Ministerial - Panel 1: Housing for Social Inclusion and Ending Poverty (WUF13)

Good afternoon.
Good to begin the panels today.
I'm just going to firstly invite for the high level opening before we truly begin.
His Excellency, Ayub Ismail Yusuf, Minister of Public Works, Reconstruction and Housing Somalia, if you'd like to come to the stage and take a seat.
I'd also like to invite up as well, Miss Anacláudia Rossbach, under Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Habitat to also come and take a seat.
Thank you.
Also, I'd like to invite up Miss Gulshan Rzayeva, World Urban Forum 13, Deputy National Coordinator, if you'd also like to take a seat.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Okay.
Just before we begin, I'm just going to do a very quick introduction of myself.
My name is Nadia Jai and I'll be moderating this first panel session today.
I am a news presenter here in Azerbijan for a news and I will be taking you through a number of distinguished guests that we'll be speaking about in relation to housing for social inclusion and ending poverty.
I'd also just say for a reminder, if you do have your interpretation devices, please make sure you have them on you as we have a number of speakers that will be speaking in different languages as well.
Okay, just to let you know about what we will be discussing today, adequate housing is more than just a roof over someone's head.
It's a fundamental human right and one of the basic responsibilities of governments.
But adequate housing is not only about having shelter, it is also about means of having security.
Affordability, access to services, safety, and the ability to live with dignity.
If any one of these elements is missing, then housing cannot truly be considered.
Now, the objectives of these main panel sessions today will highlight good practices from member states that have improved social inclusion and reduced poverty through gender responsive and human rights based housing policies and programs.
Special attention will be given to people and communities most at risk of being left behind.
The example shared today aim to inspire and provide practical lessons on how countries can break the cycle between poverty and inadequate housing.
They will also show how leadership, targeted investment, policy reforms, and strong partnerships across different levels of government and other stakeholders can help deliver lasting results.
Now going to have a high level opening from our distinguished guests and the first up I'm going to introduce today is His Excellency, Mr.
Ab Ismail Yosef, Minister of Public Works Public Works Reconstruction and Housing, Somalia.
Welcome to give the first address.
Excellence Your Excellency, administers, the representatives of the international organizations, the executive partners.
Peace be upon you all.
It is an honor for me to address you today during the opening of this ministerial session about housing for social inclusion and ending poverty taking place in Baku.
So within the works of the World Urban Forum, I would like to start my speech by expressing my gratitude to the Azerbijani government for its warm welcome and for the wise and great governance it is showing, also for the cooperation it showed during this whole process.
And also for the joint presidency and the role that the team has played in this important topic of adequate housing for everyone in order to make this housing initiative more sustainable and more global.
The work of the team has demonstrated the importance of multilateral cooperation and joint responsibility in order to face the raising urban challenges facing our societies and our cities.
We will move forward in order to find practical solutions that would put housing dignity and inclusion within the heart of urban development.
Your Excellency this new housing agenda is a reference to guarantee urban, sustainable urban development.
Of course, implementing this would help reach Objective 11 of sustainable development.
Sustainable development goal number 11.
This would make it more global, more secure, and more able to resist in time.
It would pave the way to implement the new urban agenda.
It shows that housing is not just a service or something only related to urbanism, but it is a pillar in order to guarantee social inclusion and human dignity.
It also helps end poverty and guarantee sustainable development.
In light of what the world is going through in these areas and facing the increasing number of displaced people and communities as a result of climate change, inequalities, et cetera housing organizations and infrastructure urbanism are facing more and more pressure and therefore needs more cooperation, global policies that aim to avoiding marginalization in Somalia.
The new urban agenda is a national priority.
It is part of the country's policy in order to guarantee sustainable development and rebuild the country.
We also work on finding sustainable solutions for refugees and newly displaced people in order to create more rehabilitation in this area and more resilience.
The Of course, very important topics here are urban planning, organizing well, tenure related issues, et cetera.
In addition to this, Somalia is working to improve the national frameworks in order to develop urbanism, to improve people's chances of getting adequate housing, in a more durable way, in a more sustainable way, especially among the most marginalized communities that are facing other issues such as displacement.
All of these efforts show the dedication of Somalia in order to guarantee more sustainability, more social more resilience, and to make it around human beings, their needs and their hopes.
So Today's dialogue is a very important platform to exchange experiences and benefit from each other's best practices in order to find practical solutions that would put housing in the places it deserves.
All of this, of course, in order to reduce social inequity and to have a society that's more just and more sustainable.
As a conclusion, I would like to welcome all of the delegations and everyone who is working hard today in order to make this session successful.
I wish you the best of luck every success so that we would be able to draft recommendations and policies that would really benefit our common future.
Thank you.
Great.
Thank you very much, Your Excellency.
