IIED at WUF13
IIED and partners hosted and participated in several events at the World Urban Forum from 17-22 May in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The Flame Towers in downtown Baku, Azerbaijan (Photo: Adil Sattarov via Unsplash)
The World Urban Forum (WUF) is a global conference on sustainable urbanisation. It was established by the United Nations in 2001 to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.
It is attended by representatives of national, regional and local governments; academics; business people; community leaders; urban planners; and civil society representatives.
The theme of the 13th World Urban Form (WUF13) was 'housing the world: safe and resilient cities and communities'. Held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the event highlighted the urgent need to address the global housing crisis and position housing as a driver of inclusive, resilient and sustainable urban development.
IIED was at WUF13 to discuss and debate ways to secure housing justice for all, including people living in informal settlements and displaced peoples. Community-led evidence is crucial for understanding the needs of these diverse groups. Securing the right to adequate housing requires policies and financing that put them at the centre.
Exhibition stand: Habitat Village
In 2026, IIED was a convening partner of the Habitat Village, a collaborative initiative involving a consortium of partners that span civil society organisations, academic institutions and grassroots movements, committed to advancing just, equitable and sustainable cities.
The Habitat Village offered a space to facilitate exchange, networking and collective reflection on effective strategies for advancing locally-led visions of sustainable urban living and fulfilling the right to housing and a clean environment.
Events
Sunday, 17 May
Grassroots and civil society organisations assembly: opening session
Assembly
Hosted by: UN-Habitat
Speakers included: Alexandre Apsan Frediani (IIED)
In a scenario of increasingly difficult conditions for the mobilisation of grassroots and civil society organisations, coupled with the worsening effects of the global housing and climate crises, the WUF13 civil society organisation and grassroots assembly seeks to be a space of solidarity, strategising and coordination for joint action with local and meaningful impact.
The assembly surfaced concrete solutions and propositions related to grassroots action in advancing the human right to adequate housing. These fed into the WUF13 grassroots and civil society roundtable which comprised discussions with states, local authorities and other actors in relation to the new urban agenda, Sustainable Development Goals and local obligations and commitments.
The assembly built upon the collective momentum and coordination of grassroots groups and civil society before and leading up to WUF13 by connecting emerging proposals, tangible solutions and organising strategies to realise global solidarity and change for adequate housing.
The session was conducted in three main segments: articulating collective priorities identified in the lead-up to WUF13; discussing strategic national and regional alliances, coalitions and partnerships for advocacy and action; and devising concrete ideas to reimagine a future that realises the right to adequate housing.
Tuesday, 19 May
Youth, housing & informality dialogue
Hosted by: IIED, University of Sheffield, ACHR, UCLG
Speakers: Camila Cociña (IIED), Stephanie Butcher (University of Sheffield), Ursula Jasper (Fondation Botnar), Lajana Manandhar (ACHR), Samuel Okechukwu (Media4change, Nigeria), Antoine Agossou (HaZoBiT, Benin), Abednego Chanda (KYC-TV Zambia), Anne Wambui Wanjira (SDI-Kenya), Nsiimo Joan (ACTogether Uganda), Meena Ahirwar (IIHS India), Mohd Aamir (IIHS India), Shanti Ram (Lumanti, Nepal), Aishwarya Gupta (Hunnarshala, India)
A cross-regional dialogue brought together youth from informal settlements in Africa and Asia. Through video storytelling, case studies, and moderated discussion, participants shared experiences of organising, advocacy, and community action.
The session explored how youth movements strengthen housing justice and identifies ways institutions can better support youth-led initiatives.
