World Habitat Day

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Closing Ceremony of the Thirteenth Session of the World Urban Forum - WUF13 and handing over to the host of the Fourteenth Session of the World Urban Forum - WUF14. Related Sites and Documents: World Urban Forum Website & Programme . Watch Press - Official Closing Press Conference of WUF13! Conferences

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Organizers: UN-Habitat and State Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture of the Republic of Azerbaijan. This press conference will mark the closing of the thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) and highlight key outcomes and messages from the week. Related Sites and Documents: World Urban Forum Website & Programme . Watch Press - Official Closing Press Conference of WUF13! Conferences

  The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Towards Inclusive, Resilient and Data-Driven Cities. Over the past five decades, urbanization has fundamentally reshaped the global development landscape. Cities have become engines of economic growth, innovation, and cultural exchange, but also focal points of inequality, environmental stress, and vulnerability to climate risks. Since the Habitat I, II and III Conferences, the global community has progressively advanced a shared vision for sustainable urban development, culminating in the adoption of the New Urban Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with Sustainable Development Goal 11 at its core. With less than five years remaining to 2030, the global review of SDG 11 at the 2026 High-Level Political Forum presents a critical opportunity to assess progress, iden...

   The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. The Global Digital Compact (GDC), adopted by Member States in September 2024, marked a landmark moment in digital cooperation. Negotiated by 193 Member States and informed by global consultations, the Compact commits governments to upholding international law and human rights online and to taking concrete steps to make the digital space safe and secure. It renews commitments to close the digital divide and build a more inclusive digital economy. The Compact, for the first time, makes commitments to strengthen governance of data and artificial intelligence (AI). The Compact recognizes the critical contributions of the private sector, technical communities, researchers, and civil society to digital cooperation. It calls on all stakeholders to work toward an open, safe, and secure ...

   The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. How can circular construction deliver housing that reduces resource use while strengthening climate resilience globally?  This session explores the connections between innovative design, material circularity, and resilience thinking to practical housing solutions for cities facing climate and resource pressures. The result of a global architectural competition, House of No Waste (HØW), UNU-FLORES presents a compendium of ideas that challenge the existing boundaries of circularity in buildings and construction and reimagine them. The session highlights innovative housing concepts from the initiative that tap into local waste streams, while reducing primary material use and embodied carbon across the building lifecycle. In dialogue with UN-Habitat's Urban Resilience Hub, the ...

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. How innovative land governance tools and land‑based financing unlock adequate housing and transform informal settlements This session will explore how innovative land governance tools and land-based financing solutions can unlock adequate housing and drive the transformation of informal settlements in rapidly urbanizing contexts. The session positions secure land tenure, effective land management and people centred land tools as key enablers of inclusive, affordable and sustainable housing. Drawing on practical experiences from cities and countries, the session will highlight selected Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) tools such as Fit for Purpose Land Administration, Social Tenure Domain Model (STDM), Participatory and Inclusive Land Readjustment (PILaR), and Tenure Responsive Land Use ...

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Join a bold call to action—where reflection becomes collective action for the next decade of the New Urban Agenda. This session at the UN-Habitat Arena during the World Urban Forum 13 convenes national and local governments, regional bodies, development partners, academia, women, youth, and other key stakeholders to take stock of a decade of implementing the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and to chart the way forward for the next 10 years. Building on the momentum of the upcoming 2026 reporting cycle, the discussion will reflect on experiences with NUA implementation, monitoring, and reporting, with particular attention to lessons learned, best practices, and persistent challenges across different contexts. The session will explore how National Progress Reports (NPRs) have supported countries ...

   The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Across Europe and Central Asia (ECA), cities are at the frontline of agrifood systems transformation. Rapid urbanisation, changing diets, climate pressures, and economic uncertainty are reshaping how food is produced, distributed, governed, and consumed in urban areas. Evidence from FAO-supported urban food systems assessments conducted in 2025 in a number of cities in the region shows that urban food insecurity is rarely driven by lack of supply. Instead, cities face persistent challenges related to the affordability of healthy diets , fragmented governance, inadequate market and cold-chain infrastructure, and weak coordination across food, health, social protection, and urban planning policies. This WUF side event builds on these insights to highlight the critical role of loca...

