Assemblies - Joint Opening of the Assemblies (WUF13)

Good morning, good morning, everyone.
Your Excellencies, ministers, mayors, dignitaries, friends, colleagues, comrades from all across the world.
Welcome to Baku and welcome to WUF13.
For those of you who have not attended an assembly before at the World Urban Forum, the assemblies are a long standing tradition of how this event is structured.
It's a space where stakeholders who often work with communities, who often work with people on the ground get a chance to pick up this mic and get their voice out to the world.
It really is an opportunity for stakeholders to express their views, their thoughts, their discussions, their deliberations and project it out to the world.
So please feel welcome, and we are here to coordinate and support in any which way your assemblies will proceed.
The word assembly itself, as many of you know, has many different meanings.
The assembly has been used in factory workers, in labor unions, but also has been used in high schools as many of you know, where people assemble, where people bring together, where people build things together.
It's really a question of coming together and developing an agenda together.
These assemblies, whether it be the grassroots, whether it be the women's assembly, are all about co creating solutions to the current crisis that the world is facing at the moment, specifically around housing, specifically around sustainable urban development.
I have only four small messages, and I'm going to introduce the next set of speakers.
The first message is that please carry this message home.
Not all the people could be in Baku, that we have a lot of our community partners, we have a lot of our stakeholders, we have lots of local and regional government officials back at home.
Please carry the message from Baku back to your own constituencies and to your people to make sure that this message reaches them.
The second piece, which is very important that this assembly and this joint opening of assembly is part of a long process that UN habitat has embarked over the last six months, engaging over 3,000 stakeholders, communities, and groups in understanding what should be discussed in the World Urban Forum, what should be the content of the assemblies? What are the key questions that we need to address given the current urban challenges.
The third piece is these assemblies are going to feed into something very, very important, which is the Baku call to action.
This is a pioneering document that will come out of this conference, which will determine and pull together and synthesize all the views of the stakeholders that get deliberated from the assemblies to the roundtables, to the partner led events, and it will be available to all of you to deliberate and push forward both within government, but also within your own organizations and institutions.
The last message from my side is, please make it count.
This is a rare World urban forum.
It is a large convening, probably the largest world urban forum that has ever been held.
Please make it count.
Please make sure that you hold up your voice, please make sure your voice is heard.
Please make sure that the messages reach as far and wide as you can get them to go.
With that said, I would like to introduce the first speaker.
Evidently, this person can also control the weather.
He's the Chairman of the State Committee of Urban Planning and Architecture for the Republic of Azerbijan and the WUF13 National Coordinator, Mr.
Anar Goliv.
Please give him a round of applause.
Madam Ana Claudia Rosberg, distinguished representatives of stakeholders and participants.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's my honor to welcome you all Baku for the certain session of World Urban Forum and for this ceremony of opening of the assemblies.
On behalf of the government of Azerbijan I would like to sincerely thank our valued partner, Yuan Habitat, and especially Madam Executive Director for the strong cooperation and shared commitment that brought us to this important moment.
This partnership reflects a common understanding that cities must be planned not only for growth, but for people, for inclusion, resilience and sustainability.
Today, the global housing crisis is at the center of our discussions.
Housing is not only about buildings, it is about dignity, security, and opportunity.
It is directly connected to climate justice, social inclusion, and the future resilience of our cities.
This is why World Urban Forum is so important.
WUF is constituency led platform and its real strength is inclusivity.
It brings together various groups of society as equal partners in shaping the future of cities.
Assemblies are one of the strongest foundations of this process.
They help shape the agenda of the forum and ensure that the voices of women, children, youth, civil society, private sector, and local governments are fully reflected in the discussions and outcomes of the WUF13.
Every group in society has an important role to play in overall development.
In Azerbijan, we believe that inclusive participation is essential for building stronger and more sustainable cities.
Real urban development happens when every group in society has a voice and a role.
This begins with women who are among the most important and active contributors to our society on the national level.