Adequate and affordable housing takes shape – redefining the global housing continuum
Hosted by: IIED, Habitat for Humanity, United Cities and Local Governments, UN-Habitat
Speakers: Alexandre Apsan Frediani (IIED), Ombretta Tempra (UN-Habitat), Yves-Laurent Sapoval (Ministry of Ecological Transition – France), Mikkel Harder (Slum Dwellers International), Solomon Green (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy), Rocio Lombera (United Cities and Local Governments), Maria Carrizosa (Habitat for Humanity International)
This session introduced Habitat for Humanity’s new research on the global housing continuum, offering a practical framework for understanding the full range of affordable housing options that range from homelessness to transitional, incremental and social to market-enabled housing.
Through a focused presentation and insights from leaders across government, civil society and development agencies, the event demonstrated how continuum-based thinking can strengthen policy design, guide smarter investment and improve housing outcomes at scale.
Participants gained a clearer picture of how housing systems actually function and leave with concrete ideas for applying this approach in their own urban and national contexts.
Climate finance goes urban: financing the transition to resilient cities
Hosted by: United Nations University, European Investment Bank EIB, World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, Munich Climate Insurance Initiative MCII
Speakers: Sebastian Herold (BMZ – Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development), Taufiq Hidayat Putra (Ministry of National Development Planning BAPPENAS), Giulia Macagno (European Investment Bank), Lucy Earle (IIED), Pablo Lazo Elizondo (World Resources Institute Ross Center for Sustainable Cities)
Urban transition depends on finance, yet cities continue to face structural barriers in accessing funding for climate-resilient infrastructure. Despite global momentum from COP processes, evolving innovative finance approaches and increasing recognition of urban priorities in climate policy, financing remains fragmented and often fails to reach the local level where investment is most urgently needed.
This session explored how international climate policy and financing approaches can enable city-ready mechanisms that accelerate climate-resilient urban infrastructure and support a just urban transition. Through dialogue between cities, financial institutions and development partners, the event highlighted pathways to unlock finance, strengthen collaboration and align global frameworks with local implementation needs.
Wednesday, 20 May
Prioritising forced evictions on the agenda: getting serious about prevention and remedy
Hosted by: IIED, Habitat International Coalition Housing and Land Rights Network, Slum Dwellers International, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights
Speakers: Samuel Okechukwu (Agbajowo Collective – Media4Change SDI), Camila Cociña (IIED), Lajana Manandhar (Asian Coalition for Housing Rights), Joseph Schechla (HIC Housing & Land Rights Network), Leilani Farha (The Shift), Rodrigo Iacovini (Instituto POLIS)
A top priority for housing movements and civil society coalitions worldwide is the prevention and remedy of forced evictions, which are considered a gross violation of human rights. Yet forced evictions remain commonplace, with 123 million people forcibly displaced in 2024 alone, 73% of which were located in low and middle-income countries (UN-Habitat).
This networking event convened diverse WUF participants to refocus on forced evictions by learning from grassroots and civil society groups about actual cases and approaches, recalling cumulative human rights standards, and co-creating policy recommendations and actionable next steps for preventing and remedying forced evictions.
Related reading: Five years on: how Brazil’s Zero Eviction Campaign is driving policy change for housing justice | Housing challenges are not solved by forced evictions. What is the way forward? Make Change Happen podcast episode 38
Financing housing justice: approaches to advance anti-discriminatory, democratic, sustainable and caring housing futures
Hosted by: IIED, Development Action Group, Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur, Slum Dwellers International
Speakers: Zama Mgwatyu (Development Action Group), Melanie Chirwa (Peoples Process on Housing and Poverty), Lumanti Joshi (Lumanti Support Group for Shelter), Juliana Tinoco (Alianza Socioambiental Fondos del Sur), Francesca Lionetti (UN-Habitat), Ming Zhang (The World Bank Group), Camila Cociña, Alexandre Apsan Frediani and Paula Sevilla Nunez (IIED)
This networking event brought together participants to identify justice-oriented housing finance pathways that challenge unsustainable housing systems. A diverse group of housing, finance, policy, advocacy and research actors engaged with the question of “a new deal for housing finance” with the objective to bridge the often-siloed discussions on housing rights and finance.