   The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. How can housing solutions respect Indigenous rights, land, and cultural identity? "Indigenous peoples face significant barriers to their enjoyment of the right to housing compared with non-indigenous peoples. They are more likely to suffer inadequate housing and negative health outcomes as a result, they have disproportionately high rates of homelessness, and they are extremely vulnerable to forced evictions, land-grabbing and the effects of climate change. When they defend their rights, they are often the targets of extreme violence." (Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, 2019). As highlighted above, Indigenous Peoples face persistent and systemic barriers to realizing their right to adequate housing. They experience disproportionately poor housing conditions, ...

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. How can housing systems advance gender equality and empower women in all their diversity? The right to adequate housing is a cornerstone of dignity, health, safety, and inclusion. Yet systemic failures have left billions behind, including in the context of the global housing and climate crises. Women face additional hurdles in accessing adequate housing rooted in intersectional exclusions shaped by cultural, economic, and systemic inequalities. These are compounded for women in situations of marginalization, including female-headed households. The lack of, for example, secure tenure and equal access to land rights, often tied to patriarchal practices and discriminatory legal and policy frameworks, remains a critical obstacle for women and girls in their diversity. The lack of access to...

The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Related Sites and Documents: World Urban Forum Website & Programme . Watch the ONE UN - Why Continue Development and Reconstruction While Conflict Persists? Urban Recovery Insights from the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (WUF13)! Conferences

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. The side event " United for Change: Translating Africa's Urban Position into Transformative Actions" will be convened at the Thirteenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in 2026 as a strategic platform to advance Africa's collective urban agenda. Building on the outcomes of the First Africa Urban Forum (AUF) and in anticipation of the Second Africa Urban Forum (AUF2), the event will focus on operationalizing the African Urban Position by translating it from a shared continental vision into concrete, coordinated, and implementable actions . By bringing together national and local governments, regional institutions, development partners, civil society, academia, and the private sector, the event will foster dialogue, shared learning, and collaboration around integra...

   The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Managing displacement across the humanitarian-development nexus. Internal displacement affects more than 70 million people across 110 countries, with 58% of internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in cities and informal urban settlements where displacement intersects with deficits in housing, land, services, livelihoods, and governance. While humanitarian response remains essential, it is insufficient to address protracted displacement. Durable solutions require integrated approaches that connect humanitarian action with urban development, territorial planning, and peacebuilding within the humanitarian-development-peace (HDP) nexus. This perspective calls for a shift from population-centered responses to approaches grounded in urban systems. Territorial instruments and area...

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Housing remains a neglected dimension of climate adaptation, despite being central to how people experience climate risk and vulnerability. This 90-minute debate addresses a critical blind spot in global climate adaptation: the absence of housing security as an explicit objective within the GGA indicators. The event brings together adaptation experts, indicators specialists and housing and human rights practitioners to examine how current metrics risk undermining the right to adequate housing. The discussion is framed by recent developments under the Paris Agreement. Following the adoption of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience at COP28 and the subsequent UAE-Belém work programme, Parties at CMA 7 in Belém adopted a final list of 59 GGA indicators. Two indicators related to...

  The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. African cities are facing an intensifying urban water crisis driven by climate change, rapid urbanisation, and the expansion of informal settlements. Increasing floods, prolonged droughts, water scarcity, and ecosystem degradation are undermining safe housing, urban services, and inclusive development—particularly in resource constrained and vulnerable communities. This side event will explore water responsive urbanism as a practical and scalable pathway for strengthening urban resilience in Africa. Focusing on sponge city approaches and nature based solutions, the session will examine how cities can integrate water management, climate adaptation, ecosystem restoration, and social inclusion into urban planning and design. By working with natural hydrological processes rather than agai...