Our next high panel speaker, I'll call up onto the stage is miss Anna Claudia Rossbach, who is the Under Secretary-General and Executive Director for UN Habitat.
Welcome to the podium.
Excellencies, Excellency Minister, Somalia, friend Dia Gusn our hosts here in this beautiful city.
Excellencies, ministers, distinguished delegates, colleagues, partners.
Well, welcome once again to 13 and to this series of ministerial housing panels.
So as I mentioned before, this discussion takes place at an important moment for the implementation of the new urban agenda.
Ten years ago, the New Urban Agenda gave us a clear political and policy framework for sustainable urbanization.
It placed housing at the center of urban development and recognized the social and ecological function of land.
It understood that the way cities grow, the way land is governed, and the way housing is planned and financed will determine whether urbanization reduces inequality or drives it.
That vision remains highly relevant today.
Housing is not only about a roof and four walls.
Housing shapes access to opportunity.
It shapes access to jobs, education, health care, safety, and social inclusion.
When housing systems fail to provide adequate options, poverty and exclusion become harder to overcome and inequalities become more deeply entrenched across generations.
This is one of the defining urban challenges of our time.
Almost 3 billion people continue to face housing inadequacy, including more than 1 billion people living in informal settlements and over 300 million people experiencing homelessness.
At the same time, cities are facing growing pressure from climate impacts, displacement, rising land costs, and widening inequality.
These pressures remind us that housing systems require strong public leadership, long term planning, effective regulation, and partnerships capable of delivering housing at scale while maintaining affordability, inclusion, and resilience.
The New Urban Agenda already recognized this ten years ago.
Land and housing cannot be treated only as commodities.
They have a social and ecological function and must serve the broader public good.
If we want to achieve inclusive, resilient, low emission, and proper cities, then we must transform housing systems.
That means strengthening governance, expanding social and public housing, upgrading informal settlements, improving access to land and basic services, mobilizing sustainable finance and supporting local governments with the capacities and tools needed to deliver at scale.
But it also means aligning policies and investments with the ways housing is actually produced and accessed on the ground.
Including incremental housing processes, community led upgrading, self construction, rental housing, other forms of housing delivery that already shelter millions of urban residents.
And this is where the open ended intergovernmental expert working group on adequate housing for all becomes so important.
The working group is emerging as a critical multilateral platform to accelerate implementation of the New Urban Agenda through housing.
It provides a space where member states, local governments, experts, and partners can move from broad commitments to practical guidance, policy convergence, and implementation pathways, particularly on issues such as informality, land governance, housing finance, resilience.
At a time when many countries are looking for concrete ways to operationalize the new urban agenda and align it with climate and development agendas, the working group offers an important mechanism to build consensus, to strengthen cooperation, and accelerate delivery.
Today's three panels reflect exactly this integrated vision.
The first panel focuses on housing as a pathway to social inclusion and poverty reduction.
The second panel will examine how housing systems can support urban prosperity and opportunities for all.
The third panel will address one of the most urgent challenges before us, how to ensure that the expansion and upgrading of housing systems supports climate resilience, low emission development, and the goals of the Paris Agreement.
These agendas are interconnected.
We will not achieve inclusive prosperity while millions remain excluded from adequate housing.
We will not achieve climate goals without decarbonizing the housing construction sector and transforming urban land use patterns, and we will not achieve the new urban agenda without stronger political commitment to housing as a foundation for sustainable urbanization.
The challenge before us now is implementation.
How do we strengthen partnerships across levels of government? How do we better connect housing, land, infrastructure, climate action, and finance? How do we ensure that the benefits of urbanization reach those who are currently being left behind? I look forward to the discussion and to identify practical actions and partnerships needed for more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable housing systems.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
That was miss Claudia Rosberg.
Thank you.
The key person that I'm going to call up right now to give an address is Gilsan Rosiev, the World Urban Forum 13 Deputy National Coordinator.
Welcome.
Thank Your Excellency, Madame Anna Clau D Rosbach, Your Excellency, Mr.
Ayoub Ismail Yusuf, Minister of Public Works and Construction Housing Bo Somalia.
Excellency distinguished delegates, partners, ladies and gentlemen.
It's my honor to welcome you Ibau to the 13th session of the World Urban Forum here and this very distinguished meeting as a part of the ministerial that we had we started in the morning.
I would like to thank habitat for establishing this important platform which brings together member states, local authorities, experts, and partners from different regions to look at housing from its many interconnected dimensions.
Wo 13, of course, will feature a broad range of dialogues, ministerial discussions, thematic panels, and side events dedicated to housing.
Indeed, every country face its own realities, different levels of urbanization, economic capacity, institutional systems, and social needs.
As a result, approaches to housing vary significantly, but across all contexts, the goal remains the same to ensure adequate, safe, and affordable housing for all as a foundation for dignity and stability.
