Exploring global spaces of decision-making 
About the World Urban Forum 9
In February 2018, a team of GLI Policy Analysts attended the World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This event takes place every two years bringing together multiple stakeholders to discuss and share knowledge about the goals for sustainable urban development. Addressing the theme, “Cities 2030, Cities for All: Implementing the New Urban Agenda,” WUF9 builds on the resolution of Habitat III when 167 countries agreed the New Urban Agenda, which sets a common vision and global standards for sustainable urban development in the coming decades.
The team was made up of Sadia Amin (PGT, Urban Studies and Planning); Michael Berry (Undergraduate, Politics); Francis Clay (PGT, Urban Studies and Planning); Xiaowen Dai (PGT, Urban Studies and Planning); Nusha Haghpanah (PGT, Politics); Sandra Kundeya (PGT, Geography); Ashwini Maheswaran Foster (Undergraduate, Politics) and Alice Preston-Jones (PGT, Urban Studies and Planning).
They were joined by Dr Gabriel Silvestre and Dr Zheng Wang from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
"One of the highlights of my time at the WUF9 was the variety of the voices that were present at the talks. In particular, at a talk from local government officials in South Africa about the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, members of the audience were critical of their approach. This was significant to me because it was important not to take everything at face value and have people and organisations that voice a critical opinion and scrutinise," Nusha Haghpanah, GLI Participant
Policy Briefs:
Ashwini Maheswaran Foster - Water and the New Urban Agenda – Tapping into the importance of partnerships between local government and NGOs
Sadia Amin - Blurring the formal-informal dichotomy: Is self-help the answer
Sandra Kundeya - Youth empowerment and sustainable development
Xiaowen Dai – Spatial Planning and Gender Equality: Challenges of Creating Safe Cities for Women and Girls
Alice Preston-Jones - Three Pathways for Urban Change
Francis Clay - Right to the City: Flipping planning on its head
Michael Berry - Squaring the circle
Nusha Haghpanah - Integrating migrants and refugees
Blogs:
Sustainable Urbanisation and Economic Development: Youth on the move to make the dream a living reality - Sandra Kundeya
Steering Clear from Difficult Conversations – Welcome to WUF9 - Sadia Amin
Faraway, So Close! Is the World Urban Forum Bridging Differences and Building Collaborations? - Francis Clay
The Smart City Paradigm is “coming whether you like it or not” - Alice Preston-Jones
Can the New Urban Agenda move from Rhetoric to Reality? - The GLI Team
Traffic Jams the World Urban Forum - Michael Berry
Implementing the NUA - Can we use Big Data to Create Safer Public Places for Girls and Women? - Xiaowen Dai
Has the WUF9 Gone Far Enough to Move on the ‘What’ to the ‘How’? - Nusha Haghpanah
About the Global Leadership Initiative
The Global Leadership Initiative (GLI) offers Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught students from the Faculty of Social Sciences the opportunity to attend major international summits taking place during the academic year. Accompanied by academic staff, small groups of approximately 8 students will actively engage in these meetings, providing an opportunity for students to gain first-hand experience of international policy debates at the highest level and produce outputs visible to an international audience thereby enhancing their research skills and employability.