   The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. There's no model for an "Arab city", and that's the point. With so much diversity comes a range of approaches to resilience. In a region under a magnifying lens, at an intersection between risk and opportunity, stories of resilience emerge. There is no single model of an "Arab city." From sprawling metropolises like Cairo and Casablanca to compact cities like Muscat or Ramallah, urban centres across the Arab region vary widely in terms of size, geography, economic resources, institutional capacity, and infrastructure. Some are grappling with rapid population growth and informal expansion; others with spatial fragmentation, shrinking services, or the lingering effects of conflict and displacement. Yet despite these differences, one thing unites them: Arab citi...

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. How can we bridge global capacity gaps to deliver adequate and resilient housing everywhere? The delivery of adequate and resilient housing depends on the capacity of professionals to translate policy ambition, investment, and evidence into implementable solutions . Yet across many contexts, particularly low-income, rapidly urbanizing, and climate-vulnerable settings, persistent capacity gaps, regulatory constraints, and uneven access to resources continue to limit housing outcomes on scale. The Professionals Roundtable will convene professional organizations, policymakers, and institutional partners to examine how professional practice can more effectively support inclusive, affordable, well serviced and climate-resilient housing delivery. Structured as a multi-stakeholder dialogue, t...

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. How can community-led action drive housing and climate justice from the ground up? Grassroots and civil society organizations (CSOs) are on the frontlines of responding to the global housing and climate crises. Despite often being under-represented and marginalized in decision-making processes, grassroots movements are breaking down barriers and, through their demonstrated impact and constructive, scalable solutions, are helping shape local and global urban development agendas related to housing, land, and basic services. In this scenario, they play a multifaceted strategic role in generating data, advocating for and presenting alternative models and policy proposals, acting as first responders during crises, protesting, and articulating solutions in response to both individual and com...

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Is Africa's housing challenge the world's next major investment opportunity? The Africa Affordable Housing Compact is a strategic, multi-stakeholder initiative designed to transform Africa's housing sector by driving investment, fostering innovation, and strengthening partnerships. Its core objective is to tackle the continent's severe housing deficit—currently estimated at over 51 million units—by promoting scalable, sustainable, and financially viable affordable housing solutions for urban populations. A central feature of the Compact is its deal platform, which acts as a dynamic connector between investors, accelerators, financial institutions, and high-impact housing projects. This platform will create a robust pipeline of innovative housing solutions and focuses on u...

   The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities.  A new UN-Habitat analysis reveals a major shift in national climate planning, putting cities at the centre: 80 per cent of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0) now include well-developed urban measures, up from 49 per cent in the previous cycle (NDC 2.0). The report, Urban Content in NDC 3.0: Cities at the Centre, analyzed 142 national climate plans submitted to the UNFCCC by mid April , finding that countries are increasingly focusing on cities to help deliver climate goals. Housing, transport, infrastructure, energy, waste management, and other urban services are becoming more visible across national climate strategies as governments move from broad climate ambition toward implementation. The findings suggest that climate implementation is becoming increasingly ...

   The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. To showcase and exchange cross-regional practices that position housing as a central entry point for crisis response, recovery, and resilience, and to identify scalable approaches that bridge humanitarian action with medium to long-term urban development . Across regions affected by conflict, displacement, and climate-related risks, housing has emerged as a central pillar of effective crisis response and long-term recovery. Beyond the immediate provision of shelter, housing plays a critical role in restoring dignity, enabling safe return, fostering social cohesion, and anchoring sustainable urban development. This cross-regional Arena event brings together experiences from the Arab States, Eastern Europe (Azerbaijan), and Latin America and the Caribbean to examine how housing c...

 The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities. Boosting urban climate resilience and sustainable development through integrated slum transformation. In the final Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress on SDG indicator 11.1 ("By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums") has stalled and, in many regions, reversed. Informal settlements already house more than one billion people and, without immediate and decisive action at scale, are projected to grow to three billion residents by 2050. At the same time, climate change is intensifying heat stress, flooding, landslides, water insecurity and health risks, disproportionately affecting residents of informal settlements and deepening existing housing and inequality gaps. With hou...