Roundtables - Local and Regional Governments Roundtable (WUF13)

Welcome everyone.
Empowering local action for adequate housing and resilient communities, strengthening multilevel governance for a sustainable future.
That is the theme of this round table co organized by UN Habitat and the UN Local 2030 coalition, as well as the global task force of local and regional governments.
These roundtables are always special for us in the World Urban Forum.
This year, again, are very significant is a very significant moment.
It is significant because these roundtables aim to bring the voices of local and regional governments to the discussions at the World Urban Forum.
They try to show our priorities, they try to show as well, they give you the opportunity to share what your experiences are and We are going to try to showcase here that local and regional governments, obviously, with our national government partners, with our civil society partners, with all the stakeholders, we are trying to develop innovative, scalable practices.
We're trying to identify enabling conditions for inclusive planning, coordinated financing, and effective multilevel governance.
It is impossible to start a session like this one that follows the World Assembly of local and regional governments that took place last Sunday without Looking at the context of the world that we live in, many things are happening right now.
The world is changing.
The international context is touching in a significant way local and regional realities.
Local and regional governments need to serve people in these new circumstances.
We see important impact of changing demographic we see human mobility taking a very high place on the agendas of every local and regional government.
At the end of the day, as local service providers, local and regional governments need to be at the forefront of solutions.
Our idea at the international movement of local and regional governments that united cities and local governments represent is there is no way that we can do this alone.
One single country, one single sphere of government, one single actor will not be able to find the solutions that the challenges are asking us to find.
The people around the table today are very aware of.
So I am very happy to set the scene around obviously your priorities.
What do you want the international community to discuss when we talk about housing policies? How does the post 2030 agenda need to look like from our own perspective? And how are we trying to address the realities of informal settlements and therapist provision in this changing context? This is in a nutshell what the session is going to be about.
I am very happy to give the floor to Serastian Bel, the head of the Secretariat of the UN Local 2030 coalition to further introduce us to the framing of this round table.
What a pleasure to be with you today.
Welcome, Sebastian.
Thank you, Emilia.
A shared pleasure, of course, and one more testament to our great co delivery when it comes to bring local voices into the multilateral arena.
Sala Americaum Hello, Bonjour.
I want to thank first the head of the executive power of Baku for having us and welcoming us in such a beautiful city.
Thank you, of course, to the global task force of regional and and local and regional governments for co organizing this roundtable and also for co organizing with us in the lead up to Baku, the wide engagement process called the road to Baku, the local Way, where we heard voices from all around the world and you here around the table are representing all of these voices.
It is a culmination of this road to Baku and it's a long constant dialogue process that we also continue afterwards.
Indeed to go back to the context that Emilia was describing a complicated, swiftly changing context, recognizing that local and regional governments are at the forefront of crisis response, the frontline of crisis response and sustainable development.
If SDGs are to be delivered, they are to be delivered in cities and regions, not as mere implementers of the global agendas, but as co creators and co implementers of these global agendas.
This applies also to the housing crisis.
The theme of this w is the housing crisis.
We have 3 billion people that will need adequate housing by 2030.
Means 96,000 units every day and delivering housing is at the core of local governments priority around the world, but also delivering social services, delivering economic opportunities, delivering also local climate action, responding to climate change.
This puts local and regional governments at the heart of the social contract.
This is fundamental also when you build trust between the citizen and the administration.
So today, we will have this discussion around the crimination of the road to Baku.
We had as part of this policy recommendations from the local Train safety coalition, a Hall of UN six recommendations feeding in the call to action as today's dialogue will also feed in the call to action to Baku.
Leading us to the high level political forum, leading us to other agendas, also connecting the housing agenda the Eurban agenda with other agendas.
We will have the new Eurban agenda in review at the high level political forum, SDG 11 also in review.
There are also upcoming milestones that today's discussion will feed into, and this is fundamental.
I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you your solutions based on the recommendations, also illustrating the recommendations of the policy brief.
Learning from each other also to scale up local solutions and ultimately change the world for the better from the bottom up.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I am very grateful for this introduction and as you were saying, Sebastian, for us, the way that we are discussing topics, we are putting housing at the heart of the agenda, not as a sector.
We are not good in sectoral approaches in local governments, for local governments.
Everything is structural, everything is integrated.
That's how we approach the Local 20 agenda and certainly housing as a cornerstone of the social contract.
So thank you for that introduction and now to our hosts, we are very grateful.
That we are able to join you here in Baku.
Mr.
Elder Assov of the Baku City Executive Power, a perfect organization, a very warm welcome.
You cannot do anything about the rain.
We know that, but we are really enjoying our days here.
Thank you for being with us this afternoon.
The floor is yours.
Distinguished forum participants, distinguished guests.
First of all, on behalf of the community of Baku city on the executive power of Baku City, I heartily welcome you in the city of Baku.
I say welcome to you again.
It's not earthy to mention in the recent years as a result of the policy of the President of Azar Ilham Aliyev, in Baku and in the regions, different international events are held.
This is an interesting indicator.
Today, I will Taking this opportunity, I will address you and I would like to mention that we are very unfortunate that there was a big scale of rain It can be also a topic for this forum.
I was born in Baku, I was raised in Baku.
Sin the last half year, we feel seriously that climate change has happened.
Rain flood is also a new challenge for us.
The city is ready for risks, but we saw that we need some reforms concerning this rain floods.
We see that the climate has changed.
This is a very important issue for the whole planet and such meetings can make an impetus to find solutions, effective ways to solve these problems.
About Baku.
Today, Baku, as a result of the policies conducted by the president has qualitatively changed and has reached a new level in recent years.
Had Alif Center construct the Baku Olympic Stadium flames, towers and are among the important architectural examples in the world.
Baku is dynamically developing according to the recent statistics, number of population is more than 3.5 million in Baku.
If we talk about the future of the mankind, I would like to mention that the future of the mankind, according to the scientist, according to futologistist, it will depend on cities and cities should exist for this.
Two years ago, a new master plan Baku was approved according to that master plan, further development was multicentral, and multi function and comfort should be ensured.
Based on the master plan, various large scale actions works are underway, new parks, green corridors and new format streets are being constructed.
Islam Sepa Street was redesigned in new format and the street became a park and here, Park and Street has a unique format.
Here works are in complex nature, and we want to repeat these similar projects in other cities.
Baku is sometimes many times called city of Parks.
We have more than 300 parks in Baku City.
The president, by the individual initiative of the President of Azerbijan 100 new parks have been established and 82 parks have been renovated and also in the Baku City idea Public Union by the initiative of the head of the IDA Public Union, miss Leila Aliyev, more than 200 neighborhood parks have been developed.
Also our topic today is the local and regional governments.
I would like to provide brief information about this.
Baku Power has 12 district executive powers.
In the districts, we have 45 municipalities as local authorities.
They have their own budgets, and they can independently establish develop their activities.
So members of the municipalities are elected by the residents and residents have active part in the development of the city.
And executive power has coordination with municipalities.
In places, it's become a norm.
We have open microphone initiative, direct meetings with the residents in which hundreds of residents participate, which shows that the policy pursued in the country in social oriented port policy and public transport is being the walled up in Baku.
Metro stations and buses are increasing.
Tram also will be constructed in Baku in near future.
So a We have more 140 kilometers automobile zones and bicycle lanes have been established.
In Baku, many old buildings are too old.
Therefore, they are demolished and in their place.
New residential complexes and mega parks are established and by the initiative of the prison white city project has been implemented in the territories where all contamination was the case, it was cleaned ecologically and very ecologically unique project was implemented.
It is a new city inside the city.
We want to continue this format and we have started implementation of the other similar projects.
Also in the tourism sector, Sberes project can be mentioned Sberes project is not just a rehearsal place is also a city inside city.
I would like to mention in the last 20 years 180 billion Azin has been invested in our city and more than 23 million square meters housing living area has been commissioned and the number of hospitals have been increased twice.
This dynamics can be witnessed also in the kindergartens and the secondary schools.
We can say 100% that Baku is one of the cleanest cities in the world.
So this is witnessed by our guests who visit our city.
I had several meetings today with representatives of different cities.
They special mentioned this, why Baku Baku is so clean.
Of course, logistics strong logistics have been established by the government.
Baku a Baku from one side to another side is just 138 kilometers.
But landscape has been changed, but the same cleaning is everywhere.
It is due to the policy pursued in the country, the livelihoods conditions of the population have been increased and these and it's not just the sewage systems efficiency, it's also citizens residents attitude to the cities have changed.
So this is one of the success the root causes of the success.
Baku is one of the most secure and dynamically developing cities in the world.
Baku hosts many international events.
In our capital, there is a serious tourism potential have been established.
If in 2023, we have 20 hotels, their numbers have been increased 12 times.
This is also witnesses our political and economic development.
Of course, as in many cities in Baku also we have some problems and the central authorities try to resolve them.
Recently, you saw that one of the problems which is on the agenda.
This is existing Suge system should be reformed and the government as developed special program.
In the end, I would like to mention that holding this event for in our city is very important and I believe that new ideas discussed here and recommendations made will have important role for further development of the city.
Thank you very much and I wish you good luck in Baku.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much indeed for what it is very impressive numbers in terms of infrastructure.
