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. Co-hosted by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, this session focuses on expanding access to finance at the subnational level to address critical urban infrastructure needs. As cities continue to grow, municipal governments, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, face investment requirements that far exceed available public and development finance, underscoring the need for stronger fiscal frameworks and greater use of commercial and repayable financing. The session will examine the key constraints that limit municipal access to finance and explore practical policy and institutional solutions to address them. Drawing on World Bank Group's analytical work, the discussion will highlight reforms to strengthen municipal creditworthiness, improve enabling environment...

  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. What will unlock private capital to finance adequate housing at scale? The business roundtable examines adequate housing for all through the lens of long-term capital deployment, asset resilience, and delivery risk. It brings together investors, developers, and financial institutions with public actors, international financial institutions and urban experts to examine how housing finance can support both stable returns and durable housing outcomes. Participants will explore enabling conditions and solutions, examining how risk, return expectations, regulatory frameworks, and resilience considerations interact across the housing construction value chain.  Discussions will address how climate-related risks are already influencing underwriting, insurance availability, operating cost...