Azerbijan was proud to be the first country in the Muslim world to grant women the right to vote and to stand for election in 1918.
This was an important step toward equality and participation.
Today, women hold senior positions in government, parliament, academia, and the private sector.
They contribute greatly to urban development as architects, planners, engineers, entrepreneurs, and decision makers.
We are also proud to see women leading in technology, innovation, and digital transformation, helping create smarter and more sustainable cities.
The same approach continues in post conflict recovery and in the development of smart cities and smart villages where women's participation and equal opportunities remain a clear priority.
Inclusive and people centered planning shows how important gender equality is for sustainable urban development.
Alongside women's leadership, civil society is also a strong pillar of community development.
NGOs and local initiatives help connect policies with people's real needs.
They support vulnerable communities, strengthen trust, and make development more inclusive and more human.
The same principle applies to young people.
Youth development is another major priority.
We invest in education, leadership, and professional growth because young people are the drivers of future change.
Young people should not only inherit the future of cities, but they should also help shape it today.
The active participation of volunteers at Wolf 13 is a strong example of this energy responsibility and commitment.
Their presence shows that young people are ready to take part in building better cities and stronger communities.
At the same time, strong communities also need strong local economies.
This is where the private sector plays an important role, especially small and medium sized enterprises.
They create jobs, support innovation, and strengthen local development.
WUF13 also creates valuable opportunities for businesses to connect, collaborate, and contribute to urban development.
It provides a space where innovation, investment, and practical solutions can come together.
In this context, I would especially like to highlight the new Business and innovation hub within the Urban Expo of WUF13.
Creates a platform where startups, innovative companies, architects, urban planners, and urban professionals can meet, exchange ideas, and build partnerships.
This is especially important today as rapid urban growth, housing challenges, climate risks, and pressure on infrastructure are affecting cities everywhere.
In such circumstances, the role of the private sector becomes even more important.
Private investment, innovation and new technologies help deliver practical results faster.
At the same time, successful implementation depends greatly on local and regional governments.
They are closest to people's daily lives.
They manage housing, transport, infrastructure, public services, and local well being.
Their leadership is essential for turning national policies into real improvements for citizens.
In Azerbijan's liberated territories where the large scale reconstruction works are implemented, we have introduced a new governance model through the institutional Special Representatives of the President of Azerbijan for particular regions.
This model helps ensure coordinated actions, sustainable development, and the safe and dignified return of former internally displaced persons.
Supports urban planning, public services, environmental protection, cultural heritage preservation, and community rebuilding.
It has become an important example of how post conflict recovery can be planned in a sustainable and people centered way.
When all these voices work together, women use civil society, business, and local governments, cities become stronger, more inclusive, and better prepared for the future.
Distinguished delegates, today as we open these assemblies, the challenges of urbanization and housing in particular require more than discussion, they require action.
Joint opening of the assemblies is more than a formal ceremony.
It brings everyone together from the very beginning, creating a shared vision and setting the direction for WUF13.
We're especially pleased to see strong participation from representatives of Azerbijan across all stakeholder groups.
Their presence reflects our national commitment to inclusive urban development and creates valuable opportunities to exchange experiences, strengthen cooperation, and build lasting partnerships.
We believe Baku can be a place where global dialogue leads to local action and where partnerships become practical solutions.
The outcomes of these assemblies will help shape the wider discussions of WUF13 contribute to the Baku call to action, strengthen the implementation of the new urban agenda and support broader global processes such as SDG 11 and climate action.
This is why today matters.
Together with you and habitat and with all of you, we will make WUF13 a platform that creates real impact and leaves a strong legacy for cities and communities around the world.
I wish all assemblies productive discussions and successful outcomes.
Enjoy your stay in Azerbijan and thank you for your attention.
Thank you.
Please, can we have another round of applause for the chairman of Super? The next speaker is an old friend and colleague who many of you know and have worked with previously, and she has promised a gift for the assembly that comes up with the best set of commitments that will take place in the deliberations of the assembly.