And the interactive structure of today's ministerial meeting that started with the national statements now will continue with the thematic panels gives us a valuable opportunity to discuss many important dimensions of housing in an open and practical way.
It allows us to hear different perspectives, exchange experiences, showcase based practice and share knowledge from different regions.
This kind of dialogue helps us move beyond general commitments and towards the solutions that are realistic, inclusive, and effective.
In this context, allow me to highlight the important role of the open ended intergovernmental working group on adequate housing for role established by UN Habitat, and Azerbijan is pleased to have been elected together with Somalia as co chair of this process.
We see this both as an honor and responsibility and we remain committed contributing constructively to advancing the global housing agenda through inclusive dialogue and shared solutions.
So far, we have been very pleased to work with our counterpart from Somali and Yuan Habitat.
During W 13, the working group will hold an intersectional meeting allowing us to continue our collective work, deepen cooperation, and strengthen the global dialogue on housing and urban development.
In Azerbijan, housing has been placed at the center of our social policy and more of that as the core or large scale reconstruction and urban development efforts.
Following the libération of Karaba and East Sanghaz region, we are undertaking one of the largest reconstruction and recovery resettlement efforts in modern history.
Extensive work is being implemented to rebuild cities, restore communities, and create new living environments where housing is not only a basic need, but a key driver of return, stability, and long term development.
This experience reinforces our strong belief that housing must be at the heart of any national recovery and planning efforts, especially in the context of urban transformation and reconstruction.
At the same time, we all accept that housing is closely connected to economic development.
It supports jobs, productivity, and long term growth.
It shapes how cities function and how opportunities are created and shaped.
This is why it is important to look at how housing systems can better include all parts of the economy and how innovative financing and planning approaches can help deliver more affordable and sustainable solutions.
We also recognize that housing is linked to climate action and sustainability, that they go almost hand in hand.
The way we plan, build, and manage housing has a direct impact on our environment and on the resilience of our cities and their health.
Discussions that we are opening now and today throughout the forum are closely connected and reflect the many dimensions of housing.
Housing is about people and their well being.
It's about reducing poverty, strengthening pathways for social inclusion and mobility.
Taking all together these discussions show that housing is not only about infrastructure as already highlighted.
Before me by the distinguished speakers.
It's about people, opportunity, resilience, health, and the future we want to build for our cities and communities.
With the broad program of W 13, in close partnerships with habitat and commitment of all partners participating today and joining online, we have a strong opportunity to move from dialogue practical and implementable actions.
I wish you all productive meaningful discussions.
I wish you, that you enjoy your stay in Baku and in Azerbijan, if any inquiries you may have, we stand ready to be with you, to support you, that you enjoy your stay.
Thank you very much.
A very successful W 13.
Thank you.
Thank you to three of our very distinguished guests.
I can now invite you to leave the stage for now as I invite up our next keynote speaker for the session.
I'll do the keynote speaker now.
Okay.
Thank you.
We have a keynote speaker coming up to talk about housing for social inclusion and ending poverty.
The representative from Mexico City, which likes to come to the stage.
It is Her Excellency, miss Edna Vega Rangel, Secretary of Urban Development, Mexico.
Brilliant.
Thank you.
We witness Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank the authorities, our colleagues, ministers, representatives of local governments and international organizations, academics and social organizations and community organizations.
Without a doubt, it's an honor to participate in this World Urban Forum in 2026, which is devoted to an issue that is one of the centers of the biggest global challenges, housing as a tool for social inclusion and the ending poverty.
It This is an urgent discussion and it's deeply human and humane because talking about housing isn't just about talking about a space of four walls or it's the building of a an urban policy, it's talking about dignity and the real possibility of putting into practice human rights, the dimension of the challenge that we face is enormous throughout the day, we've repeated something central.
It's between 2.8 and 3 million people in the world do not have access to adequate housing more than 1 million 1.1 billion live in informal housing and slums.
More than 300 million people live or surviving in the street and until 2030, 3 billion will not be able to access affordable housing.
To face this global demand, the world will have to be able to produce 96 new affordable housing every day.
In the next years.
On the other hand, the World Bank points out that in 2024, 57% of the world population lives in urban areas.
That's the equivalent of 4.6 billion people living in cities and it's projected we imagine that by 2050, it will be more than 68% of the population will be living in the urban areas.
2018-2050, this urban growth will add approximately 2.5 billion additional people to cities.
That's one out of every four urban dwellers in the world live in slums and informal settlements and we could continue to give you statistics.
But in the face of this complexity, perhaps the most important question is not just how many houses we need the real question or the true question from our point of view is, what type of cities are we building today and for who are they being built? Because the housing crisis that we're facing today is not just a quantitative deficit, it's the territorial expression of inequality.
Urban poverty is not just reflected on the income of people, it's also reflected in the distance between the housing and jobs and the housing and school, the time that you spend going from one place to the other, the absence of basic services, the legal insecurity, lack of transport and health, education, and public spaces.