You have touched upon two things.
There is no mayor in the world that I talked to that do not care about this.
That is how citizens give their opinion and what they care about and how you ensure that citizens show that they care for the city and having a clean city, having a residents care for the cities is something that is extremely important for all of us.
Thank you very much for sharing that experience.
It is indeed a big honor for any city in the world to host big events, but in particular this event that is about the heart of cities, the local service provision, the perspective of localization.
I can't imagine we will stay with you forever in the history of Baku's books.
Thank you very much for that and allow me now to go to our next speaker.
I'm very pleased to welcome miss Rahim Aligla, the mayor of Banju, the capital city of the Gambia and president of the local Elected Women's Network of Mayan Organization of UCLG Rafa in Africa.
Welcome, Mayor.
Thank you very much, Emilia.
Excellences, Mr.
Sebastian Vasu, representing the Executive Director of UN Habitat, dear colleagues and partners.
We meet at a time when the global housing crisis has become one of the greatest challenges of our generation.
Millions of people still live without safe homes, without reliable public services, and without the basic conditions needed for a dignified life.
For cities, these challenges are not distant ideas.
They are part of our everyday reality.
We see growing pressure on land and infrastructure.
We see rising climate risk, more flooding and widening inequalities that hurt the most vulnerable communities first.
We see young people struggling to find opportunities.
We see women carrying heavy care responsibilities.
Indeed, we see low income communities pushed away from essential services and economic chances.
But we also know that cities are not only where crisis grow.
Cities are also where solutions are born.
Local government are on the on the front line of responding to these realities.
We are the level of government closest to the people's daily lives.
We are responsible not only for buildings and roads, but also for the public services and social unity that makes city life possible.
This is why housing cannot be seen only as construction or city expansion.
Housing is about dignity.
It is about safety, belonging, and opportunity.
It is about whether people can take full part of the social, economic, and democratic life of their communities.
Dear colleagues, and that is also why housing cannot be separated from the public services and make it meaningful.
Access to water, toilets, transport, healthcare, education, energy, Internet, public services, and care systems.
All of these are essential to turn housing from a physical structure into a real right.
A resilient city is not measured only by the quality of its buildings.
It is measured by whether all residents can live safely, take part equally, and access opportunities with dignity, just like in Banju.
Today, we must also clearly recognize that housing justice and climate justice go hand in hand.
Those who are most left out of housing systems are often the first to suffer from floods, environmental damage, pollution and climate displacement.
In cities, resilience cannot mean only protecting infrastructure.
Resilience must mean protecting people.
It must mean that no community is forgotten, and it must mean that urban development is built on inclusion, fairness, and human rights.
Across the world, local and regional governments are already putting the new urban agenda and the sustainable development goals into action.
We are doing this by providing essential public services, by involving communities in decision making, by upgrading informal settlements, and by adapting to climate change.
But we must also speak honestly about the barriers that still limit our ability to act.
Too often they mayors, local governments carry growing responsibilities without enough money, without enough authority, and without real access to decision making spaces.
Too often, cities are expected to deliver ambitious global goals while working with tight budgets and broken governance systems.
To truly make the SDGs and the new Urban agenda work at the local level, multi level governance must move from word to action.
Here, I want to borrow the word of Gutierrez, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, let's start walking the talk.
I think that's a very important phrase that he keeps reminding us.
But as I said, Too often cities are expected to deliver ambitious global goals while working with tight budgets and broken governance system.
I have to underline this sentence to truly make the SDGs and the new Urban agenda work at the local level, multi governance must move from words to action.
Partnership between national governments, local governments, regional authorities, civil society, and international organization cannot be just for soon.
They must be built into the system.
Local governments must be recognized not only as those who carry out policies, but as political actors and essential partners in shaping sustainable urban futures.
This requires stronger decentralization, reliable and fair funding, and investment in local planning and data systems.
The future of sustainable development will not be decided only by global declaration.
It will be decided by what happens in the neighborhoods, communities, and local areas.
From Banu, we bring a message of commitment and also a message of urgency.
They are males, our cities are ready to lead, our communities are ready to take part, but local action must be matched with political will, institutional recognition and investment at every level.
If we want resilient communities, we must invest in inclusive urban development.
If we want social unity, we must put housing justice at the center of our policies.
And together, through solidarity, Through cooperation and through effective multi level governance, we can build cities that are more just, more caring, more resilient, and more human for today's generation and those to come.
I am happy to announce here, Madam Secretary-General, that the partnership of Banjul with Baku and Medina partnership is important for the success of the SDGs.
I'm happy to say that I have just finished a very important meeting with the mayor of Baku.
And I want to attest and retaliate everything that he said here because the SDGs are very, very important.
SDG 17 is important when we want to achieve the SDGs in 2013.
And here I am again to have a very successful meeting with my brother from Medina.
So I thank them for their foresight, for understanding the importance of SDG 17, and I want to thank each and every one of you, Salamaneo.
Well, I don't think you can say it is clearer or louder.
I think the message has come across, Mayor.
Thank you very, very much.
I think it is a message where it becomes clear that there is a multilateralism that actually works.
That's local multilateralism and this context between cities, between regions.
That is what we are about.
Because the reason why local and regional governments need to be at the tables like these ones, but also at those where decisions are made is because they can actually transform the lives of cities, the day to day lives of citizens, and the way that cities are shaped.
How people access water, transportation, public space, how they feel safe and how they bring their children to school is our collective success or failure.
I think this is why we are pushing as local and regional governments, international municipal movement to ensure that not only your voices, but also your visions and your capacity to act at the discussions.
The lack of capacity of local and regional governments cannot be a pretext not to involve this sphere of government and this is what this roundtable is about.
So I'm very happy to acknowledge the deputy of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe that is going to be facilitating later on and now to give the floor to my dear friend and colleague, Lucy Slack, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Local Government forum.
Lucy, this is not our first deal.
I think it's sounding better and better even in these difficult times.
All the lack for the next segment.
The floor is yours.
Thanks so much for that, Emilia.
Just to acknowledge our partners in this event as well, Local 2030 and UN habitat, it's really great to be, as Emilia says, not our first rodeo together, but hopefully finessing and building the momentum behind what I think we all want to see, which is engagement of local and regional governments firmly in the multilateral arena.
Um, Honorable ministers, mayors, colleagues, friends, it's a pleasure to be here.
I know you haven't come to listen to me, but I'm going to say just a few words of introduction for this session and we have a fantastic panel of speakers to really respond, I think, to the call to action from the mayor of Banjil in her last presentation.
I'm speaking, as Emilia says, very much on behalf of the global task force of local and regional governments.
I think many of you in this room know the global task force, but just briefly, we're a self organized constituency, a global network of global networks, if you like, to really bring together the voice of local government to speak clearly and with one shared direction.
And we're, as we've already said, very much a partner of the local 2030 process in advancing SDG localization, as the mayor herself just said.
The global task force has also played a very active role in the road to Baku, the local way process, including co organizing regional consultations and dialogues that have really helped to shape the Road to Baku Local Solutions Report, but also broader consultations into WUF.
This has been a process for us.
It hasn't started as we walk through the gates of the WUF 13 Conference Center here in Baku.
It's been a process that we as a collective community have been working towards.
Amelia said in her opening remarks, urbanization, dealing with the housing challenge, it can't be dealt with by one organization or entity alone.
It is about partnership and the consultations have brought together local and regional governments, civil society, youth, academia, and development partners to really help to shape and identify common priorities, challenges, and also locally led solutions relating to housing resilience and territorial development.
Our panel that we're about to go into is going to focus today on and local and regional government leadership to work for adequate housing and resilient communities.
I think that leadership is a really important word in what we're going to be discussing.
And we're going to cover the critical leadership of local and regional governments in responding to the challenges the key challenges of our time, ensuring access to adequate, inclusive, and resilient housing for everyone across the globe.
We want to recognize that local and regional governments are very much at the front line of addressing these challenges, the challenges of rapid urbanization, informality and service gaps, but also housing affordability and some of those questions around land and spatial inequality.
And local and regional governments as Mayor herself said in her closing, are really the level of government that are closest to the people and the communities and they are best placed to really translate these global commitments into action on the ground.
A word I'm hearing very much in sessions this week is action.
I hope we can use this local and regional governments event to start to move the conversation into action.
Through this road to Bau process, we've definitely seen very strong evidence that local and regional governments, it's already driving innovation, whether that's in informal settlement upgrading, participatory planning, or integrated territorial planning, urban strategy development.
The Road to Bau Local Solutions Report, I think does bear witness to this gaining momentum and really highlights some practical experiences and locally driven solutions that we want to look at how we can scale up and build across the globe.
And a clear part of that, a very clear message, and I come back to it, is this question around leadership and empowering local leaders.
It's critical.
We really need stronger partnerships across all levels of government, better access to financing, but also institutionalization of some of the multi level governance frameworks that we know are going to be essential in terms of dealing with some of these global existential crises that we face.
That's enough for me.
This is the framing, if you like, for this session.
As I say, we have in our panel representatives from national government, from local authorities, from regional institutions, and also professional planning networks.
We're going to hear from all parts of the sector to really help guide our discussions and consider how local and regional governments really can be properly empowered to lead implementation.