Please welcome the Executive Director of UN Habitat, Anna Claudia Rosbach Thank you, Adi.
Good morning, Salam, Excellencies, representatives of the assemblies, leaders from local and regional governments, children and youth, women leaders, grassroots, civil society organizations, business leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, our host, Anaklev and our next host, mayor of Mexico City, Clara Bgala, Buenos as.
It's a great pleasure to welcome you to the joint opening of the assemblies of the 13th session of the WUF Forum here in the beautiful Baku.
I want to express my sincere appreciation to the government of Azerbaijan and to all our partners to get here to this moment.
I also want to remind us that your voices and you hear It is why the assemblies matter.
I would like to endorse what Adi said at the beginning.
Please use this moment, please max out.
This is the global platform for urban development.
This is the big coalition to address the housing crisis.
I believe many people would like to be here and I hope they are with us somehow through your messages and that you bring the period and the lessons and everything that you learned from Baku back home.
But let's max out this moment.
The World Urban Forum has served and has been shaped by stakeholders in the last 20 years since its creation.
It was actually created for the stakeholders.
It was created as a place where the voices of the communities, the women, the civil society, the young people will inform the urban policy.
We can take that to our daily work.
We can take that to our inter governmental processes.
This year, we have a critical intergovernmental process that is taking place in New York in July.
We are looking back at what happened in the last ten years of the new urban agenda that was endorsed by member states.
Many of you were with us in Quito, Ecuador in 2016 and most important, we are looking ahead.
What is it that's possible to be done until 2036, the next ten years of the new urban agenda.
In a very innovative manner, we have been able with member states, with our hosts to try to connect all dots, our governance in Nairobi, our territory, our headquarters, processes in New York, the process of review of the New Urban Agenda, and the World Urban Forum.
We really hope that your discussions, your conversations will inspire, inspire the authorities that are present here.
We started our day with the ministerial meeting.
Everybody was able to attend.
Please children and youth, we count you as, you know, a the tunnel for us to be able to see what's going on in the future, to think creative as a laboratory of innovations, your ideas.
We need that.
Women and girls, adequate housing is critical for the autonomy.
For gender equality and housing policy needs to be addressed and designed to attend women's needs.
We understand that when women lack tenure, security, safety, services, or voices, cities fail.
Women need to be part of the design of the cities and must count with security of roof.
Local and regional governments, your assembly is helping to renew multilateralism, to follow up what was discussed back to back to the Pec of the future.
More and more, we are recognizing how um, local, regional authorities have been present in the global stages, and we need you with us because it is at the local level that people or the fronts cities are the front lines of climate change of everything that's affecting cities today, but it is at the local level where innovation and solutions are designed and also for the business communities, um, Anar was mentioning we have been working a lot to strengthen the presence of the business community here in Baku.
The scale that we need in the world to address the housing needs is just gigantic.
So we need you with us.
We need the small, medium size enterprises, the social enterprises.
We need the technology firms, we need the investors.
We need the big companies with us to overcome the housing crisis and to build um, cities that are sustainable and fit not only for the needs, but also to the aspirations of the young people, the aspirations of the women, the aspirations of the people.
So very simple message.
Just use these assemblies as assembly, build alliances, leave this experience.
We want to hear your voices.
And for the first time we have met with you before the World Urban Forum.
The idea is that we continue towards Mexico to be interacting and make sure that the Bakuco to action is really, your voice coming out of this World Urban Forum.
So thank you very much.
Please, can we have another round of applause for the executive director you and habitat? The next section of this opening, we're going to hear from representatives of the various assemblies, which is going to be the part where you get to hear a little bit of what these assemblies are debating, deliberating, stories from different parts of the world.
So I'm very pleased to welcome the first speaker who will be hosting the next World Urban Forum in Mexico City, the Chief of Mexico City Mayor Clara Progada.
Please welcome.
Ola Amigas Amigos, Gusto, dear friends, it is a great pleasure for me to meet you all here.
