Making cities safe and sustainable means ensuring access to safe and affordable housing, and upgrading slum settlements. It involves investment in basic services such as safe drinking water and sanitation, nutritious food, healthcare and family planning, education, culture and access to communication technologies. It also involves investment in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning and management in a way that is both participatory and inclusive.
The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, to which our Heads of State and Governments committed themselves in September 2015 at the United Nations, provides a framework aimed at gathering our energies and resources to achieve a life of dignity for all. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) name specific areas of our life that need action in order to make this aspiration a reality.
This document highlights the reflections of Sisters in the Congregation of Jesus (CJ) and Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM) who have contributed to our deeper understanding of SDG 11. We wish to thank Una Coogan IBVM; Theodora Hawskley CJ; Rachel McLoughlin IBVM; Sandra Perrett IBVM and those in Sydney, Australia who contributed to the response; Eunice Njeri Ndabih IBVM and Clemenciah Nyakambi IBVM and all from Kenya and Ghana who contributed to the Eastern Africa response; Priyanka Topno IBVM; and Ursula Witkowska IBVM.
Read the Reflections on Sustainable Development Goal 11 – Sustainable Cities
In the planning and designing of new communities, housing projects, and urban renewal, the planners both private and public, need to give explicit consideration to the kind of world that is being created for the children who will be growing up in these settings.