I'm going without further ado, I'm going to go straight to my first speaker, His Excellency, Jamie António Dovane Castillo.
I hope I haven't pronounced your name too badly, sir.
He's the Minister of Housing and Territorial Planning in Panama.
Minister, how can national housing policies better empower local and regional governments to lead that implementation on the ground.
Over to you.
Thank you very much.
We are all very grateful.
I'm sorry, we cannot hear.
I'm very pleased to be representing a Central America country, which is Panama.
Thank you very much to all the authorities that are with us here today.
It is really very important for us the experience that we will be gaining here by sharing all of your experiences.
For our country, the need to reduce the excessive concentration of the urban growth in metropolitan areas is fundamental.
A housing policy that promotes the development of middle sized cities and peripheral regions by means of strategic infrastructure, the access to services, local employment opportunities, regional connectivity, and polycentric planning will contribute to reduce the inequalities across different territories and the pressure that is put on main cities.
In order for this to become a reality, the decentralization is the decentralization by itself doesn't guarantee any results because local governments effectively lead, and to do so they need a real autonomy, technical capabilities, sufficient financing, as we mentioned before, also access to information, both geographical and spatial information by means of new technologies, which will allow them to acquire this knowledge and to create the land planning according to the climate changes that are coming our way in a way that they can have the required resilience that each and every community requires.
Regulatory frameworks need to be very clear and they need a multi level coordination.
Panama's experience demonstrates that when housing is connected to land planning, climate resilience, citizen participation allows for a more solid basis for urban development in the long term.
This allows us to create citizens that have a sense of belonging and communities, which will be the ones that will enable the local government and therefore the central government to maintain these cities as a potential for growth and not a burden for the capitals of our country as it's happening currently in our country, where our capital concentrates more than 50% of the population of the Republic of Panama.
Which brings a huge burden that in order to give a response to the housing deficit, we have developed housing solutions with no connectivity, with a lack of basic social services, and where citizens that live there make use of these housing solutions as dormitory cities, which forces them to have to commute and travel to be able to receive health care services, education services, and reach their workplaces.
That's why it is fundamental to empower local governments and provide the necessary investment by the state to be able to guarantee a source of employment, as well as providing investment in social structure and infrastructure, including drinkable water supply, waste management, transport connections and facilities, As to all types of energy as well as electricity and guarantee that all of these families are actually able to be part of a community that can help the central government to continue growing as a country.
Thank you.
Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Minister.
I think that a couple of points that you make there are probably worth just reiterating, particularly the focus on secondary or intermediary cities and how we can bring those more into the fore, but critically that ecosystem around all of the things that you need to see in terms of communities and the importance of decentralization in helping us to achieve that.
I'm going to go next to our next speaker, miss Fatimatu Abdel Malik, who many of you here will know very well, the president of Nukshit in Mauritania and a Madam President, how are regional governments addressing the reality of informal settlements? It's something that is such a critical issue for us to address in terms of housing, but also in terms of wider local services and how a regional governments dealing with some of those rapidly growing urban settlements and the big gaps in service provision that exist.
Thank you.
It is a great opportunity for me.
I would first like you to thank the host country, the city of Baku, and the global task force for organizing this great round table.
Which gives us the opportunity to talk to discuss about a major subject for us.
I would firstly like to say that we live in a world that is unfortunately facing multiple crises and crises that are interlinked, more and more interlinked.
I would also like to mention that We representatives of local and regional governments, we are the co creators of global solutions and we must be aware of this.
We are the leaders also of global governance.
Because and we must not forget this, we are on the front line.
As I'm used to say, to repeat this, we are also the ones who can make the dreams of citizens realities, transform them in realities.
We know our people, we know the needs of our people.
We know what are the challenges of different territories within our countries.
The challenges are huge.
The problems are big, we're facing multiple crises, environmental crisis, urban crisis Nkshot is growing very fastly.
We have more and more cities which are becoming more and more dense and there is a great big pressure on cities.
Yeah.
There is yes, I think that we are not using the urban space efficiently.
We could use it more efficiently, and that is hindering the development strategies that we want to reshape in the future with local and regional governments.
Nkshot is the city, which is between the seaside and the desert with many possibilities.
In the city, we have developed some instruments, development tools, and, and we're conducting several projects aiming at improving the life of our citizens.
We have different plans, a mobility plan and environmental plans.
Those tools and those plans have allowed us to conduct very successful projects with our partners in the interest for the benefit of our citizens.
As I have said, Nouakcht is near the desert and we have a very complicated climate.
We lack water.
This is very, the lack of water, big problem for citizens.
The access to water is not sufficient Nost is a young city.
It was built from the 50s, 1958, and the population is growing.
People coming from rural areas are coming more and more to live in Nakst and that has had several effects.
We have informal settlements where inequalities are visible, they are big and the access to services are complicated and especially access to drinkable water.
We have made efforts to a improve the access to drinkable water system not only in the interior of the city, but also at the periphery of the city.
We have also developed a special plan with the installation of solar panels for those neighborhoods, generally speaking, Those agendas still exist.
We're still working on developing them, but we need long term financing fundings.
We need to have a decentralized decentralized cooperation between cities, between local and regional authorities.
I and we would like with the decentralization to implement long term projects.
Yes, we can count on our international partners.
We have many international partners.
We can count also on some private partners, but I think that without decentralization, the outcomes won't be a efficient enough.
There are many similarities between us.
We're facing the same challenges, and I think that we must put accent decentralization and long term financing, which will allow us to develop our cities for the interesting of our people.
We are the co creators.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for that.
I think for really recognizing that local and regional governments are the co creators, but also the complexity of what local and regional governments are facing on the ground.
Without that empowerment alongside finance, it's going to be very difficult to create the long term sustained impact on many of those challenges.
I'm going to bring us next to our next speaker who is joining us.
He's joined us from Malaysia.
Mr.
Dato Abdul Hamid Hussein.
He's the mayor of Klang, so a very much a local government perspective on what we're talking about today.
We'd really like you to draw a little bit on your experience of local and global levels as to what some of the really key enablers are for cities to play that leadership role in provision of adequate housing and resilient urban development.
Mila Rahim Sala Magat and good afternoon.
Thank you, miss Lucy, Secretary-General Secretary-General and then Excellency, miss Emilia, and ladies and gentlemen.
First, I'd like to thank you and Habitat for inviting me to be here.
What part of the discussion today.
And then I'd like to congratulation Tobacco, do a great job and then a very beautiful city and be happy to be here.
Before I start, maybe you know about Malaysia.
Malaysia, actually, we have a government.
First parliament led by a prime minister, second state government led by a chief minister and local government led by mayor or president.
So I think I'd like to share our experience actually to resolve about our problem before, about the squatters.
So Malisia through the federal government, state government, and local authorities continue to strengthen effort to ensure sufficient affordable housing for the people.
In line with the national housing policy, national affordable housing policy, the government emphasize the importance of providing safe, comfortable, quality and affordable home to improve people's quality of life and support sustainable urban development.
Although construction costs, infrastructure costs, and the cost of providing public facilities continue to increase, it remains the government responsibility to ensure that affordable housing is provided sufficiently and with good quality, while also considering the interests of housing developers.
Various initiative and programs have been introduced, including affordable housing project, rental scheme, rent to own programs, and housing repair assistance for low and middle income groups.
This effort also involves cooperation between government and government agencies, private sectors, and financial institution to reduce housing shortage, improve home ownership opportunities, and create more inclusive, safe, and sustainable communities.
Beginning in year 2000, the State of S Langa government took a serious and comprehensive action to address the issue of squatter settlement through the introduction of spots program by year 2000.
During the implementation of the new economic policy in the 1970s, rapid urban migration occurred throughout Nsia.
Actually, State of Tonga being one of the most developed state and a major economic center, become a frequent destination for people seeking better employment opportunities and improved living standards so they come to our city.
However, due to the high cost of living and expensive rental rates in urban areas, many low income migrants in the 1990s began occupying land illegally and constructing informal settlement without proper approval for land ownership or building development.
This settlement gradually changed the urban landscape and demographic distribution within the state.
In 2000, it was estimated that there were approximately 34,000 square houses in Sango involving about 170,400 residents.
This illegal settlement violates several laws and regulations, including Section 56 of National Land Court 1956, and the Town and Country Planning Act and the other related relation.
That's what law we use in Malaysia.
So to address this issue, the Slang Kong state government introduced a five year zero squatters program from year 2000 to year 2005.
The program aimed to ensure that every family in Slang Kong would own or occupy legal and proper home under the principle of one family one home.
To achieve this target, the government plan and develop more affordable housing projects that could be either purchased or rented by urban settlers and former squatters.
All local authorities in Slago were instructed to conduct detailed survey and rearion exercise to identify eligible squatters families for relocation programs.
The name of eligible residents were verified and approved by committee established at the state level.
Early housing units were offered at a price as low as RM 25,000, I think, very low compared with the Baku, reflecting the government strong commitment toward the welfare and financial capability of low income groups.
At the same time, new planned housing areas were developed to accommodate squatters and underprivileged communities.
The process was implemented in states while illegal squatter settlements were gradually demolished.
