A UN panel, appointed by António Guterres, the Secretary-General, has recommended that 'UN Urban' be established as a coordinating mechanism similar to UN-Water or UN-Energy, as part of system-wide UN reform.

The High Level Independent Panel's report says that UN-Habitat–the UN programme mandated in 1978 by UN General Assembly to address the issues of urban growth–"has limitations in accountability, transparency and efficiency, that its resources have been inadequate, insecure and unpredictable, and that the need to chase funds has caused it to stray from its normative mandate".

The panel said that these challenges have compromised the ability of UN-Habitat and the wider UN system to respond nimbly and effectively to rapid global change.

Guterres' spokesman said that the Secretary-General has found the proposed establishment of 'UN Urban' in line with his own proposals for the reform of the organisation's development system.