Junior Mbangala
Student spotlight details
During the second year of his DPhil in Sustainable Urban Development, Junior Mbangala worked at the United Nations in New York, highlighting the importance of global governance for sustainable cities.
Between January and March 2026, I had the opportunity to spend three months working with the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the United Nations in New York. As someone who studies global urban challenges from an academic perspective, this was a nice opportunity to see how global governance works in practice and how international diplomacy shapes the future of urban development.
I worked with diplomats, supporting their missions in various UN bodies and commissions. At the UN, I was primarily following discussions on sustainable development and financing for development – topics closely related to my doctoral research. One of the defining moments of my time at the UN was attending the 2026 ECOSOC Partnership Forum, where global leaders and stakeholders came together to advance bold, equitable, and coordinated action for the 2030 Agenda. I observed negotiations first-hand, and it made it clear to me that the SDGs are not static ambitions. They are living commitments, constantly reviewed, debated and reinterpreted in response to new crises and emerging realities. This is particularly relevant as the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) 2026 approaches. The forum, which serves as the UN’s central platform for reviewing progress on the 2030 Agenda, will focus this year on five goals of direct importance to urban futures: SDG 6 (Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).
I had the opportunity to meet Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, and reflect on the role of sustainable energy in creating more inclusive and resilient urban futures. My own research focuses on energy in cities, so it was especially meaningful to engage with conversations linking SDGs 7, 9 and 11. In an era marked by energy insecurity, rising costs and climate pressures, rethinking urban energy planning has become essential. What struck me most at the UN was that these issues are not discussed only as technical challenges. They are also diplomatic questions: questions of cooperation, finance, political will and fairness between countries at different stages of development.
New York City also introduced me to new ways of thinking about urban power and planning. Through conversations with Meisha Hunter, President of ICOMOS ISC Water & Heritage and Senior Historic Preservationist and Planner at Li/Saltzman Architects in New York, I revisited classic debates through Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Robert Caro’s The Power Broker. These works remain powerful reminders that cities are shaped not only by design, but by politics, institutions and competing visions of who urban space should serve.
Throughout the placement, I had the chance to exchange ideas with diplomat-scholars such as Dr Yolanda Spies, Academic Director of the Diplomatic Studies programme here at the University of Oxford. These conversations reinforced something I increasingly believe: academia and diplomacy need one another. Researchers bring evidence, long-term thinking and critical analysis. Diplomats bring negotiation skills, coalition-building and the ability to translate ideas into international commitments. Neither sphere can solve global sustainability challenges alone.
As governments gather in July 2026 to review progress on the SDGs, the stakes are high. Climate disruption, housing pressures, inequality and geopolitical fragmentation all threaten progress. My experience in New York, combined with my DPhil research, convinced me that sustainable cities will not be built only through local planning decisions or technological innovation. They will also depend on global conversations, international cooperation, and the ability to connect ideas across disciplines.