The event launched a collaborative publication by the Hub for Housing Justice. This co-produced publication showcased guiding principles and concrete actions (such as policies, programmes and partnerships) that promote the systemic transformation of a financing architecture that enables housing justice. The event took forward the recommendations of the publication, identifying the main pathways to implement such actions.
Particularly, the session focused on approaches to strengthen financing mechanisms to advance housing justice and the propositions promoted by the Hub for Housing Justice: anti-discriminatory housing policy and practices, radically democratic forms of housing production, the promotion of housing as an infrastructure for more sustainable and caring cities, and policies that broaden housing imaginations.
Related reading: Financing housing justice
Migration and cities: safe, innovative and sustainable governance framework
Hosted by: State Migration Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan, IOM
In 2024, more than 300 million people lived outside their country of birth, and the majority settled in urban areas. Economic transformation, political instability, environmental change, and shifting opportunities influence why people move and where they settle. At the same time, urbanization continues to accelerate. As more people settle in urban areas, migration and urban governance become increasingly interconnected.
The event addressed the migration-urbanisation nexus as a critical factor in shaping housing demand and resilience. By presenting inclusive governance frameworks, participatory planning and innovative practices, it demonstrated how safe and affordable housing can prevent informal settlements, foster social cohesion and align national policies with local realities.
The session showcased proven practices from cities addressing migration‑driven housing challenges through integrated strategies. It demonstrated how participatory planning, multi‑stakeholder partnerships and inclusive service delivery strengthen resilience, reduce inequality and ensure safe housing.
Scaling resilience: self-built housing as a pathway to safer, climate-ready cities
Hosted by: Build Change, Slum Dwellers International, Isandla Institute, UN-Habitat
Speakers: Antoine Agossou (Association of Inhabitants of Slum Areas in the Republic of Benin), Ombretta Tempra (UN-Habitat), Mirjam van Donk (Isandla Institute), Catherine Lynch (The World Bank Group), Camila Cociña (IIED)
Global housing risk demands urgent attention. An estimated 2.8 billion people worldwide live in inadequate housing – but this figure significantly understates the challenge, rarely accounting for structural safety or critical risks posed by earthquakes, floods, extreme heat, and other climate- and disaster-related threats.
Yet there is reason for optimism. Across the global South, households are already investing in improving their homes wherever resources allow, drawing on the skills of local builders, artisans and materials producers. Self-built, informal housing is the dominant mode of housing construction, and will continue to be for decades to come.
For over 20 years, organisations such as Build Change, Slum Dwellers International and others have worked with partners worldwide to transform self-construction practices. By supporting learning, knowledge transfer and skills development among homeowners and local construction workers, families become advocates for resilient housing and catalysts for larger systemic change.
Research by UN-Habitat, the Isandla Institute and IIED demonstrates this approach effectively scales resilient construction practices in the self-built housing sector, enabling locally driven housing production at scale. This session showcased examples that support self-built housing as an innovative, scalable pathway for addressing the global housing crisis, particularly in informal and hard-to-reach communities across the global South.
The centre for the just city global partnership to centre spatial justice in urban development
Hosted by: IIED, TU Delft University of Technology, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit DPU University College London UCL, The London School of Economics and Political Science
Speakers: Hugo Lopez (University of Sheffield), Romola Sanyal (London School for Economics), Alexandre Apsan Frediani (IIED), Barbara Lipietz (University College London)
This networking event marked the international launch of the Centre for the Just City (CJC), a TU Delft initiative that advances spatial justice as a critical and actionable dimension of sustainable urban development.
Rooted in over a decade of research, education and advocacy, the centre brings together cities, researchers, planners, designers and civil society to embed justice in the governance, design and transformation of urban space. At WUF13, the centre will formally inaugurate its global mission and open its platform to partners with a round table on how to bring spatial justice to the centre of urban policymaking and evaluation.
