About half of the world’s population are living in cities. Rapid urbanization puts pressure on urban infrastructure and labor markets, also contributes to environmental degradation, and speeds up the instability of construction projects and dwellings. Climate change is yet another cause that will harm the stability of cities. A solid and global plan on how to tackle urban planning is therefore much needed, which is why the New Urban Agenda was endorsed by the UN in 2016.

Perhaps as an early Christmas gift to the international community rooting for a cross-sectoral solution on combatting climate change, HSBC has announced its commitment to establish the world’s first bond. As explained by HSBC themselves, the bond is closely linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Following seven selected SDG targets, HSBC will fund 1 billion USD through the bond and thus financially support projects set out to increase the sustainable well-being of communities and the environment.

On 30 November 2017, the ISET Policy Institute hosted a High-Level Education Action Event which was the third in a series of education policy dialogues focused on general education. This time, the event was held in partnership with UNICEF and the World Bank, as well as with key SDG 4 stakeholders to drive a new push for inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

After hitting an all-time high in JUN-17, the GEO real property market slowed down in JUL-17 (-13.8% MoM), but gradually recovered during the next two months: AUG-17 (+6.5% MoM) and SEP-17 (+3.8% MoM). Despite the slowdown, with a total of 24 848 property sales, the GEO market in Q3 2017 grew by 0.7% compared to the previous quarter, and 5.9% against Q3 2016.

On 14 July 2017, ENPARD implementing organisation CARE and its partner ISET Policy Institute (ISET-PI), in cooperation with other ENPARD implementing partners (Oxfam, Mercy Corps, People in Need and UNDP Adjara) presented the results of ENPARD Cooperatives Survey, which assesses the performance of EU-supported cooperatives for the period 2014-2016.