From Commitment to Impact - Advancing Quality of Life in Cities as One

“From Commitment to Impact - Advancing Quality of Life in Cities as ONE” brings together all the United Nations Regional Commissions and UN-Habitat as ONE to advance a shared, coherent understanding of quality of life in cities. In the context of rapid urbanization, housing pressures, climate and environmental stress, and growing social and spatial inequalities, the session positions quality of life as an integrative, people-centered framework that connects urban policies, planning, and investment to residents’ lived experiences and well-being. Building on system-wide interregional collaboration, the event continues the discussion that started on the topic among regional commissions at WUF12 and provides a platform to explore unified interregional perspectives on quality of life in cities, highlighting both common challenges and region-specific priorities. It will present and debate key insights from a joint interregional paper on quality of life in cities, developed collaboratively by all United Nations Regional Commissions and UN-Habitat, offering shared concepts and policy-relevant messages to support cities and national governments in operationalizing quality of life within urban development processes. To ground these perspectives in practice, the session will feature city-level experiences from cities piloting the Global Quality of Life Initiative launched by UN-Habitat in 2023 and sponsored by the Quality of Life Program of Saudi Arabia. These experiences will demonstrate how quality of life framework, indicators, and data are being applied to inform local decision-making, prioritize investments, address inequalities, and strengthen urban resilience. Through this combination of interregional analysis and local practice, the event illustrates how cities, regions, and the United Nations system can move decisively from commitment to impact in advancing quality of life for all. The proposed event aims to: - Explore unified interregional perspectives on quality of life in cities across all United Nations Regional Commissions. - Launch a joint interregional paper on quality of life in cities and present key interregional insights. - Showcase practical city-level experiences from cities piloting the Global Quality of Life Initiative. - Strengthen interregional and multi-level collaboration to support the scaling and replication of effective practices. - Position quality of life as a strategic and operational framework for urban policy and planning.