This new residential area were designed to provide more organized, cleaner, safer, and comfortable living environment in accordance with urban planning standards and guidelines.
In year 2002, the Slango Housing and Property Board was established as a dedicated agency to lead sustainable and well planned housing development in Slao.
LPS shares focused on expanding access to quality and affordable housing for the people of Langdon.
The state government also introduced housing development policies requiring private developer actually to allocate 20% low cost housing, 20% low medium cost housing, and 10% medium cost housing within every housing development project they do.
This policy was intended to support the housing need of squatters and low income residents.
As land values and development costs increase, the price of low cost housing was later adjusted to Malasia ring 42,000.
However, a measure ring to 7,000 subsidy was provided, reducing the purchase price to Malaysian ringgit M 35,000 for eligible families.
Additional family members were also allowed to apply for housing, at the same time subsidized price to prevent the creation of new cutter settlement.
Over time, various affordable housing scheme were introduced through rental, rental, and ownership program with government subsidies.
This initiative continues to be implemented today.
The relocation approach adopted by the state government was holistic, focusing not only housing provision, but also improving quality of life, public hygiene, safety, and access to proper urban facilities.
In line with rapid urban development and increasing expectation for better living environment, Slango further expand its affordable housing program through initiatives such as Rum Slangu Roa Eaman, MBI, and Romasanu Arapan.
Actually, Rumsanu offer for housing categories will be upsized ranging from 41.8 square meter of 450 square feet to 33.6 square meter or 900 square feet with the selling price between shing Gate RM 115,000 and sharing gate RM 250,000.
This unit provide 1-4 bedroom.
Meanwhile, Roman Edman and Rob Harapan offer a larger unit of approximately 93 square meter, prices between measuring gate, 250,000 measuring gate.
These home are equipped with a basic internal fitting, such as air conditioning unit, wardrobe, kitchen cabinet, and television cabinet to improve resident comfort, living standards.
To date, a total of 117,681 application for affordable housing has been recorded over the past five years, with 50,759 applicants successfully receiving housing offer.
As as one of the local authority implementing the squatters program, the Clan Royal City Council also began conducting detailed squatter survey in the year 2000 as part of relocation and resettlement efforts.
Today, the remaining squatter settlement is no longer account only.
0.04% of the original population involve 62 settlement unit with approximately 1954 residents compared to the initial 171,000 square resident recorded in year 2000.
The several challenges continue to delay the final regression process, including families refusing to relocate and bringing case to the court.
Applicant who are unable to secure bank financing, additional family claim, and overlapping registration.
Nevertheless, the state government and local authority continue to address these issues systemically and progressively through various housing assistance and dation mechanism until complete restoration achieved.
That's what Mr.
Mayor, would you mind just bringing it to the end? Yeah.
I think that's why I end my presentation.
Thank you very much.
Then one more thing, one of the issue what we're having now is about the refugee from Rohingya ethic.
That's a problem.
I think our world must be taken care of them because they don't have the work, they don't have the passport, and then they cannot work.
Then also government have to take care of there and then they mess our city place for the world look into this refugee in our country and maybe other country also.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr.
M.
I think that really does highlight the global issues at the local level.
I think one of the things which is really interesting is the engagement with that partnership, including the private sector and thinking about the innovations around how local government can work with that broad cross section of partners.
I'm going to bring to our next speaker.
My Mendoza is, I think running late, possibly not going to make it for this session.
So I'm going to come next to you, miss Oh, apologies.
Apologies.
Sorry.
I'm not reading enough my messages as I'm going along.
Mayor Mendoza, sorry.
Welcome.
It's great to have you with us and just a few minutes from you on really what governance mechanisms you consider most important in strengthening the role of local and regional government in housing and land use planning.
Okay.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Good afternoon, Mola.
To everyone.
Thank you for the invitation and I would like to congratulate for the initiative to our dear Emilia Seth and the representatives of Ou and habitat, and to all the authorities, a true honor for me as the representative as the mayor of the municipality of Kilmez of 700,000 inhabitants in the province of Buenos Aires, 20 minutes drive from the federal capital of Argentina.
Or alongside the coast of Rio de la Plata, it is my responsibility to be re elected for this municipality where we have a great potential, but unfortunately, we're also aware of the issues that we face as a challenge and also with our responsibility to solve them.
I am also here representing Latin America, a continent that is accelerating in the concentration of our urban areas that worsen With the deep inequality crisis that we are living through, a structural crisis linked to housing, to access to services of quality where 30% of urban population survives in precarious situations.
They don't have access to drinkable water or a structure that is good enough to them.
This precariousness is worsened by the climatic crisis and the vindication of climate justice in our region that are also part of our communities that are highly vulnerable to these risks.
We believe that housing is a right.
It's a human right and so there's a debate around the fact of whether housing is a human right that is guaranteed from an organized community, from international bodies that cooperate to this end, or if it is a privilege for the communities.
Today in Argentina, having a house has become a privilege just for the few.
We indeed claim that housing is a human right and it should be supported by international organizations and by the government.
The state should be present in order to prioritize general interest and not as it is happening today.
We cannot be hypocrites about this as a real estate business as it oftentimes happens.
Today, a neighbor from my constituency with the il Mis municipality uses around 45 to 75% of the salary to cover the rent.
Of course, these figures are not good enough for thousands of families in order to pay for rent and despite the fact that they do work since families in Argentina right now they're working 12, 14, 16 hours of work per day, it is not enough to be able to pay for the rent and to cover for the rest of the basic staples.
How In this sense to us, the state plays a critical role and is the main responsible body to guarantee housing for everyone.
However, municipalities in Argentina, as my colleague in front of me mentioned, we do not have financial independence or the resources that are necessary to create a housing policy that can cover for the high deficit that we undergo.
In my municipality, around 10% of the population, that is to say 70,000 houses.
The same happens in the province of Buenos Aires.
There's millions of citizens that need to have access to proper housing.
Unless we very significant part of our population is the one that suffered this issue.
Unfortunately, since 2023 in Argentina, we are at the national level, our president stopped all public works and all public housing.
He decided not to provide more money.
He stopped all the budgeting to public works, roads, bridges, and also housing.
Therefore, in the case of Kilme, we had 800 housing projects that have been stopped since 2023 until we are once again able to resume the works.
I'm just giving this by way of example to show the deterioration we're suffering in our country and that of course, we need the United Nations, we need the global international community, and the solidarity.
This was, of course, a budget cut done to public works funds and also of the provinces and the municipalities.
The severe clear examples that I'd like to tell you about to us is very painful because it is very necessary in order to transform the life of the inhabitants of our town of Kilmez and to other five municipalities around Arizona Amdanta Florencio Area and Persiden Peron.
Over 1.5 million inhabitants are the ones that live next to the basin of the arroyos and San Francisco to other villages.
We need hydraulic works in order for those people to have dignity in their daily lives.
This is something we cannot manage to the national government.
This is why Emilia, the work being performed from GLU here and UN Habitat is paramount in order for us to express our issues and we're able to find solutions in order to transform and provide dignity to the life of our citizens.
There's many challenges ahead.
There's no questions.
And just to keep in time and to give my colleagues the opportunity to speak, I would like to end up by saying that from the province of Buenos Aires, in which I am part, which is the production and social heart of Argentina and my city, we also lead a resistance of the public policies against a budgeting cut model, liberal model that is attacking our sovereignty.
So therefore, from the Kilmez region, the province of Buenos Aires from Medico, Fu from GLU, we here claim that adequate housing is the starting point for a more justice, safe, and resilient communities, and we are willing to accompany that change, that need, but we do need allies.
We need allies that allow us to get access to resources and a political will that we do have across all levels to make sure that indeed, public services that we must provide allows to transform the life of our people.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Mayor Mendoza, for really underlining housing as a human right, but also the challenge of multi level governance in reality.
I'm going to very quickly move to our next speaker.
We have two more in this panel.
It's Mr.
Mattho Maury, who's the Secretary-General of the Congress of Local and regional authorities of the Council of Europe.
Just very quickly, which governance mechanisms from your perspective do you consider most important in strengthening the role of local and regional governments in housing and land use planning? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Dear Lucy, ministers, mayors, distinguished guests.
I want also to thank the organizers and the host Azerbijan which is a longstanding member state of the Council of Europe.
Now, to get to your question, if we want local and regional governments to play their full role in housing, land management, we need governments that combine democratic legitimacy, long term capacity, and effective multi level coordination.
At the Council of Europe, we believe that local and regional authorities need five key conditions to operate properly and I will very quickly go through those five points.
First, clear subsidiarity.
With a clear division of competencies between municipalities, regions, and the state.
Since housing challenges are experienced locally, decisions need to be taken closest to the people at the local and regional level.
This is one of the key principles of the European Charter on local self governance.
For those who are not familiar with this, it's the only legally binding treaty on local democracy.
I want to stress that in our regional organization, the Council of Europe, 46 member states, out of the 200 treaties that we have, only 12 have been ratified by all member states and this treaty on local democracy is one of them.
There is a growing recognition among member states of the importance of local democracy.
Secondly, Local and regional authorities need fiscal autonomy.
It was mentioned several times and access to long term financing.
