UN General Assembly Completes New Urban Agenda Review at New York Meeting

The United Nations General Assembly held its high-level midterm review of the New Urban Agenda on July 16 and 17, 2026, at UN Headquarters in New York. The meeting assessed progress and challenges since the agenda was adopted in 2016 and focused on delivering sustainable urbanization for all while accelerating implementation through 2036.

The review was informed by the U.N. secretary-general’s 2026 implementation report and followed the 13th World Urban Forum in Baku in May. UN-Habitat said priorities carried into the review included housing investment, cooperation across levels of government, climate-responsive urban development, monitoring and partnerships.

The review is the main international checkpoint on the agenda’s implementation and could shape global housing, urban-governance and climate-resilience priorities for the next decade. An elements paper for a planned political declaration said more than 160 countries had adopted or were developing national urban policies.

The meeting overview does not identify a final adopted political declaration or specific new country commitments. The stated next phase is continued implementation toward 2036, with governments and urban partners using the review’s priorities to guide that work.