Linking UN-Habitat and universities: Harnessing the potential of knowledge partnerships

Information and data are pervasive aspects of the way in which we manage cities and how billions of urban dwellers go about their everyday lives. Knowledge-intensive partnerships are critical for urban development worldwide. UN-Habitat has recognized this seeking to position itself as “center of excellence and innovation” and “a thought leader” in sustainable urbanization. Engagement with one of the prime knowledge industries, academia, is well recognized as central to this mission. UN-Habitat has collaborated, experimented, and engaged with university partnerships across a vast array of programs. Yet, this variety has to date, lacked clear and systematic identification as to its modalities, challenges,
and possibilities. This is where this report comes in, gathering evidence with the explicit task of providing UNHabitat with an assessment of both challenges and opportunities to strengthen university partnerships. This report also takes a deeper dive into one such formal and explicitly university-focused initiative, that of Habitat UNI, as UN-Habitat’s “main mechanism for partnerships with
academia,” seeking to input explicitly into its direction.