I would like to start by recognizing our host here, the government of Azerbaijan and Baku and also UN Habitat.
We are here on the Caspian Sea, the heart of the Silk Route.
In this place, which has been a meeting point between East and West, and we are now convened to this World Urban Forum, which is the most relevant forum of urban global urban multilateralism, a strategic space to share experiences and to collectively build the urban future of humanity.
We need this multilateralism, open, inclusive, and promoted by local governments as well, by cities in order to articulate a new vision, a new urban action from the socio economic and environmental transformation.
I'm here and I come from the city of Mexico with a long history and heritage of more than 1,000 years.
The city of Mexico is today a global capital and also a big metropolis where History, memory, fights, the fights of our people, all of these things live together, solidarity, inclusion, diversity.
I come from the city that will host the 14th session of the World Urban Forum in 2028.
I speak on behalf of more than 200 municipalities and regional governments, representing 140 countries organized in cities in united local cities and regional governments.
The message that we bring is the message of movement driven by municipalities looking for answers to the major world programs from the local perspective.
It is an honor for me to represent these larger community of cities.
We cannot separate climatic emergency from the housing crisis nor from the financialization of the global economy.
We cannot address the crisis of caring or poverty without addressing from the root gender inequalities that persist.
We cannot disconnect the land from all the democratic issues, forgetting the abysmal social inequalities that undermine that generate poverty and that generate exclusion.
The central theme of this forum is representing the cry of more than 3,000 million people which are homeless.
The guarantee of dignified housing is the backbone of a much wider transformation agenda for the territory.
We need a revolution in the way in which we live in the world and in the way in which we relate to nature.
Let's build cities that are able to take care of women, of children, of the most vulnerable groups, providing care for those that have been historically forgotten and excluded.
Let's build cities that can become refugees.
Where the color of the skin cannot be a pretext to exclude.
Local governments are the public power closer to the population.
And we face together public problems.
We are the ones that turn on the lights of the communities and of the cities.
We are the ones that clean the streets, that open up the schools.
We are the ones who open up hospitals.
We are the ones who are transforming back to bottom to top.
Our societies.
So we have to build peace lands.
We have to build the strength of the cities.
We have to build laws that go against the strength the strong ones.
We have to fight for everyone, and we have to build an alliance of cities that work for peace and global rights.
We have to be a specific strength that work because we have the moral, the historical obligation to rise up a municipality movement against war.
This movement, this international movement also represents our lands, and we have to build together with the local governments and regional governments and with UN habitat, a new international governance, multi level and with different stakeholders where all the different local governments are always heard.
Where we can speak loud and we can speak everywhere.
Thank you very much to all of you.
Gracias, a round of applause for the chief of Mexico City, please.
Can we please have a show of hands or people from local government, please stand up in the room so that we can see you, we can acknowledge you, we can recognize you.
Anybody who works in local government, can you please stand or raise your hand.
A round of applause, please.
Our next speaker represents the Youth and Children Assembly and has taken a very long flight all the way from Bangladesh to be here with us.
Welcome to Baku Ints.
You will come and speak now.
Thanks.
Excellent guests, change makers, fellow change makers, good morning to you all.
I'm Jahmed.
I'm 17-years-old, and I'm from Bangladesh, a land of nature, beauty, but also a land of children who are the fourth line of the changing the world.
I grew up in a small town in Silt and now I'm living in the capital, O Dhaka, the largest, second largest mega cities in the world.
As an advocate for child rights, I have been saw the challenges and the smiles of the children who are vulnerable and living in slums.
When we hear the word housing, we understand it is brick, it is mortar, it is statistics.
But for a child, a home is not just a structure, it is a foundation for everyone, every single of our rights.
Without a safe, livable home, how can a child stay healthy? Without a roof over our heads, how can we access basic rights, clean water, hygiene and sanitation? Without a roof, when a home is unstable or not safe, education becomes luxury to us, can afford because we are too busy surviving.
