In September 2015 all 193 UN member states adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, a universal framework with 169 targets tracked by a set of global indicators. Unlike the earlier Millennium Development Goals, the SDGs applied to every country, rich and poor, and integrated economic, social and environmental aims. SDG 11 set an explicit goal for inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements. Urban targets were tied to wider goals on climate, poverty, water, energy and inequality.
It set the overarching global development framework within which urban policy is now measured, reported and financed. SDG 11 and the linked New Urban Agenda placed cities firmly inside that indicator-driven, internationally monitored agenda.