among the different layers of government needs to be identified.