We want to highlight that safe home is a shield that protects us from the violence, ensure us basic rights and foundations to all us to dream.
From my understanding, a child friendly city must is most vulnerable and the youngest residents from a threat they did not create.
The climate crisis from experience working with the vulnerable children from climate affected communities, they're just affected by climate change.
They are living in every single day and they're surviving with this.
When the floods come, water logging happens all the way all over our heatwaves become unwearable.
It is the children who choose to slums who first lose their rights to play and learn.
From our assembly, we want to bring forward urban planning solutions to account for the rights for the lost mile children.
This means ensuring the poorest neighborhoods, there is the space to breathe, space to move safely, and most importantly, the right to a childhood with dreams.
Finally, we build a sustainable world.
We expect that you stop looking at this future.
We are at the present.
We have our own point of view, priorities, and experiences.
Our ambition is the children and youth assembly will call for permanent pathways for children and youth to active partners in the urban governance.
We don't want to invite to meeting and forums just for the sake of participation.
We want our point of views and our experiences to be taken seriously when you design our cities, systems, and solutions and policies.
When you include us, you aren't just being kind or you are being smart.
Because a city that works for a child, a city that works for everyone.
Our expectations from this forum, especially children and youth assembly, We are bold.
We are expecting our children and youth declaration to move beyond these walls and directly shape the official Baku call action, ensuring our rights and protection participation as the youngest citizens are at the heart of the global nation policies and solution.
We expect strong partnerships that take our children and youth led solutions from this assembly to every neighborhood, especially for the children who are living in developing and less developing countries.
And build cities that truly leave no one behind.
Whenever we're from Bangladesh or Azerbijan or anywhere else in the world, we deserve cities don't just house us, but hold us and hope with us.
Let's work together not for us, but with us to build world where every child has safe place to call home.
Thank you very much.
It was me India Jahad.
Thank Thank you so much, Mths.
Can we please give him another round of applause? He's traveled a very long distance to come here.
The next speaker is from the grassroot and Civil Society Assembly and an old friend and colleague, Celine Decrz.
Please, Celine.
It's a privilege to be among such influential people around.
And having worked with the urban poor in the city of Bombay, We understand and we've tasted not having power and then having power.
I am not a slum dweller and I'm not a pavement dweller, but I have worked very closely with these communities.
As local governments, you all know how disempowering it is even as local governments because you see all these problems in your city and you don't know where to begin.
Like Bombay, we have 6 million people living in slums and you don't know where to begin.
The slum dwellers were very smart.
They broke down this problem into small parts.
They broke down the problem into airport slums, all the slums on airport land, so they came directly under the airport authorities, and that was about 85,000 families.
They looked at the slums on the railway tracks.
Those were about another 80,000 families.
They looked at Haravi which is one of Asia's largest slum, and that was about 90,000 families and like that, they broke the city into land ownership and they were able to organize these communities based on their land ownership.
This was an idea that actually impress the local government and the provincial government and they looked at solutions on whether it was resettlement, whether it was a sanitation project.
It became so much easier to actually work with these groups based on their geography.
So the two dreams that I have that I wish that come out of this wolf.
One is, as city leaders, is it possible for us to ensure that whatever solution we find works for the bottom 10%? I think that's just like a litmus test.
In Bombay, we had 30,000 families living on the streets.
They were families.
I'm not talking about individual homeless people.
And they were able to actually move from the streets into formal housing because of their own work and homework that they did with their city government.
Based on that, the provincial government then had a law and a policy for pavement dwellers.
It's totally possible to find solutions even in the most complex situations if there is a will.
And the poor communities in our cities are actually an asset, they are not a liability.
In my city in Mumbai, All these communities, 6 million of them, they contribute to the city's economy.
They are not living for free.
Each time they use the public toilet, they pay one rupee or three rupees.
Each time they have a bulk connection to their house, they pay for that.
The city's Exce doesn't know how to take that money from them.
Who do they give it to? They give it to a middleman.