They need predictable government transfers, even stronger on source resources, and access to long term investment because without financial capacity, even the best urban plans remain paper exercises.
Third, we need multi level governance.
Housing markets, urban development do not stop at municipal borders.
We need governance arrangements that connect municipalities, regions, and states and national governments should move from a model of control to a model of partnership with local and regional authorities.
Fourth, participatory and transparent planning to build trust.
Housing decisions shape people's lives for generations.
It's only normal that those citizens should be involved in the decision making process and consultations reduce the risks of corruption and social tension.
It helps protect vulnerable groups and uphold social cohesion.
Finally, we need integrated planning linked to human rights and sustainability.
At the Council of Europe, we see housing as a question of democratic resilience, social rights, and human dignity, which is why the European Social Charter, which has also been not by all member states, but by virtually all member states being ratified, The European Social Charter recognized the right to housing as a social right, not a human rights, but a social rights.
I'm also glad to say that at its last ministerial meeting on the European social Charter, member states recommitted to the importance of those social rights.
So to conclude, I've been very good, as you can tell, to conclude, the most important to us governance mechanism is one which is an effective multi level governance, a democratic, well funded multi level governance.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for framing so perfectly what everybody else in the panel has also referred to and this question of putting people and people's trust really at the heart of local democracy.
We have one more speaker.
Please bear with me.
I apologize.
I have not moved us through as quickly as I should have done.
I'm going to introduce Mr.
San Bagn, who's the vice president of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and he's also a city council member at Brighton and Hove in the UK.
Please over to you, Counselor.
Lovely.
Thank you, Chair, and I will try and be prompt as well.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, housing affordability and spatial inequality are no longer isolated urban issues as we have well heard on this panel.
They are defining challenges of social stability, economic productivity, and climate resilience in cities around the world.
Too many urban planning systems still operate reactively, approving development parcel by parcel, responding to market pressure after displacement has already occurred, and separating housing, transport, and environmental planning into disconnected silos.
If we want more inclusive and resilient communities, planning systems need to become more proactive, integrated, and equity focused.
First, cities need to treat housing as essential infrastructure.
I believe this is a must.
We already planned decades ahead for utilities and public transport.
We should do the same for affordable housing.
That means identifying future housing need, securing land early, investing in public and social housing, and ensuring affordable homes are delivered close to jobs, close to schools, close to healthcare, and close to transit, not pushed to the urban periphery.
Second, we need land use reform that expands opportunity rather than restricts it.
Allowing mixed use development, gentle density, and more housing near transport corridors can increase supply while creating more diverse and accessible communities.
Importantly, this is not simply about building more units, it's about building in the right places.
Third, planning systems must ensure that urban growth delivers public value.
When land values rise because of public investment or planning decisions or private investment, cities should capture part of that uplift.
Those resources can then fund affordable housing, public transport, parks, as we have heard in Baku, climate adaptation, and more importantly, community infrastructure.
Fourth, planning must integrate transport, climate and equity.
Low income communities are often most exposed to flooding, heat stress, and environmental risk.
A resilient planning system therefore must prioritize transit oriented development, walkability, green infrastructure, nature positive solutions, and climate adaptation in vulnerable neighborhoods first and ahead of everywhere else.
Finally, and perhaps more importantly, Planning needs to become more participatory and data informed.
Cities should digitally map inequality spatially alongside access to transit, healthcare, green space, education, and climate safety and use that evidence to guide investment decisions.
Communities themselves must also have a stronger voice in shaping urban futures, particularly groups that have historically been excluded from planning processes.
In the end, the challenge before us is not simply about housing supply, it is about the kind of cities we want to create.
Cities where prosperity is shared more fairly, cities where people are not displaced by growth, cities that are environmentally resilient, socially cohesive, and economically inclusive.
Urban planning alone cannot solve inequality, but without equitable planning systems, inequality becomes physically embedded in the city itself.
Thank you.
Thank you, counselor and thank you to all of our panelists for really getting everybody thinking about those innovations and those things that we can do at the local and regional level and how much we could do if local government was more empowered.
I don't want to spend time doing any sum up.
I'm going to hand over to the next panel.
I apologize for being a little bit slow, but Mr.
Maiain, the executive secretary of the UN ECE is going to champion us through the panel too.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Well, I have quite a task there.
We are starting a bit later than we should and we have a very distinguished panel.
As the Deputy Executive Secretary of UIC and with UNIC and UN Habitat, now serving as co chairs of the local 2030 coalition on behalf of the UN regional commissions, more generally, I'm very pleased to be here and we are generally proud to support the road to Baku and the local way process which has helped put local and regional governments at the center of the conversation at the World Urban Forum.
I think this is what we need.
We need to hear the voices from local and regional governments, but we need to also make sure that they are complemented with a good discussion with the national level as well as with the voices from civil society and private sector players.
Multi level governance, it is.
This term has been mentioned several times and I hope that the second panel will well illustrate what it can mean in practice.
Um, we will focus on scaling local solutions in the second panel, and we have an excellent set of speakers with us who I will introduce when they take the floor.
Very importantly, there have been several priority recommendations shared in advance for the World Urban Forum.
Of course, I ask all the speakers to make reference to them so that the discussion today can be connected to practical pathways to scaling local level solutions.
Today, we have speakers representing a national parliament, several local authorities, a development finance institution, and very importantly, a youth leader.
The perspectives will be very instrumental in understanding what's at stake and what does it mean to scale local solutions very concretely.
I asked the speakers, given that we are starting some good 35 minutes later than we should.
To keep their interventions brief, your alloted time is 5 minutes or less, and if it's less, it would be much appreciated.
I'd like to start with His Excellency, Mr.
Adel Cara Smiloglu, Chairman of the Committee on Public Works Reconstruction, Transportation and tourism in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
Sir, what national policy and financing frameworks are most effective? Um, and speaking from the parliamentary perspective, most effecting and enabling local governments to scale housing and service delivery solutions.
Over to you, please.
Thank you so much, first of all, I am very happy for the realization of such an organization in Baku.
We participated to this program.
Of course, local administrations are playing great role in the continuity of the lives of the students and increasing enhancements of their lives and life qualities.
And housing is actually in parallel to the potential power of the local governments is another important area.
Of course, the social places, facilities such as the schools, the religious places, the parks, et cetera, and among these the water, waste management, et cetera, all these issues concerning the municipalities.
Of course, we have the responsibility to build resilient cities and we have to expand the social facilities because housing is not enough.
We have to create a schools, education places, the hospitals, and also religious places.
Of course, what we have talked about are the necessities of a good planning.
While we are creating the legislations, we have already outlined their frameworks, but if you do not comply with the legislations, you will have problems, especially in illegal settlements.
Of course, we consider accommodation as a constitutional right.
This is a human right and it is a responsibility of the governments.
In Turkey, of course, in order to meet the housing needs that we have an institution as Mass Collective House abbreviated as Turkey.
This Turkey actually builds over millions of housing in Turkey in the last recent years and 6 million people are residing in the buildings created by the Turkish presidency of the Housing Development administration abbreviated as Turkey.
It is surrounded with religious places.
Schools and hospitals and all kinds of infrastructures.
When you build a house, of course, access to this house is very critical.
Today we're talking very much about the zero emissions and the smart cities, et cetera, and therefore, access to these smart cities, especially by the rail systems are very critical.
And the disabled individuals are very important for us.
We have to ensure access of disabled individuals to these housings and one of the greatest metropolitans of the world is, of course, Turkish cities and of course, our main duties is to make the houses resistance against the earthquake and old buildings may be a harmed when any earthquake happens, we have to make them resilient against the earthquake.
While doing all of these, we need good financing.
So we are trying to give support subventions to the citizens with 00 interest loans.
We want to do this.
We want to achieve this.
Our government from time to time giving important subsidies to the public, 50% subvention is given for housing loans and the citizens may sometimes renew their old houses by getting subsidy from the government.
Today we are talking about the disasters, the earthquakes.
Unfortunately, Turkish Republic has gone through very dire, the biggest earthquake of the world on the 6th of February.
And many provinces have been collapsed with the earthquake.
Unfortunately, that devastated those province, God forbid another occurrence of that earthquake.
It also reminded us the importance of getting prepared against the earthquakes in order to create resilient structures.
We are putting so much effort.
So any strengthening or renewal activity that you will do during the earthquake you will have to make ten times more than after the earthquake.
You have to be prepared before even going through that earthquake.
The preparation to the earthquakes are very important.
I hope these organizations will be more frequent, especially the important prominent financial institutions can provide financing to the countries that they need it.
And we also see significant support in this regard, but we hope that they will increase.
We have only limited time.
One last issue to tell one.
Of course, we talk about the need of housing and accommodation, but there is a very significant issue that we discussed in recent years.
Unfortunately, there is a very much cuelty in Gaza.
The house owners are evacuated from their own houses and their houses are demolished.
Collapse.
The performance of this cruelty, the Israel state must be condemned.
I would like to thank you and Habitat for giving us this opportunity to express ourselves in Baku.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
UNIC team was in Hatai just a week ago for the events to look at the solutions that emerge after the earthquake.
Indeed, it's a big lesson learned for the entire region and the world.