This discussion was anchored on tools, principles and practices already developed through real partnerships, including the Horizon Europe UP2030 project, where TU Delft and partners co-developed a suite of justice-centred tools to support cities’ transitions to climate neutrality in ways that leave no one behind, in partnership with 10 European cities, Istanbul and Rio de Janeiro.
Financing housing in a shifting funding environment: from Official Development Assistance to philanthropy and local funding mechanisms
Hosted by: IIED, Rooftops Canada Foundation Inc- Fondation Abri International, Habitat for Humanity International, UrbaMonde
Speakers: Paula Sevilla Nunez (IIED), Yves-Laurent Sapoval (Ministeres Ecologie Energie Territoires – IHEDATE), Deena Khalil (Habitat for Humanity International), Bea Varani (UrbaMonde), Omar Siddique (UN-Habitat), Ming Zhang (The World Bank)
Drawing on work to redefine housing within the OECD's measures of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and grounded in perspectives from the Majority World, this interactive event analysed global housing finance trends, explore opportunities and constraints in an evolving funding landscape, and highlight innovative responses. It focused on approaches that empower vulnerable communities, address gender inequities, strengthen housing and land systems, and make housing finance more equitable, resilient and locally driven.
International cooperation funding is undergoing a profound transformation.
Presenters reviewed the current state of ODA for housing and explore emerging opportunities, such as localising development cooperation; improving housing and land data systems; scaling community-led finance mechanisms; leveraging philanthropic contributions; and designing blended finance frameworks that combine public, private and community-based resources.
Thursday, 21 May
Housing at the center of crisis recovery and reconstruction
Speakers include: Anaclaudia Rossbach (UN-Habitat), Ming Zhang (World Bank), Ugochi Daniels (IOM), Juan Caballero (Build Change), Lucy Earle (IIED)
This dialogue explored why housing must be placed at the center of crisis response, recovery and reconstruction in cities affected by conflict, climate shocks and natural disasters.
When homes are destroyed, the loss extends beyond physical structures, undermining safety, dignity, livelihoods and social cohesion. As growing numbers of displaced people seek refuge in urban areas, many face precarious housing conditions that heighten vulnerability to further shocks.
The session examined how governments, communities and the private sector can rebuild homes and neighborhoods at scale while protecting housing, land and property rights.
Event coverage: IIED's Lucy Earle warned against leaving displaced people in temporary shelter indefinitely. "We have to get out of this temporary mindset," she said.
Related reading: Introduction to urban crises and forced displacement
Academia and research roundtable
Speakers include: Camila Cociña (IIED), Uchendu Eugene Chigbu (Institute for Land, Livelihood and Housing), David Dodman (IHS), Pushpa Pathak (Centre for Policy Research), Karen Diane Chapple (University of Toronto and University of California at Berkeley)
Academic and research institutions play a central role in shaping how cities understand and respond to the housing challenge. They generate evidence, analysis and locally grounded data on complex, systemic challenges that inform sustainable responses to housing affordability, tenure security and access to basic services. They also play a central role in challenging rigid visions of housing, educating urban practitioners and decision-makers, and advancing the tools and methods that translate knowledge into action.
The WUF13 academia and research roundtable therefore served as a platform to further mobilise academic knowledge and innovations to build actionable solutions to address the global housing crisis, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and the new urban agenda.
The session focused on opportunities to leverage the roles of academic and research institutions to address critical knowledge and capacity gaps and effectively deliver housing solutions that realise the right to adequate housing for all.
Remove the risk, not the people: slum transformation as key to housing justice and climate resilience
Hosted by: IIED, Cities Alliance/UNOPS, Habitat for Humanity, Build Change
Speakers: Sarah Nandudu (Slum Dwellers International), James Schell (Habitat for Humanity), Greg Munro (Cities Alliance UNOPS), Juan Caballero (Build Change), Paula Sevilla Nunez and Alexandre Apsan Frediani (IIED), Sebastian Herold (Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development BMZ)
At least two million people are forcibly evicted every year, despite evidence showing that this undermines livelihoods, climate resilience and progress on Sustainable Development Goal achievement and carbon emission reductions in cities.