That's why when we talk about housing or adequate housing, we talk about much more than a roof over our heads.
We also talk about the possibility of a girl being able to study in decent conditions.
We're talking about a woman being able to have patrimonial safety and security against violence.
We talk about the majority of people being able to live with access to care.
We talk about a family having stability and being able to imagine a future.
That is the root of one of the biggest challenges of our time.
That knowing that adequate housing cannot continue to be treated just as merchandise or a secondary result of the market.
For decades, many countries, including Mexico tried to work towards models for access to housing that was based on the number of credits that they received from financing and from the capacity of being able to pay of the families.
The role of the state was just reduced to facilitating conditions for the market while the localization of housing and the production in the city were determined by how profitable the land was, the result are visible.
In many regions of the world, the peripheral expansion is completely disorganized, territorial segregation and the increase of the cost of land and many people not being able to meet their needs and having to live in informal settlements.
When we Mexico knows this part of the experience very well, they were faced their policy was based on building land on cheap or building housing on cheap land without services.
And that taught us a big lesson and it's a very clear lesson, a house.
Badly placed does not resolve the issue of inclusion.
Actually, it worsens the situation because a family can have a formal house, but at the same time, they can still remain excluded from opportunities, opportunities that cities provide.
That's why today the international discussion should go beyond the number of houses built.
We need to discuss the quality of urban quality and the right of the city.
And I think that the important questions of this panel are fundamental because they force us to discuss not just technical solutions, but also political decisions.
The first question asks, what has allowed us to really efficiently reduce poverty and inequality through housing? To answer this question, I think that the international experience shows something that's very important.
The most successful focuses are those that think about housing as a politic of integrating welfare and not just an isolated element.
One essential criteria of success is that policies of housing policies should articulate a focus on other social rights through integrated or integral public policies, access to health, education, food, employment, basic services, and Social Security.
From this vision, we need to think about it's important to address the problem of these different modes of attention, on the one hand, improvement of housing, and showed how very relevant impact is because apart from acknowledging the social and economical and economic value of these existing policies, for a long time governors considered that precarious settlements should be eradicated.
Today, we know that many of these communities have built over the years networks of care, local economies work, connections and they represent a huge social capital when infrastructures are incorporated and mobility, drainage.
It doesn't only improve the area, but it also improves social inclusion and the quality of life.
But now I would just like to reflect on something which is a reflection from our point of view, which is very important.
How do we manage to make these, urban improvement processes don't don't deteriorate the land, which also causes expulsion of families.
That is one of the biggest urban dilemmas that we have at the moment.
Secondly, the provision of social housing is still indispensable, particularly for the population that will never be able to have access to the formal housing market.
Nevertheless, the evidence also shows us that not any social housing or it's not just any social housing that generates inclusion.
It requires what we mentioned previously, transport, employment, services, equipment, otherwise, the city will just continue to reproduce social inequality.
Now we need to ask something which we avoid addressing quite often.
We are measuring the success of our policies just by the number of houses built.
Because building more houses doesn't just mean better building or building a better city.
Perhaps we should start measuring how many families manage to reduce their traveling time and they're able to access employment, stay in their communities, or improve their quality of life.
Thirdly, the international experiences also show the importance of recognizing and strengthening social production of habitats of the habitats.
Housing.
In many parts of the world, millions of houses were built by the families and communities themselves.
Self production should not just be seen as informal housing, it should be acknowledged as the social capacity that it needs to be accompanied, it needs to be technically and financially supported, but that is this is very rarely pointed out and supported.
Community processes and assisted self production models have shown that communities can produce an adequate housing.
I think it's very important to invite you to another discussion.
We are designing housing policies which are aimed at really aiming at the formal politics.
Or are we thinking about housing that will allow people to access education and services? Because many people just do not fit into these traditional mechanisms of financing.
That leads us to another question.
For this panel, how can governments address the lack of housing, particularly the informal settlements? And excluded context, what commitments and alliances do we need to be able to speed up social inclusion, gender equality, and reducing poverty through housing.
On this point, I would like to share the experience that we have been carrying out in Mexico since 2024 and it is one of the pillars of our current policy.
It's what Claudich Mapana has adopted and the building of 1.8 million houses in throughout the country, which involves an investment of more than 1.8 million pesos.
But what is the difference between this and other moments? First of all, these houses that have been beat in the state of Mexico, we can see some examples of what is being carried out today in Mexico.
It's a direct investment and does not exclude the capacity of the private investment and that without doubt is a central element.
Furthermore, 1.8 million improvements of housing, 1 million signatures of options, which for years, which were for families that had unpayable credits and In just under a year and a half, we've been developing this and that's not just isolated and that's fundamental to be able to include this as social inclusion, accompanied by important programs that are crossed with social programs such as, for example, young people, youth constructing futures, receiving grants and scholarships, and that today has shown that in this short amount of time, it has resulted in a reduction of poverty in less than 13.5 million people and this new effort will change the lives of millions of families.
