CLGF Pacific Regional Director, Mrs Karibaiti Taoaba was invited by UNESCAP to be a rapporteur at the plenary session of the Asia Pacific Urban Forum in Jakarta from 19-20 October, to report on key messages and themes of the plenary around people centred approaches to inclusive and sustainable urban development.

The Asia- Pacific Urban Forum (APUF) is a multi-stakeholders forum organised periodically every 4-5 years by the United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) with the aim to provide a regional platform for urban actors to:

1. Discuss emerging and critical urban development issues from the perspective of different stakeholders
2. Share experiences on good practices and approaches
3. Explore cooperation opportunities and links to regional and global processes and development objectives.

The sixth Asia Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-6) was conducted by UNESCAP in Jakarta, Indonesia from the 19-21 October preceding the Asia-Pacific High level Regional Preparatory meeting to Habitat III for Asia-Pacific which was convened by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia from 22-23 October 2015. The two meetings were held back to back.

APUF-6 was guided by the theme “Sustainable Urban Development in Asia and Pacific: Towards a New Urban Agenda". The discussions at the plenary and side sessions were focused on the following:

1. New emerging issues and challenges related to sustainable urban development in Asia-Pacific, and in particular priority areas that should be addressed in the Post-2015 Development Agenda;
2. The recommendations to the High –level Regional Preparatory Meeting for Habitat III for Asia-Pacific in terms of priority issues for the region to be considered for inclusion in the “New Urban Agenda”.

The outcome of APUF-6 was submitted to the High Level Regional Preparatory meeting to be discussed by member states. Both outcomes of the APUF-6 and the High Level Regional Preparatory meetings will go into the Habitat III preparatory processes.

CLGF Pacific Regional Director, Mrs Karibaiti Taoaba was  a rapporteur at the plenary session to reflect on key messages and themes of the plenary particularly in regards to people centred approaches to inclusive and sustainable urban development. Rapporteurs were also asked to contribute their professional experience in identifying additional themes and issues not captured directly by the panellists.

The CLGF Pacific Regional Director also used the opportunity to put forward some of the key resolutions from the Pacific Urban Forum: 'Towards a New Urban Agenda: Harnessing Opportunities in a Post-2015 Environment' which was held in March, 2015 in Nadi, Fiji. She requested for the inclusion of the Pacific Urban Forum outcomes statement to be included as an annex to the APUF-6.

Attending the meetings from the Pacific were representatives from the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Kiribati. The three Pacific countries were also present at the High-Level Regional Preparatory Meeting to Habitat III for Asia-Pacific. Here they presented their national statements on urban issues together with Papua New Guinea. PNG also included the key resolutions from the Pacific Urban Forum in its country statement whichbrought attention to the fact that the Pacific has small, but rapidly growing populations, and that their land area is also small and fragmented across considerable areas of the Pacific Ocean. PNGs presentation stated that the Pacific is unique and diverse and requested on behalf of the Pacific for the inclusion of key resolutions from the Pacific New Urban Agenda. PNG was supported by representatives from Kiribati and Solomon Islands during their country presentations.

The APUF-6 meeting aggreed to the New Pacific Urban Agenda that came out from PUF-4 meeting in Nadi in March this year being an annex to APUF-6 outcome document.