The need for new alliances between urban, peri-urban and rural areas ? Towards integrated territorial planning

Both the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda stress the need to revisit urban-rural linkages and approaches to territorial planning. In the framework of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, SDG 11 dedicated to cities call on urban players to 'support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, per-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning' (target 11A). Member States have thus acknowledged, when considering cities, the importance of urban-rural linkages and called for an integrated approach to territorial development that would take into account both urban and rural areas. A call reiterated a year later in Quito, as the New Urban Agenda insists on the importance for territorial planning to work a continuum between urban and rural areas.

The side event will precisely focus on this necessity to renew territorial planning approaches, turning away from the opposition between urban and rural areas to promote and build new solidarities between territories, without forgetting 'the fringes', that is peri-urban areas. In the recent years, France has developed a number of strategies and tools to enhance integrated territorial planning, targeting large cities and their hinterland, intermediary cities, and rural areas. In the framework of international cooperation, French players have also supported a number of projects aiming at improving urban development processes and fostering positive alliances with their surroundings. In this way, this side event will put forward concrete practices contributing to the implementation of the SGDs and the New Urban Agenda.