The position of Cultural Heritage in the New Urban Agenda A preliminary analysis prepared for ICOMOS Andrew Potts October 21, 2016

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1 The position of Cultural Heritage in the New Urban Agenda A preliminary analysis prepared for ICOMOS Andrew Potts October 21, 2016 It s official: world leaders have adopted the United Nation s New Urban Agenda, which sets a new global standard for sustainable urban development and aims to help the world rethink how it plans, manages and lives in cities. In the words of the United Nations, the New Urban Agenda is roadmap for building cities that can serve as engines of prosperity and centres of cultural and social well-being while protecting the environment. The Agenda also provides guidance for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and provides the underpinning for actions to address climate change. After four iterations and months of negotiations, the New Urban Agenda was adopted at the Third UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (also known as Habitat 3) which met in Quito, Ecuador from October Habitat 3 was one of the largest inter-governmental meetings ever held, attracting 25,000 attendees including representatives of over 2000 local governments. Overview The New Urban Agenda (or NUA ) is meant to guide urban development for the next two decades. It seeks to be ambitious and calls upon the parties to make transformative commitments through an urban paradigm shift grounded in the integrated and indivisible

2 dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic, and environmental. (NUA, Section 24). It commits the parties to urban and rural development that is people-centered and to promote culture and respect for diversity, and equality as key elements in the humanization of our cities and human settlements (Section 26). ICOMOS applauds these developments, which are in-line with ICOMOS doctrines on sustainability, including the 2011 Paris Declaration on Heritage as a Driver of Development. Last year the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets. The SDGs broke new ground by giving explicit recognition in a high level development charter to the fundamental role that heritage and culture play in human development. The unprecedented, bold treatment of heritage in the SDGs reflects its critical role in the emerging paradigm shift to a concept of development that views sustainability in more humanistic and ecological terms. The NUA of the New Urban Agenda reinforces this shift and correspondingly acknowledges a role for cultural heritage in urban matters that is also unprecedented, especially when viewed against the outcomes of the 1976 and 1996 UN Habitat conferences. Key dimensions of the New Urban Agenda include commitments to: Provide basic services for all citizens (These services include: access to housing, safe drinking water and sanitation, nutritious food, healthcare and family planning, education, culture and access to communication technologies). Ensure that all citizens have access to equal opportunities and face no discrimination (Everyone has the right to benefit from what their cities offer. The New Urban Agenda calls on city authorities to take into account the needs of women, people with disabilities, marginalized groups, older persons, indigenous people, among other groups.) Promote measures that support cleaner cities (Tackling air pollution in cities is good both for people s health and for the planet. In the Agenda, leaders have committed to increase their use of renewable energy, provide better and greener public transport, and sustainably manage their natural resources.) Strengthen resilience in cities to reduce the risk and the impact of disasters (Many cities have felt the impact of natural disasters and leaders have now committed to implement mitigation and adaptation measures to minimize these impacts. Some of these measures include: better urban planning, quality infrastructure and improving local responses.) Take action to address climate change by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions (Leaders have committed to involve not just the local government but all actors of society to take climate action taking into account the Paris 2

3 Agreement on climate change which seeks to limit the increase in global temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius. Sustainable cities that reduce emissions from energy and build resilience can play a lead role.) Fully respect the rights of refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons regardless of their migration status (Leaders have recognized that migration poses challenges but it also brings significant contributions to urban life. Because of this, they have committed to establish measures that help migrants, refugees and IDPs make positive contributions to societies.) Improve connectivity and support innovative and green initiatives (This includes establishing partnerships with businesses and civil society to find sustainable solutions to urban challenges). Promote safe, accessible and green public spaces (Human interaction should be facilitated by urban planning, which is why the Agenda calls for an increase in public spaces such as sidewalks, cycling lanes, gardens, squares and parks. Sustainable urban design plays a key role in ensuring the livability and prosperity of a city). For those that work with the landscapes and the built environment, a core accomplishment of the NUA is that, for the first time, an internationally negotiated document calls for compact cities, polycentric growth, mixed-use streetscapes, prevention of sprawl and transit-oriented development. Historic cities and settlements, with their mixed uses, human scale, density and vibrancy, are typically models for just this vision of urbanization. As such, the adoption of the NUA should further valorize both the safeguarding of existing historic areas and the regard they are given as reference models for new development. Summary of Key Heritage-Related Provisions Although the role of culture and heritage in urban sustainability could have been more coherently addressed, these themes are given an important voice in the New Urban Agenda. First, the key themes it embraces including disaster risk reduction, climate change, public spaces, migration and others reflect topics in which the role of heritage is profoundly implicated. Moreover, the NUA expressly commits the parties to sustainably leverage natural and cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, in cities and human settlements through integrated urban and territorial policies and adequate investments (Section 38). By linking cultural and natural heritage, by acknowledging heritage in its multiplicity of forms, and by highlighting the role heritage plays in both the spatial and social qualities of cities, the NUA establishes a strong, comprehensive and progressive role for heritage in urban development. 3