Investing in resilience is a much better investment than spending money to rebuild and Turkey, of course, now is showing the way in many ways on both tracks.
Thank you also for mentioning the importance of financing and having enabling legislation also for new models of financing that often are needed to crowd in private sector finance, investing in construction of new buildings and restoration of the existing ones.
We move now to Mr.
Smhaus the mayor of the city of Kalbe in Germany.
I'd like to ask you what local solutions have proven effective in delivering affordable and resilient housing in your experience.
Thank you for your question.
It is a great honor to contribute to this important discussion about affordable and resilient housing.
For illustration, I would like to refer to a small but typical city in Germany, which I will represent.
Car Fest of Saxony Analt covers around 8,000 inhabitants, like many small and medium sized city in East Germany, we have experienced that great changes since reunification economic shifts, immigration, especially for young people and an aging population have characterized the city since then.
An important player in local housing construction is Munich P housing company.
Thereon is not to maximize profit, but to serve the public.
I it manages a large part of the housing stock and contributes to the stabilization of the market.
It keeps rents affordable, invest in maintenance, and adapts buildings to changing needs, such a barrier free sex for all the residents.
Which solutions have proven themselves.
Three approaches stand out here.
First, the strategic use of existing living space.
In contrast to growing cities, many cities in East Germany have vacant housing raiser than bottlex.
Programs and finishing from various donors have contribute to the adjustment of the housing supply.
To stabilize the neighborhoods, reduce it, the coast of Ancy and improved living conditions.
Second, strong municipal ownership.
Municipal housing companies play an important role of reducing social risk.
You can keep rents stable, even if the market change.
They invest in long term and focus on the needs of community.
Thirds, integrated urban and social policy.
Housing policy must go beyond buildings and car the focus and increasing on liking housing with services such as the heals care, mobility, and community support.
In aging regions, the resilience means that the people can stay in their homes and communities for as long as possible.
These successes are under strong pressure.
Small towns have their public budgets.
At the same time, demographic change is increasing the need for adapted living space and the changed living environment.
Rising climate and energy standards are both opportunities and challenge.
To extend solutions, three types of support are crucial.
First, we label long term financing, short term projects are not enough.
Large and small cities need stable multimed programs, especially for energy renovation and the adoption of housing, construction to demographic change.
Secondly, a police that reflects originals difference and yet enables equal living conditions.
The challenges in housing construction differ greatly between growing cities and striking regions.
Politics at all levels must take this fact into account.
Third, stronger municipalities and partnerships, smaller cities of lack resource, networks and consulting services and partnerships with other municipalities region, but also Internet y can help.
Conclusions.
Kb is therefore the smallest city, but it represents a broader European reality.
Because the demographic development will reach us all in the next few years.
Affordable and resilient housing is not just about growth.
It is also about transformation, adoption, and demographic change.
We need strong political support.
Local actors must be equipped with the right financial instruments and supported in various regional contexts through a robust.
In this way, we get affordable housing, stringent social cohesion, regional balance, and the resilience of our communities.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mayor.
You underscored the importance of challenges that small and mid sized cities face around Europe.
In fact, having them prosper is one of the foundations of resilience for Europe and other regions.
I think we heard a very similar message from Argentina just a few minutes ago.
Thank you also for sharing your very practical suggestions on what municipalities can do and how they need to be supported and empowered in this.
From Germany, we move now to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I'd like to give the floor to Engineer Fahad Abulehi, the mayor of Medina.
Sir, how can urban planning systems better respond to housing affordability and special inequality challenges? F is yours.
Thank you.
That our core philosophy is concerned on a concept we call beyond the build.
We believe that urban resilience is not measured by the volume of concrete or the number of construction projects, but by the sustainable and measurable impact on human lives to directly address the challenge of affordability and spatial inequality we have fundamentally shifted our planning focus.
We no longer view housing as a standalone unit or assemble shelter.
Instead, we treat it as an integrated urban system, a foundation for community resilience, that is only truly effective when it is seamlessly linked to a basic surfaces economic connectively.
However, a philosophy of integration only works if the planning system has the right of visibility into every neighborhood.
First, we launched the Mana Urban Data Platform.
This platform tracks over 300 indicators at the neighborhood level, closing the gap between global policy and local implementation.
Secondly, we pioneered the Atlas of sustainable development at the neighborhood level.
This tool allows us to analyze complex special layer to ensure that municipal investments are not distributed arbitrly the future of urban development does not depend on the policy formulation alone, but on the ability to translate those policies and to impact the through good government and integrated data.
When you combine this data driven approach with a focus on human well being, the result is a more inclusive urban, and a clear example in practice is our strategic work with green and social infrastructure.
We work and to turning where the Arctic from a seasonal waterway into a vibrant environmental and social corridor.
This project serves as our blueprint for how environment sustainably and social cohesion drive long term resilience.
By aligning these local deliveries with Sau Division 23, we are ensuring every neighborhood is walkable, green, and dignified, fulfilling our national ambition of creating a vibrant society in a thrilling economy.
Our recent recognition as the winner of the Shanghai Award for Sustainable Development validates this human centric approach by moving beyond the build and utilizing, integrating data to guide our governance.
We ensure that no neighborhood is left behind and that every resident of Al Madina lives in a truly vibrant, resilient, and inclusive society.
And thank you.
Thank you very much, Jason.
Congratulations.
Thank you for highlighting the importance of integrated approaches to planning and data, underpinning evidence based policy making at city level, indeed extremely important.
I now turn to miss Lino Grady, the deputy head of EBRD Sustainable Infrastructure Group.
I ask you, how can cities leverage integrated planning and investment to address housing demand while enhancing resilience? Well, from the perspective of a major multilateral development bank.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak at this event.
Thank you to UN Habitat and the government of Azerbijan.
I am representing the financiers here.
EBRD is a regional development bank.
We operate across three continents, former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, and now we are operational in Africa.
We invest in both the public and the private sector.
In terms of this whole localized agenda, in the urban space, our business model is working with the city, although respecting that that is in the larger context of engagement with the government.
So in terms of how cities can leverage integrated planning to address the issue of high housing demand, there are three pillars here.
So the first thing is that cities need to be able to crowd in the private sector, to deliver housing at scale, to have the skills there to deliver.
And when I talk about private sector, I also include within that PPP delivery.
So that's the first thing, the private sector.
The second is they need to de risk investments and this has already been talked about by a number of speakers.
This de risking means making projects more affordable, it means bringing down the cost of borrowing.
So that's done through mobilizing grants, concessional loans, guarantees, using risk sharing facilities that are available, for example, from the European Union.
I think I can give a good example of where EBRD has actively done that.
It is in On Batu where we have an affordable housing project, which has a strong resilience component.
Because of that resilience component, we were able to bring in grant from the Green Climate Fund.
That's resilience and it's also partnerships as well, which I think is another aspect of my question.
Then the third pillar, third way that cities can scale up in housing and it's an area where EBRD is focused a lot.
It's this whole retrofit of buildings to make them more energy efficient.
When you make a When you make a building more energy efficient, you get energy savings.
Those energy savings can be used to service debt.
This is called an energy performance contract.
They're the three pillars.
Just to summarize, private sector, de risking, and also this focus on energy efficiency and retrofit.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for this very practical and yet very powerful combination of concrete measures that can be taken by a municipality and a national government to crowd in investment, to risk it, and use the potential of energy efficiency as truly a generator of income streams that can help municipalities of scale.
I was myself in my previous career when I was with UNDP, witness to how this can operate at scale and really make a difference at municipal level.
Thank you very much.
Miss O'Grady.
Finally, and very importantly, we turn to miss Safria rungu, the co chair of Mata Roots and UN Habitat Youth Advisor.
She's based in Kenya.
Miss rungu, how can youth contribute to shaping inclusive housing solutions and resilient communities at the local level.
Over to you.
Thank you for this opportunity.
Being a young person on this table, it feels so much exciting and also I'm overwhelmed being on this table.
Your Excellency, Executive, miss Anna Claudia, thank you for this opportunity for us and making this day happen.
To mark the question, youth are already doing and already leading the development.
We are the innovators, the organizers, and the first responders within our communities.
And in the local level, young people are already contributing inclusivity of housing by identifying the community needs, collecting data, living in environmental upgrading initiative, sustainable solutions that reflect the realities of informal settlement and undeserved neighborhoods.
Most of young peoples are playing their key role in performing climate resilience through environmental conservation, community awareness, campaigning, and innovators project that strengthen local resilience.
Likewise, waste management, cleanups, and digital data collection, infrastructure, challenges, and housing gaps.
Through these, we seek for local and government inclusion in urban planning, funding community led initiatives, and strengthening partnership between the society and local youth like schools and university and something we call baby care back in Ma or maybe back home.
Provide capacity building and opportunities for young people.
By finishing, I will say that without the voices of the young people, the community cannot be built.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, what a powerful round.
I'd like to once again thank our amazing panel.
We heard the perspectives from cities, from the national parliament, from international financing institutions, and the voice of youth.
Thank you very much and I hand over back to miss Sas for closing us out.
Thank you very much.
Good job, Dear Secretary-General of CIDF, Deputy Secretary-General of UNIC.