I couldn't avoid talking about this experience, and I hope that this forum will be able to hold a much deeper debate on a new urban agenda.
Thank you so much.
G.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
That we just had our keynote speaker today, miss Edna.
Thank you very much for coming up onto the stage.
Her Excellency, miss Edna Viga Angel, Secretary of Urban Development, Mexico.
Now we're going to move swiftly on to the panel discussion.
I'm going to now invite our panelists up stage if they can take their seats as I read out their names.
The first is His Excellency, Mr.
Adib Ben Ibrahim, Secretary of State in charge of Housing of Ministry of Urban Planning, Housing and City Policy, Kingdom of Morocco.
Welcome to the stage.
Our second panelist is His Excellency, Mr.
Se Samal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning, and Construction, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Welcome to the stage.
Next is His Excellency, Omar Blet, Deputy Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of the Republic of Turkey.
Welcome to the stage.
Thank you.
I'd also like to welcome to the stage, Mr.
Int Maz from Mexico City.
Welcome to the stage.
I think beside all of you, there should be some microphones so that we can hear clearly your answers as I'm about to read out a number of different things that we're going to talk about.
I just want to make sure you've got a microphone and your interpretation.
I pass it down.
Thank you.
Can you hear me? Yes.
Brilliant.
We're going to kick off first with a question and that is in regards to some of the housing points that has been spoken about earlier today.
Now, what successful approaches demonstrated impact in reducing poverty and inequality and fostering inclusion through improved access to adequate housing? I'll put that to His Excellency, Mr.
Adib Ben Ibrahim from Morocco.
Mercy, Madame des Monsieur.
Thank you very much.
Dear participants, I am very happy to share the experience of Morocco as for a promotion of social inclusion and poverty reduction as well and social equality.
As you know, poverty has a very negative impact and doesn't allow the citizen to access basic services like housing, education, social stability, and, of course, participation to the economic life of the country.
We can talk about housing.
One of the most important points is to focus on access to housing.
And when a People do not have access to housing.
The citizens do not have a stable situation allowing them to participate in an active life.
And when the citizen with low revenue wishes to access housing, well, it is important that is revenue.
It does not allow him or her to respond to the remaining needs for everyday life, meaning that today, the part of revenue dedicated to housing is so important for middle income citizen does not allow him to respond needs such as educations or health services.
So we have to act quickly as far as housing is concerned.
Morocco has been very aware of this issue, and for us, it is the leverage to reduce poverty, and Morocco has set housing as national priority in all its policies of territorial cohesion and social justice.
We have three pillars for First, public support to social housing, improvement of general life framework, and also social funding for people with low income mainly to resorb slums.
Today, Morocco, thanks to this mechanism, the solidarity Fund for habitat for housing, which plays a crucial role in this function and has allowed us to eliminate a number of slums We do have today 61% of cities without slums, 65,000 people.
And a very important point as far as low income and middle income classes, the PPP public private partnership that allowed us through social housing program to propose 720,000 units for 720,000 families benefiting from this private public partnership and with another success is the change of parading.
Instead of funding the promoter, we support directly the citizens.
70000-100 thousand dims, depending on it's practically one third of the price of the apartment is given by the state and compared to the previous program, a citizen can choose the place where they want to live, not necessarily in a neighborhood where there are only social housing.
And this is quite important.
This started in the middle of 2024 and today we have more than 100,000 people have benefited from this program.
And concerning these situations, we are aware that housing is not enough.
We need all necessary equipment to guarantee all services, public services.
The reason for which a number of things have been realized, have been done prior to this program as far as urban renovation within the framework of the public policies of the cities, intervening in old tissues, in old to renovate some equipment and new equipment and respond to the needs of the population.
This has been done firstly through state policy and thanks to a law that has allowed us to carry out urban renovation, as well as housing renovation.
This is quite important.
In old cities, there are houses that are almost in ruins, and state does act in order to renovate social equipments, Another rec, another important point, I would say, has to do with the valorization of Medinas, the old towns.
We have to preserve these old towns, as well as the population living in them, and important progress have been carried out to keep the population within the Medinas in Morocco and today we are aware that the intervention to reduce inequalities that has to be carried out in an integrated way housing housing funding.
And in order to do that, the state guarantees for low income revenue citizens as far as credits are concerned, as well as focusing and supporting zones of social housing with all the equipments to allow housing and dignity.
Thank you very much.
Great Great answer.
Thank you very much for your in depth response.
I'm now going to put the second question to His Excellency, Sam.
And looking ahead, what priority actions and partnerships can member states commit to for accelerating social inclusion, gender equality, and poverty reduction through housing? Allow me to stand up, Mom.