Why should this happen? If the city has a system to legitimize them, these resources can come back to the city.
These are small examples of how we can actually transform this relationship and strengthen this relationship between the very poor in our cities and those in power.
Thank you.
Thank you, Celine.
Can we please have a round of applause for Celine? Just to say that both the executive director and the chairman of Skua both mentioned the very important role that the private sector plays in urban development and in these specific conversations.
If you haven't visited it, you will get a chance to visit it in this week of WF, the Business and Innovation Hub.
Our next speaker represents the private sector, Samir Mamadov, who's the country manager for the UN Global Compact.
Thank you, Samir.
Welcome.
Saban Pk is back here.
Good morning.
Ladies and gentlemen.
I will be brief.
Let me start with the expectation and partly the expectation is really there.
The ex point itself shows that business is not a guest in these sustainability infrastructure and urban development conversations.
It has been, but it has been changing.
At Global Compact, I'm on a crossroads of development and business where if you would, a membership organization to host responsible businesses and guide them towards more sustainable practices.
Coming back to expectation, the expectation is to spread the word that fair habitat, that sustainable way of doing business and business that creates sustainable goods and services is not a sentimental issue for a shareholder.
It is absolutely a commercial and operational issue.
If we were raised to believe that there's a shareholder value, but then there's also this responsibility thing that comes along it, the reality, not even the rhetoric, but the reality of businesses change today.
Sustainability is part of shareholder value.
It translates into money, whether in losses or profits.
It requires innovation.
It has any part of business, you're either with it or you lose it, right? Can sustainability for business be too late? It can.
It can be too late as a missed opportunity.
If you sit around hoping it'll avoid you, yes, it will avoid you, but not as reality, but as a missed opportunity.
There's one expectation from this particular wolf for me and that's not only for Azerbijani business, but also a global business, is that the shareholders, investors, CEOs, CFOs, chief commercial officers, people on the business side of the business, They walk out of this beautiful venue with a new thought, a new look that, we thought this is an inevitable pressure of regulation.
This is a good publicity.
This is an opportunity to build stronger brand capital.
But it turns out it is also a future of our products, it's future of our portfolio, and to become the messengers of that thought of line for the current business generations.
Thank you very much.
Powerful words, Samir.
A round of applause for Samir, please.
Walk out of here with a new idea or a new thought.
Really, really good.
Thank you.
Last but not the least, the Women's Assembly.
Our representative has come all the way from Angola.
Very warm welcome to Anna Inglis, please.
Your Excellencies, dear colleagues, I'm humbled and honored to join my voice to the remarkable women gathered in this assembly.
One more voice is never too many when we are weaving a global tight knit social infrastructure of women who support one another through advocacy, knowledge, and presence.
From the Zugira in Luanda, our Angolan female Street vendors walking the city and working 12 hours a day, to the woman of Penagoa in Lisbon, building their own homes while being intentionally deprived of water, electricity, and connectivity.
To our sisters in Bahia, navigating the daily risks between the planned city and the Favela with courage and clarity.
We all carry struggles, and we all carry dreams.
A safe home is more than shelter.
It is access to opportunity, to health, to education, but above all, it is access to stability, dignity, and belonging.
I'm here to contribute to easing those struggles through agency and to help create the conditions for those dreams to materialize.
Thank you very much.
A round of applause for Anna, please, all the way from Angola.
So as we draw this assembly to a close, I'm sure many of you know which rooms your assemblies are going to take place.
They're mostly in the vicinity here.
If you have any trouble finding them, there are a number of volunteers here who will help and guide you to the various rooms where the assemblies will take place.
And the last closing spot is, please make it count.
Please make sure you come up with tangible solutions.
Please make sure you push the agendas as hard as we can so that at the end of the World Urban Forum, what we see in the outcome document in the Baku Call to Action reflects your ideas, your thoughts, the real visions that you have for this World Urban Forum.
So I wish you luck and I'll see you at the assemblies.
Thank you so much.