I think these partnerships are as powerful as each of us and we are very grateful as a global task force of local and regional governments to have been able to consolidate this space and for the re changes that we have had.
Now we are very privileged to have with us the executive director who will soon need to leave.
But she is here with us today is a strong signal.
Signals are important on the relevance that local and regional governments need to have in multilateralism, but also in implementing the development agenda that we just have been discussing.
Executive Director, the floor to you.
Thank you for being with us.
Thank you, Emilia.
Good afternoon.
Excellencies, distinguished mayors, governors, local authorities, representatives from the collectives that we have here today, colleagues from the EN.
It's beautiful to see everything and everybody coming together.
I don't have to say how important the role of local and regional governments of localization is for EUN habitat.
It's part of our DNA.
Basically, how can we address the challenges of urbanization, the challenge of housing without a ground.
The ground is more and more located in an urban area because very soon we are going to have the majority of the population, a couple of decades living in cities, 70% living in cities.
This is the natural flow of work for you and habitat for us to achieve our main agenda.
But I think the critical moment right now is because for us for UN habitat is because we are starting a new strategic plan that is focused on housing, on land, on informal settlements, making sure that everybody is roofed, everybody has access to services, everybody, you know, can enjoy quality of life and the right to the city and the opportunities that are in the city.
And we cannot go in this journey alone.
So that the work that we have been doing together and a long I only was able to listen to a couple of statements.
But I could already see how you are making efforts from your different geographies and spaces, not only development banks, different spaces to address the housing crisis, even in the limitations of your spheres.
At the local level, you don't have all the resources available.
Eventually, you cannot at the local level change national laws and regulations and so on.
But you are doing a lot and you can influence and you are doing that.
And we see that clearly from your experiences.
Also in my past, I experienced how important the innovations and the progress at the local level have been to change the national frameworks, but also the global agendas because you have been influencing the global agenda.
The climate is a critical one.
Um, the sustainable development goals, the local regional governments.
They have been coming together every year at the high level political forum and doing a tremendous work to promote the localization of the 2030 agenda.
So you are with us.
I think the other aspect that's very strategic for you and habitat is that this year, we are reviewing the new urban agenda at its midterm after ten years and looking ahead the next ten years.
What are the critical priorities? Having you together with us here is very, very important.
We are making the best and working hardly with member states, specifically with the co facilitators of the process.
Poland and Malawi.
It's a process led by New York.
We have our governance in Nairobi.
We have the Word Forum happening in Baku.
We are making all we can to connect those dots to make sure that the messages come across from Baku through Nairobi to New York and your perspective is being seen.
These are my main two critical points for you in Habitat.
Looking at the broader global perspective, I think we can report some progress in media and colleagues the fact that the Action 55 of the Pact of the future resulted in a concrete report by the Secretary-General, the action 55 that spoke about strengthening the role of local and regional governments authorities within the UN system generated a very solid report that I would I would believe that it was co created because we had the responsibility to support the Secretary-General in this task and we tried the best also to work together with you and making sure that we are together on the same page.
The report highlights several entry points of for the localization of the global agendas to strengthening the role of local and regional governments.
It mentions even the Word Aan forum because this is a space where we come together and traditionally, there's the assembly, there's the local and regional governments.
So this is a concrete space, the COP where we have been working and bringing the mayors and the cities, the local actors to discuss with the ministers the intersection of urban and climate and I think we advanced a lot if we look at the 3.0 generation of NDCs, we are going to launch this report today.
Of course, the high level political forum, it became already an institution, the Forum of Mayors, the UN ECA Forum of Mayors, I attended also the last one, became also an institution, and we identified that more and more UN agencies are working with local and regional governments.
Also the report foresees more longer term possibilities such as really the formalization of the forum of the participation of local and regional governments within the EcoSc General Assembly, and so on.
It's quite ambitious in a way.
But the good news is that the channels are multiple.
And they can be complimentary.
They should be complementary because we have many perspectives, diverse perspectives, and it's good that we have that.
Also important to highlight that considering the UN reforms, UN Aid initiative launched by the Secretary-General that highlights the importance of collaborating among UN agencies, highlights the importance of interacting also with the communities and being more impactful having more impact, a UN that has more impact.
I believe the mechanism that we have also to work together, the local 2030 coalition is a very interesting mechanism that brings 15 UN organizations together and interacts with stakeholders with local regional governments, civil society, private sector, and so on.
It's unique.
It's like the Word for.
It's unique.
It was designed to be the stakeholder engagement mechanism for UN habitat and became The second largest conference, perhaps could be the largest because we have to celebrate.
We have 30,000 budget participants at this W for today, I just got the news I needed to share with you.
This is the biggest W forum ever.
I So, yes, the Local 2030 coalition brings the UN together.
I hope the WUF will bring more and more of the UN together and could be used as mechanisms.
It's a contribution, value added of UN habitat in this process.
So I hope we will have your perspective clear recognized at the Bakuko to action for the first time.
We have been interacting with the stakeholders in advance to the Word A Forum and the Baku Culture action is on the website and it's very important that you all leave Baku and feel that you are part of that, and that we make all the efforts to make sure that this Baku culture action with our member states is brought to the process in New York.
Thank you very much.
I hope you learn a lot.
I'm learning with you and you enjoy all the opportunities that the Word Aban Forum offers to all of us.
Thank you.
Well, thank you very much, Executive Director.
We are then starting now our closing ceremony, not without sharing with you that in the current text on the reform of EcoSoC, there is a clear call for an oral report from the local and regional governments forum to the high level political forum, which is a big stride forward for us.
Thank you very much, dear Anna Claudia.
Be well.
Step by step, we are achieving important strides.
We hope that the text will hold and we call you to charm your national government, your representatives to ensure that we continue making those strides forward and that we formalize our participation as much as possible.
Look, in these kinds of gatherings, we always have many pleasant surprises and one of them today is that the Honorable Minister Ahmed Ibrahim, Minister for Local Government and Shiftcy and religious affairs, off Ghana has been patient enough to bear with us and be willing to take the floor at this very moment as we start our closing ceremony.
Thank you very much, Your Excellency, you have the floor.
Your Excellency's colleagues ministers, mayors, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
Good evening.
Ghana is unable to participate in this important roundtable on the role of local regional governments in advancing sustainable urban development.
Urbanization continues to shape Ghana's development trajectory.
Currently, over 56% of Ghana's population live in urban areas, and this is projected to rise to approximately 65% by 2030.
While these present opportunities for economic growth, People who live in urban areas is projected to be about 65% in 2020, and while this is projected to rise to 65% by 2030, this transition presents opportunities for economic growth and innovation.
It also places increasing pressure on housing infrastructure, sanitation, transport systems, and public services.
In response, G continue to strengthen the centralization local governance system to ensure local governments are agents of development and are more responsive to participatory development.
We have strengthened local governments to improve planning, service delivery, and local economic development.
With regard to policy, Ghana recently revised its national Urban policy and implementation action plan 2026 to 2035.
The policy provides framework for inclusive, resilient and sustainable urban development and expresses or addresses key urban challenges including weak land use management, climate vulnerability, congestion, and housing deficit.
Ghana is also implementing practical interventions to support urban transformation through local economic development.
And the development of a 24 hour market model initiative.
And Garner is modernizing market infrastructure, improving sanitation, and supporting local enterprise development.
Despite this progress, important challenges remain.
Rapid urban growth continue to have space infrastructure delivery, and our local government still face financing and capacity constraints and despite central government grant referred to as the District Assembly Command F.
As we advance, Ghana remains committed to strengthen local government institutions, improving urban planning systems, enhancing accountability, promoting climate resilience and urban development, and we believe that stronger partnership, greater access to urban finance, and increased support for local government will be essential to achieving sustainable urban transformation.
Ghana stands ready To continue working with partners and stakeholders to build inclusive, safe, resilient, sustainable cities and communities for all.
We want to make sure that we leave no one behind.
Thank you, Madam Chair, for opportunity.
Well, thank you very much and rolling minister, music to our ears, strengthening local government as part of your commitment.
We know that it's easier said than done, so we're very happy that you're publicly acknowledging how important that is and lack of capacity, as I was saying before, can never be a pretext not to do that.
We're very happy we can count on you in this in this endeavor, also acknowledging the challenges that this entails.
We were saying what an honor it is for any city in the world to host this kind of events and in particular, the World Urban Forum.
I cannot explain to you how thrilled I am to be able now to give the floor to Maria del Rocio Loba Gonzalez, Director General of International Affairs of the wonderful city of Mexico, who is going to be hosting the next World Urban Forum.
We were very pleased to have the mayor with us yesterday, Rocio, welcome.
The floor is yours.
Good evening, everyone.
Greetings to everyone and tremendous acknowledgment to Clara Brugada, our government representative.
Also thanks to the government of Azerbijan and of Baku for organizing this tremendous forum that is having a great success, exactly as our executive Director of UN Habitat was just saying.
Also, thanks to Emilia, UN Habitat as well for Having extended an invite to being here sharing this roundtable with you, mayores, representatives of local and regional governments, representatives of different sectors of academia, civil society, youth movement that we have with us here today.
It is a great pleasure and a great honor, as Amelia was saying, to be able to participate and take the lead in the next urban forum in Mexico City.