Let me share with you with the question that's just been put to me.
Let me share with you the Cambodians story.
You see, not long ago, Cambodian City was destroyed during the Vietnam War.
And in 1975, the Karch emptied the city and the genocides happen in Cambodia and along with the genocide, you know, every life of the city is gone, right? So in 1991, we signed a peace Agreement in 1993, we have our first elections.
That is very crucial factors that help to rebuild our city.
And along with that, our former prime minister, he made a decision, very strategic decisions.
That is to recognize private ownership of the land and house, right? And that helped us to solve many of the problem.
Ownership start from that, you know.
Previously, Camberdan there's no private ownership.
There was just a state owned ownership of the property, housing, right? So we see that problem right away.
So if we still chose not to recognize private ownership of the land, then there's no development, right? So we did the right thing on that, right? And after that, we, um, try to urbanize our city in a way in ways that every city in Cambodia would receive the same thing.
The same principle in investments of infrastructures.
Road access, clean water, electricity.
It might not be a big deal to some country, but for us, that is the key development of our city, right? And after that, we see, you know, sustained economic growth in Cambodia.
That is another milestone for Cambodia.
Peace and stability and sustained economic growth in the last 20 years is a key milestone in our history.
Because of that, most of Cambodia now become a middle class.
And this middle class give us a new opportunity to further develop our country.
Now most Cambodian own a home.
So my focus as Minister of land management My focus now is on those that lie at the bottom of our society.
Remember that Cambodia come from war, the ash of war.
In the last ten years, what we did is we give out agricultural lands and we give out housing.
Half 1 million of Cambodian that live below poverty line ten years ago, now they become middle class.
That's half 1 million families, that's roughly about 2.5 million people.
Secondly, what we did now is people that live in informal settlement.
We offer them job.
We offer them a better interest rate if they borrow from banks.
We create saving scheme for them.
We find a new home for them.
And I'm pleased to tell you that I hope within my time as a minister, we hope to solve all these informal settlement in Cambodia.
All right.
So I'm very happy that, you know, I'm come to Baku with, you know, a happy feeling because not many people living in informal settlement in Cambodia.
So I should be able to finish the job soon, right? Another thing is mortgage.
In the Western world, mortgage, it's part of your life.
In Cambodia, it's a new thing.
We use green finance, we use innovative finance to fund housing for people in Cambodia.
That will help to make people own more home in Cambodia.
Our aim is not having a population that ran house for all their life.
Our aim is to make people own home.
Because that is the value.
We believe we need to be generated through different generations, right? We also focus on family value, family culture, because we believe that is the strength of our society.
We combat diabetes, as you know, country that come out from war.
The first, second generation that receive a better life, they tend to have diabetes.
That is a big problem for us.
Cambodian got 17 million people, 1 million got diabetes.
So this is not a problem that we see as, you know, as a threat to people owning a home and also have a good life.
Heart disease, half 1 million in Cambodia, that is eating away our money.
Eating healthy is not to help people improve their lives as well.
Healthy food, more public space for them to exercise.
We also believe that part of having a harmonious home Soft drink, we cut down on that.
Alcohol, we also cut down on that as well.
So housing in Cambodia, the term inclusive housing housing for inclusive growth for us, we also deal with issues like that drugs also not a problem for us as well, but we need to deal with that.
Basically, for us, you know, solving strategic issue is one hand, the other hand, what we work into detail now is family culture, family values, and also, you know, thing that can cause people to lose the home.
Because it's easy, you know, when you are not healthy, you're not able to work, you know, you probably lose your home, right? And if people lost their house, we will not have a strong society.
We Cambodian, we don't want to go back to war.
You know, we don't want to see Cambodian gone through what she has gone through before.
So this is what we look for.
Lastly, educations.
We Cambodian take a different approach in the way we educate our kids now.
We go for ad hoc, informal, creative, and we open to digital AI.
But don't get me wrong.
AI is just a tool for enhanced kids productivity, kids learning.
This is the thing that we hope we have a better result.
And lastly, I think you would see this period under the current leadership of the current Prime Minister, Prime Minister humanid, you will see a new Cambodia, right? And I'm coming to Baku today.
I think I can show you a promising Cambodia, not the Cambodia that you used to hear or you used to see, but a new Cambodia.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
His Excellency, thank you very much.
Now, quickly heading over to Mexico and a question that I want to bring up on the stage as well in relation to what we've been discussing.
If we look ahead, what priority actions and partnerships can member states commit to for accelerating social inclusion, gender equality, and poverty reduction through housing? If you can just also give us a statement on that as well.
Thank you so much.
First of all, we would like to greet and thank Baku in Azerbaijan and UN Habitat for this really important effort that they have made to set up this successful World Urban Forum.
I'd like to we have been asked to send a message on this discussion and respond to this question.