Guided by the principle “remove the risk, not the people”, the session brought together scientific and practical evidence to spotlight the manifold impacts of forced evictions on sustainable development. Participants shared experiences of in-situ upgrading in risk-prone areas that reduce risks without the need for displacement, and the session positioned slum transformation as a core climate adaptation strategy aligned with national climate policies and the Global Goal on Adaptation and connected emerging financing flows to translate global commitments into local pathways for inclusive climate-resilient development.
Beyond crisis: urban responses to displacement in drought-stressed cities through housing and WASH infrastructure
Hosted by: IIED, UN-Habitat Jordan Country Office, University of Zambia Centre for Urban Research and Planning, Peoples Process for Housing and Poverty in Zambia Slum Dwellers International
Speakers: Ayah Hammad (UN-Habitat Jordan), Gilbert Siame (The University of Zambia), Melanie Chirwa (Peoples Process for Housing and Poverty in Zambia – SDI), Lucy Earle (IIED)
Across the world, displacement and climate risks are increasingly converging in cities. Today, most forcibly displaced people live in urban areas rather than camps, often settling in low-income neighborhoods and informal settlements where housing is more affordable and livelihoods are accessible through the informal economy.
These same neighborhoods are frequently the most exposed to climate risks, placing both displaced populations and host communities under compounded pressure. This reality highlights housing as a critical interface between humanitarian responses and urban development.
The session provided compelling evidence to support recommendations that long-term urban responses, particularly those addressing adequate housing, tenure security and access to basic services, can simultaneously meet urgent humanitarian needs and strengthen host cities.
The missing target: housing security in the indicators of the Global Goal on Adaptation
Hosted by: IIED, United Nations University, Misereor, Instituto Polis
Speakers: Cerin Kizhakkethottam (UN-Habitat), Alexandre Apsan Frediani (IIED), Stuart Best (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), Eva Dick (Misereor), Debra Roberts (IPCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)
Housing remains a neglected dimension of climate adaptation, despite being central to how people experience climate risk and vulnerability. This 90-minute debate addressed a critical blind spot in global climate adaptation: the absence of housing security as an explicit objective within the GGA indicators.
The event brought 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 was framed by recent developments under the Paris Agreement.
The event critically examined how relocation-focused indicators may incentivise forced or premature displacement, justify evictions as adaptation progress and rely on narrow definitions of 'safer locations' that overlook social vulnerability, future climate risk and human rights.
Rethinking the future of housing favelas as a sustainable model
Hosted by: Catalytic Communities, Urbz
Speakers: Paula Sevilla-Núñez (IIED), Gynna Millan (Universidad del Valle – PopuLab), Sheela Patel (SPARC – Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers), Heba Allah Khalil (Cairo University), Kareena Kochery (Urbz)
The development logic of favelas/homegrown settlements permits us to think outside top-down zoned planning: a tool for leap-frogging. Inaccessible resources, especially land, have encouraged people in homegrown settlements from Mumbai to Rio, Cali to Cape Town to combine living and working in a building typology, creating home-based livelihoods.
These low-rise high-density settlements have many advantages. They develop incrementally, responding to evolving needs, unlike top-down, unadaptable megaprojects. Favelas residents use their agency to shape their neighborhoods: they are naturally participatory. These neighborhoods are a repository of ancestral/popular knowledge, skills and expertise that planners can learn from.
This provocative event aimed to critically question a dominant narrative that portrays informal settlements as synonyms of urban problems and slums to be eradicated.
Contact
Oliver Arnold-Richards ([email protected]), strategic campaigns manager, IIED's Communications Group
