Harnessing Public-Private Cooperation to Deliver the New Urban Agenda

The report examines the challenges of rapid global urbanization and the role of the private sector in delivering sustainable urban infrastructure and services. It advocates for a shift from traditional public-sector-led delivery to a 'penta helix' model involving government, private sector, academia, civil society, and citizens. The document provides a taxonomy of actions for the public sector—such as adopting life-cycle cost approaches and flexible procurement—and the private sector—such as proactive engagement and realistic project evaluation. It also analyzes the convergence of the New Urban Agenda with other global frameworks like the SDGs, COP21, and the Sendai Framework, while offering case studies from cities like Dubai, Melbourne, and Fukuoka to illustrate successful public-private integration.

• Global urbanization is a massive trend with more than 55 percent of the world population already in urban areas, a figure projected to reach 70 percent by the middle of the 21st century.
• The private sector is identified as being better prepared than government agencies to drive urban transformation across the entire urban value chain, including policy-making, planning, design, implementation, operation, maintenance, and monitoring.
• The New Urban Agenda is based on three guiding principles: ending poverty in all forms to leave no one behind, ensuring sustainable and inclusive urban economies, and ensuring environmental sustainability.
• Public-private cooperation can address municipal budget deficits and provide additional capital; the private sector contributed approximately US$ 120 billion annually to global urban infrastructure projects over the last decade.
• To improve outcomes, the public sector is encouraged to adopt a life-cycle approach to assets, considering total costs and returns from acquisition to disposal rather than focusing on short-term payback.
• The report highlights the potential of the circular and sharing economies to decouple consumption from resource constraints and optimize the use of underutilized assets in cities.
• Effective public-private partnerships require a stable legal and regulatory framework characterized by simplicity, integrity, and certainty to mitigate the risk of unexpected changes in project objectives.
• The report emphasizes that trust and ethical behavior are the primary determinants of how the private sector and citizens respond to public sector initiatives, noting that corruption can add up to 25% to the cost of procurement contracts in developing countries.
• Disruptive technologies, such as big data and networked sensors, allow cities to create actionable intelligence to improve services, as seen in the 'Smart Dubai' and 'Smart Nation' (Singapore) initiatives.
• The New Urban Agenda overlaps and synergizes with other global frameworks: the SDGs (specifically Goal 11), COP21 (limiting temperature increase to 2C), the Sendai Framework (disaster risk management), and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (financing sustainable development).

APA

World Economic Forum (2017). Harnessing Public-Private Cooperation to Deliver the New Urban Agenda. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harnessing_Public-Private_Cooperation_to_Deliver_the_New_Urban_Agenda_2017.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Harnessing Public-Private Cooperation to Deliver the New Urban Agenda. 2017. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harnessing_Public-Private_Cooperation_to_Deliver_the_New_Urban_Agenda_2017.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Harnessing Public-Private Cooperation to Deliver the New Urban Agenda |date=February 2017 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harnessing_Public-Private_Cooperation_to_Deliver_the_New_Urban_Agenda_2017.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2017harnessing, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Harnessing Public-Private Cooperation to Deliver the New Urban Agenda}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2017}, month = feb, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harnessing_Public-Private_Cooperation_to_Deliver_the_New_Urban_Agenda_2017.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }