UN-Habitat and MOHURD Co-Host Urban Renewal Knowledge Exchange on Community-Led Design

In May 2024, UN-Habitat and China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development co-hosted a bilateral knowledge exchange in Chengdu focused on community-led urban renewal methodologies. The forum brought together municipal planners from 12 Chinese cities and practitioners from Colombia, Kenya, and Vietnam to compare participatory frameworks—including co-design workshops, resident mapping initiatives, and iterative prototyping of public space upgrades. Discussions emphasized institutional mechanisms enabling long-term resident stewardship beyond project completion, such as neighborhood cooperatives and maintenance endowment funds. No binding protocols were issued, but shared principles emerged around transparency in decision-making timelines, equitable access to design capacity-building, and documentation of intangible social assets during baseline surveys. Reports indicate increased interest among local governments in piloting hybrid governance models that formally integrate resident collectives into planning approval workflows. The exchange forms part of a broader effort to contextualize global participatory standards within China’s evolving urban regeneration policy landscape, avoiding one-size-fits-all templates.