And I'd like to mention Rgs, the Secretary of Development in our country, the federal government, and we work together on a shared mission in Mexico and in our cities with our President Claudio Chemb and to answer the question from the perspective of the Mexico City, which is one of the biggest cities in the world and certainly the biggest in the American continent, with a population of 9.1 million people.
Think about the context of a metropolitan area.
It's a huge city that has 23 million people.
We believe that accelerating policies for social inclusion gender equality and reducing poverty through housing.
Is an effort which requires a fundamental conviction today more than ever, within the framework of public policies, housing cannot be understood as merchandise.
We've already said that, so we have to think about the focus that we've had here at UN Habitat and the context that we have in this forum It has to be discussed widely and accepted within the framework of the challenges that we have before us.
Housing must be always recognized or acknowledged as a human right and as one of the central pillars of social justice and urban democracy and shared prosperity.
Today, the cities of the world are facing enormous challenges that come from inequality and speculation, the increase of the price of housing and of land when When housing and land are subjected to the logic of the market, expulsion of communities is increased, territorial segregation and many people and the exclusion of many people from a decent life.
And from Mexico City, we believe that the first priority should be strengthening the public capacity to be able to guide urban development.
Governments must increase the production of affordable housing.
It's not an easy task.
However, if we strengthen reserves of public land, and if we work on the regulation or controlling abusive increases of rent, allowing families to remain in their communities with access to services, mobility, public spaces of good quality, we will be making several steps or central steps towards a much better human present.
Housing should also be at the center of urban policies.
We have to understand that single working mothers and older working adult women represent populations of growing populations, and they are particularly vulnerable populations in our cities.
Many of these women are the sole breadwinners of their family and they need to travel a long time to get to their work.
They have precarious working situations, and that's why urban policies and housing policies must incorporate the public system of care we can't have real social inclusion if cities continue to be organized without taking into account the caring tasks housing and the urban surroundings should have places for caring for children, schools, health services, community spaces, accessible transport and health.
We also believe that it's fundamental to have cities which are completely accessible for all elderly people and disabled people.
We should always bear them in mind.
It should be a basic principle of urban design and housing, the cities of the future must have these tasks on their agenda.
They must allow all people to live and travel and participate fully in urban life.
To this end, the public space has a fundamental role.
It's not just urban infrastructure, it is the surroundings of social integration and the building of communities.
That's why in Mexico City, we have driven projects such as utopias.
What are utopias? Integrals public spaces which are in the popular spaces where we have cultures, sport, care, recreation, community, health, and places where people can spend time together.
Utopians have a vision of the city where public space becomes a tool for equality and collective well being, particularly for girls, boys, children, young people, women, and elderly people.
We also believe that fighting against urban poverty requires integral policies.
It's not just a matter of building housing, as we said here, but also building community and well being.
Housing must be linked to access to water, to employment, to energy, to education, to health and public spaces, as we said, and to financial opportunities.
So from our experience, it's also fundamental to strengthen alliances between national governments, local governments, international organizations, universities, cooperative, social organizations, and private actors who are committed to public objectives.
Private investment is very important.
We're very clear about that, but it must be linked to social interests and the right to the city.
We also believe it's important to fight against gentrification.
There is no good gentrification in small quantities.
That is what needs to be included as a new idea, a new paradigm on development in Mexico City.
We've been working on inclusion and actions or housing actions in which we have a big percentage of a program of public housing for rent.
This year, we are concluding the reconstruction of 22,000 houses which were lost.
Um, I would like to conclude by pointing something out.
Go ahead.
Okay, just to conclude, we believe that the world needs to move towards a new paradigm for urban balance, and it's the democratic regulation.
And so this isn't the law of the strongest.
Um which has to decide on the world's destiny, better social investment and shared prosperity because living in the city should be a right and not a privilege that we always need to have in mind, and sorry for going over time.
Turn over to Turkey now to also provide us with their perspective on this very important issue of housing.
It is difficult to be the last speaker because all the speakers exhibit their time.
I kindly ask the moderator to be patient with me.
I would like to say welcome to all the participants, and I would like to thank the government of Azerbijan and UN Habitat for organizing this panel.
As you all know, Turkey Republic has 85 million people and we had similar problems with the previous speakers countries and we can call our country being in the center of the world.
It is connecting Asia and Europe and indirectly connecting Africa to the Middle East.
Turkey has undergone a very big industrialization process and the flow from the villages to the urban areas happened very fast.
Social housing need became a huge issue for us.
But in the last 20 years, the decisive policies that our government has been implementing contributed hugely to the solution of these challenges and we have future programs in order to deal with the same issues.
I'd like to share our experience from Turkey I know that my time is limited.
I'd like to explain what we have done up until now and how our experiences can be shared with the others having similar issues.