4 The NUA is weak, however, in the treatment of some of the key ways in which heritage intersects with the urban agenda. This is especially the case when it comes to the role of heritage in resilience (including disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and ecological sustainability). The document largely fails to recognize the important of landscapes approaches (although the word does appear in the document) and the inter-linkages of natural and cultural values. Some of these issues seem to result from the decision to not expressly correlate the NUA to the UN SDGs. As a result, gaps exist between the NUA and the cultural heritage target contained in the UN s urban Sustainable Development Goal (SDG Target 11.4). As to other, important specific cultural heritage provisions, the NUA: Contains valuable language on the need to safeguard heritage, including a call to preserve cultural heritage in both urban extensions and infill, a call for strategic development policies that safeguard a diverse range of tangible and intangible cultural heritage and landscapes, and a commitment to protect heritage from potential disruptive impacts of urban development. Lacks a strong organizational correlation to SDG Target 11.4 (the cultural heritage target within the Urban Goal) and in some cases a substantive correlation which may complicate coordinating implementation, localization and monitoring of the heritage elements of Agenda 2030 in the future. Contains the beginnings of an acknowledgement of urban landscape approaches (including urban-rural linkages and ecosystem conservation), while lacking a mature treatment of the topic (with notable gaps around the acknowledgement of the inter-linkages of nature and culture and the need for participatory, stakeholder driven identification of heritage values and elements in cities and human settlements). Speaks to the social aspects of cultural heritage, albeit with a particular focus on civic participation and responsibility to the exclusion of an express treatment of the role of heritage in social cohesion and inclusion (based on shared identity, pride in and attachment to place, and social integration), which would have better correlated the NUA to SDG Goal 11. Well expresses the role of cultural heritage as a driver for social mobility, equity and inclusive economic development in the urban economy, with useful linkages made to territorial development, creative industries, sustainable tourism, and performing arts. Contains several unambiguous calls for better incorporation of culture into spatial planning including as a priority component of urban plans and strategies, without though making explicit what is implicit in the NUA: the historic quarters are proven templates for new development. 4

5 Mostly fails to address the role of cultural heritage in resiliency (including climate change adaptation, ecological sustainability, and disaster risk reduction), although a new provision encourages the adaptive reuse of historic buildings where appropriate. Fails to address cultural heritage in particular in the Means of Implementation section. Earlier language on conducting a comprehensive inventory and/or mapping of heritage assets was deleted and requested language on financial and other tools was not added. Next Steps With NUA adopted, attention will turn to implementation, localization and measurement. This will fall in many cases to national governments and local authorities, with technical and financial partnerships and assistance from the private sector, stakeholders and civil society. Key issues are expected to include Urban Rules and Regulations, Urban Planning and Design and Municipal Finance. The development of indicators and metrics will also be important. The NUA leaves implementation to individual countries and provides that NUA progress reporting is voluntary. It does however state that follow-up and review should encompass the broadest possible scope and calls upon civil society to participate in country-led, open, inclusive, multi-level, participatory, and transparent follow-up and review of the New Urban Agenda through a continuous process aimed at creating and reinforcing partnerships among all relevant stakeholders and fostering exchanges of urban solutions and mutual learning. The summer of 2018 is expected to be a key point of reflection. Possibly in July of that year, both the first UN Habitat quadrennial progress report on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the first UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) in-depth review of the progress towards implementation of the Urban SDG (Goal 11) targets are expected to occur. This timing coincides with ICOMOS s scientific program, which has declared 2018 to be the year of sustainability. About ICOMOS ICOMOS is deeply committed to the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage including monuments and sites. The consideration of cultural heritage conservation with sustainable development has come about due to a number of conditions, challenges, and opportunities in the current socio-economic, environmental, and political context all of which must influence approaches to heritage conservation. We now live in what has been termed the urban century, and increasingly heritage has an urban face. 5

6 A series of ICOMOS initiatives and actions to promote tangible and intangible cultural heritage as a vital aspect of social development and sustainability informs these comments. Of particular important is the ICOMOS Symposium held in Paris in 2011 in anticipation of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (the Rio+20 Conference) that resulted in the Paris Declaration on "Heritage as a Driver of Development." Earlier efforts began with the ICOMOS conference held at Moscow and Suzdal in Russia (1978), one of the sub-themes of which was Historical Monuments as a Support to Economic and Social Development. The ICOMOS Valletta Principles for the Safeguarding and Management of Historic Cities, Towns and Urban Areas (2011) is another key text. Also informing this Analysis are a number of international initiatives and actions on culture and sustainable development undertaken in recent years. High level documents on culture and development in the last half decade including the Creative Economy Reports (2013), World Report: Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue (UNESCO 2009), the Rio+20 post 2015 agenda document, (2012), the Hangzhou Declaration (2013), Declaration of the 3 rd UNESCO World Forum on Culture and the Cultural Industries (UNESCO 2014a), and Culture 21: Actions: Commitments on the Role of Culture in Sustainable Cities (UCLG 2014), have contributed to an enormous diversity of practical approaches and solutions. MORE INFORMATION: Andrew POTTS (andrew.potts@icomos.org) and Dr. (Ms) Ayse Ege YILDIRIM (ege@aegeyildirim.com), ICOMOS Focal Point for the UN SDG Process Jeff SOULE, ICOMOS Focal Point for the World Urban Campaign, jsoule@planning.org 6