In this forum, our participation is also our first step towards the next.
It is here that we have to gather all of the challenges and concerns of the local and regional governments, of which we are all a part of This has been a resonating topic in all of our discussions as local and regional governments are key parts of everything that takes place during global crisis, and many of the consequences are faced directly in our lands and territories.
It is exactly a great opportunity to have spaces and platforms like this, like this forum where we can raise our voices and we can mark the importance of our voices in order to change the world.
As our mayors of Nacho, local and regional governments, we are all co creators of this world and we all share this vision as well.
It is exactly in this sense that as Mexico City, we want to highlight three, four key points that have been brought up related to all of the topics that we have discussed and that are being discussed in the different spaces enabled in this Bu forum.
Okay.
The intrinsical relationship of housing and the city.
Housing as a home for families, different kinds of families exist.
It can be one elderly person, a younger family, different families with different sizes and different structures.
As we say in Greek Oikos, which is the basic survival unit of the human.
The home is that place for direct sharing.
But the world is everyone's home and the cities are as well.
So it is not just responsibility of a family or the home of a family, but all of the citizens, and it must be a place of proximity, as many of the participants today were saying.
It is therefore that we need to unite all those three points that are united under the concept of OICs, the economy, the ecology, and also the home and our own habitats as homes.
We are also discussing this interaction in terms of climate crisis.
We need to understand how we impact nature and what it is that nature gives back to us both in terms of wealth and consequences of the way we treat it.
This is a discussion that will allow us to understand how to articulate and harmonize both elements, ecology, the environment, along with the matter of the cities, their planning, and housing solutions.
Another important concept that has been touched upon is the economy and how we manage our home finances.
What are the resources that help us manage our homes and our cities.
In this regard, it is important to understand the relationship and the link that was made here between housing and workplaces with the need and the importance of having a workplace that is closer or better connected in our cities, particularly in allowing for a larger amount of free time, which will give citizens the possibility of commuting for less times and having a workplace that is closer to their homes.
We need to understand how to facilitate this enlargement of free time for the lives of our people.
Also, we need to understand how to produce a larger number of housing and the monetary value that it entails.
It is a tremendous amount of resources, financial resources, and in many cases, it is the poorest sectors of society that face the consequences or the lack of these resources that doesn't allow them to have access to a home.
We need to understand how to create further tools, mechanisms, and policies that can harmonize all of these aspects of OICOS the home, the city.
I would also like to highlight in this point the economy and the ecology.
I think all of these are very much related with the 2030 agenda and with the SDGs, which are the core of the agenda we're dealing with today.
A second point that I would like to highlight here and that has been highlighted as a concern is how it is that we can defend these public goods, these shared goods in terms of a city.
Cities are our own goods for the whole of humanity.
It is a public good for all of their inhabitants, and we need to understand how to protect them.
From the urban land that Banjul mentioned and the urban services that are completely articulated as public services and goods.
These are services and goods that we need to protect and provide in order to continue moving forward.
The air that we breathe is one of the most democratic common goods because we all get affected by it in the same way.
We still have not been able to privatize air because this would not allow to access life for a lot of people.
There are many other goods as can be the urban land.
How it is that we protect that land for the whole of our populations, how it is that we defend and protect water, which is also part of the public services that we provide.
How it is that we defend public infrastructure and public transport so people can have access to them.
I believe it is a great responsibility of the local governments that we have in this sense.
It's part of both local and regional governments to be able to give answers to our citizens in terms of how we look after these common goods that we have so they can develop their lives in a full and complete way.
As many of the participants were saying, housing is dependable on markets and that creates a larger segregation in terms of different communities and it creates barriers for access to housing, particularly of those most vulnerable sectors of society.
A third point that I would like to highlight today and going back to the idea of governance and governments is the fact that we are co creators of what is happening in the world.
We cannot say the crises are global.
We also need to define how we take action in our territories to be able to protect life in all of these areas and regions.
I'm sorry, I'm getting a call.
In this sense, we have discussed the need to strengthen the capacity of local and regional governments in order to direct and lead alongside our population, the plans for development and social development.
In this sense, the reservoirs of urban land, the creation of adequate housing, and a better public infrastructure is key for the development of our communities.
And this is exactly very related to the areas where this housing is required.
It is also important to strengthen the public ability to provide such public services, and as I was saying, cities are the houses for all of its inhabitants and they need to be able to access all of their rights that is rights that are contemplated in all the SDGs for Agenda 2030, particularly those related to accessing housing and protecting the cities.
These are very important points that we need to continue discussing.
It is also important to reinforce and strengthen the participation of citizens so they can be responsible and solidary part of this development.
I would like to pick up again the conversation related to all of these points, so I can invite all of us to continue reflecting upon these matters a couple of years before 2030 because we need to understand the agenda that we want to put forward for 2030 in the forum that will take place in Mexico City in 2028, we need to rethink, again, the concept of cities for who and to what end they are being built, who is building such cities, and who gives value to these cities.
These are all very important and key points that we need to understand to be able to give the dimension to the role of the local and regional governments in this specific matter of how it is that we can protect the public goods that we have.
We also need to strengthen the role of local governments in these discussions and build a great alliance built by democratic cities that are alive and that take active part.
And from this position, I would like to invite you all to be a part of a co creative process that invites all of the different interested parties towards 2028.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Dear Roto, for putting forward this challenge of defining an inclusive agenda for the next Urban forum.
We are going to be a special representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr.
Adn Kaimov in the Sasha District.
We are very pleased to have you with us, sir.
The last word is to you.
Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I know it is not easy to speak as the last speaker after, but it's a big honor to be here.
Four years ago, at a similar roundtable for local governments during World Durbm Forum 11 session in Katowic Poland, I had the honor of speaking to colleagues from around the world about Azerbijan's plans for the post conflict reconstruction of the liberated territories in Karabakh Eastern zul.
At that time, we were only at the beginning of what has become one of the most ambitious state led recovery and resettlement programs in the region, the Great Return Program.
Today, standing before you again, I'm proud to say that what was once a vision has become a reality.
More than 80,000 people now live and work in the liberated territories.
Over the past five years, the government of Azerbijan has invested nearly $14 billion from the state budget into reconstruction, infrastructure, and housing projects.
In addition, local businesses, private investors have made multimillion dollar investments into manufacturing, agriculture, and other productive sectors across the region.
Within the first phase of the Great Return program alone, more than 20,000 housing units will be delivered free of charge to former refugees, internally displaced persons, and their families by the end of this year.
These numbers are important, but behind every number is a human history.
Families returning home after decades, children entering new schools, businesses reopening and communities rebuilding their future.
Progress we have achieved has been possible because of several key factors.
Strong coordination among all relevant government institutions, both at the national level in Baku and at the local level.
Comprehensive urban planning, including master plans for eight major cities and hundreds of villages, followed by the disciplined implementation.
Continuous assessment of people's needs from housing and infrastructure to employment opportunities, social services, and quality of life.
This experience has reinforced one important lessons.
Local governance is not simply an administrative function.
It is one of the main driving forces behind sustainable recovery, social cohesion, and long term development.
The second phase of the Great Return program will cover the period of 2027 and 2030, and by the end of this year, all planned actions, priorities, and badges will be finalized and submitted to the president for approval.
Allow me briefly to speak about the city of Chuan, which I have the privilege to represent here today.
In a relatively short period, we have succeeded in establishing essential infrastructure for returning residents who began coming back in mid 2024.
We are currently constructing three new residential complexes comprising 43 multi story buildings and approximately 900 apartments, which will welcome residents beginning next year.
A comparable number of additional residential buildings are planned during the second phase of the G return program.
Importantly, our development approach places strong emphasis on sustainability.
New residential districts are connected to the centralized heating systems while buildings are designed according to the newly introduced national energy efficiency standards.
At the same time, reconstruction for us is not only about buildings and roads.
It is also about identity, memory, and heritage.
We place particular emphasis on preserving and restoring historical monuments and cultural sites.
So far, approximately 30 monuments in Susa have been fully restored, including five mosques and one church.
Sushi is home to nearly 200 monuments and heritage sites.
Through restoration and conservation efforts, we seek not only to preserve physical structures, but also to rebuild the historical and cultural connection between people and place, ensuring that future generations take pride in their heritage.
Ladies and gentlemen, as local governments around the world, we face different challenges that we share common responsibilities.
Must learn from one another, exchange best practices, continuously assess our progress in localizing the SDGs, actively engage communities in decision making process, and increasingly harness the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence to improve public services and citizens everyday lives.
The future of our cities will depend not only on investment, but on inclusion, innovation, resilience, and leadership.
I wish all of us success in implementing our ambitions, plans, and projects.
I hope that when we meet again in the next World Urban Forum in two years, We will not speak only about plus, but about achievements.
Thank you for your attention.
Well, thank you very much for finishing off this roundtable with such a positive spirit with good experiences, with a lot of hope.
Thank you very much for your commitment to serve.
Remember that changing the lives of people every day is the way that we measure whether we are successful or not to the colleagues of UN Habitat, to the colleagues of the global task force, to my own team in United Cities and local governments and to you all.
Go out there and bring up the voice of local and regional governments.
Thank you very much.