As you all know, in Turkey, on 6th of February in 2023, we had a big earthquake and about 500,000 independent houses were destroyed and we reconstructed them.
500,000 houses have been completed in two years and as a country having achieved doing so, I will complete my speech in 5 minutes.
Today, we are not only talking about urban planning policies, but also social justice, development, human dignity, and public policies grounded in human rights.
Housing is a fundamental element of safe living, family unity, access to education and employment, participation in social life, and breaking the cycle of poverty.
For this reason, we must consider adequate housing in conjunction with safe use, affordable costs, quality construction, clean water, energy, transportation, schools, health services, employment, and healthy living environments.
As turkey, we view housing as one of the fundamental building blocks of social inclusion, social solidarity, adaptation to climate change, and sustainable development.
Rapid urbanization, income inequality, disasters, climate change, and forced migration are making the housing issue even more critical.
The urban vision provided by the new urban agenda adopted in 2016 is embraced by Turkey as an important guide.
At this juncture, the role of the state is of great importance.
The state's duty is to facilitate access to affordable, safe, and quality housing for our low and middle income citizens.
Sustainable housing production must be supported by the effective use of public resources, the generation of funds from state owned lands, revenue and profit sharing with the private sector, low interest financing and long term payment plans.
In Turkey, approximately 15% of total housing production is carried out by the public sector, while 85% is carried out by the private sector.
Every year we produce 800,000 housing units every year.
Only 15% is being carried out by the state and 85% is given facilities to produce new housing units.
Over the past 20 years, approximately 1.75 million social housing units have been constructed to Turkey, providing safe housing for over 7 million students.
1 million 750 million housing means a city of 7 million.
Therefore, for the disadvantaged groups, vulnerable groups, this number has pivotal importance.
You see these numbers on the screen.
Please be patient with me.
While producing social housing, and I kindly ask you to give your attention to me, while producing social housing, these social housing lands, we aim at not resulting in a new transformation in the future.
These housing should be of good quality, and we don't want to have bad visuals by the repetition of the buildings, we want them to be in the harmony with the society and the nature.
This is of great importance to us because in our history, we have a neighborhood culture and we really attach great importance to the neighbor relations.
Therefore, we don't want to have new settlement areas which are against historical facts and upon the demands of the citizens, we implement the projects which fit which fit the best for their interests.
With the centuries Housing Project, we aimed at creating housings for the vulnerable groups, for low income families and citizens in the earthquake prone regions.
Approximately 800,000 housing units are produced in our country each year.
Ensuring this capacity is utilized in a sustainable, accessible, and disaster resilient manner is of great importance.
We learned firsthand through a real life test just how prepared our city's production capacity is to withstand disasters.
Within the scope of urban transformation initiatives, we have taken significant steps toward creating safer and more resilient living spaces by transforming approximately 2.5 million independent units to date.
The earthquakes of February 6th, 2023, have revealed important lessons regarding the future of our cities.
In the earthquake zone, 455,000 housing units have been completed and handed over to the rightful owners.
These settlements have been designed as resilient living ecosystems featuring social amenities, green spaces, energy efficiency, zero waste practices, and environmentally conscious planning.
In these buildings, which align with the nearly zero energy building concept, the goal is to reduce energy consumption by 39% and greenhouse gas emissions by 38%.
We prioritize utilizing solar energy, harvesting green water that can be used as drinking water in the future, and supporting climate resilient infrastructure investments in new settlements.
Finally, I'd like to emphasize the following four points, distinguished guests.
Housing policies must be addressed in conjunction with social services, transportation, education, health, employment, infrastructure, and climate policies.
Access to housing for vulnerable groups must be strengthened without discrimination.
Informal settlements, the shanty towns and insecure housing conditions must be addressed as issues related to poverty elevation, access to basic services, and disaster resilience.
Efforts regarding international cooperation, appropriate financing, local capacity, and green technology must be accelerated.
As Turkey, we remain committed to working with the international community to build more equitable, accessible, resilient, low carbon, and inclusive cities.
I In terms of social housing for vulnerable groups, 1,700,000 houses.
In order to make the cities more resilient against climate crisis and earthquake, 2.5 million urban transformation projects, we have completed them.
We had our challenges, of course, and we are ready to share our experiences with the countries having similar issues.
I would like to thank for your patience for the last speaker.
Thank you.
To our panelists today and for their insights, very different ways of how they have approached it based on their countries and requirements.
I think Cambodia, Mexico City, Morocco, and Turka has really highlighted a number of issues that they've been able to address, challenges that they've overcome, and I think very much key things that we can take further into the future to make sure that housing is for all and that we include everyone within that.
Thank you again to our panelists.
Well, that rounds up this panel session for now.
We are going into our next one very shortly, but I just want you to give a round of applause to our panelists before I dismiss them today.
No, no, no time time's up.
Thank you very much.
Before you go, let's take a quick picture of it.