Roundtables - Grassroots and Civil Society Organizations Roundtable (WUF13)

Good morning, good afternoon already, everyone.
Thank you very much for joining us for the grassroots and civil society organizations round table.
We have named this session from the ground up, Community Leduction for adequate housing, and, and basic Services in the face of climate crisis.
As CSO, civil society organizations, as a grassroots organization, it's a pleasure for us to meet at the World Urban Forum as an opportunity for us to meet, to exchange ideas, and to come into action and to find an opportunity to identify shared agendas and be able to establish a dialogue with other stakeholders.
Civil society organizations, we know that we have a role within urban development.
We know that we have been providing responses to the housing crisis, and we want to make sure that that mission is visible and that is continued and supported.
Today, what we are going to be doing is giving the word to some of our colleagues from grassroots organizations and civil society organizations who have been engaged with the UN habitats in discussing the main issues that are worrying our organizations.
This process started not here.
It's not a one session process, but it has been something that we have been doing for months now.
We have been meeting and exchanging ideas virtually at times that were very complicated for all of us.
But the results of what we are going to be introducing today are the result of a long discussion of several stakeholders that have joined.
Very briefly, I also want to add that during the assembly that took place this last Sunday, we also have grassroots movements, social movements from all around the world in discussing these initial subjects that we want to highlight today and that today we're going to be trying to summarize what are our key recommendations that will go into the Baku call for action.
We thank you and habitat because of this opportunity is always very valuable for us.
Very briefly, I'm going to be going through how this round table will work.
We wanted to keep it simple.
We wanted to keep it open.
What we're going to be doing is having this opening session that we are hoping will not last much more, but after that, we're going to be taking a session of around 40 minutes where the panelists in this table in this side of the table will be presenting the main reflections that they have done.
Um, after the assembly and the process of stakeholder engagement in the previous months, they will be highlighting what their priorities they think there are for civil society organizations and grassroots organizations.
But also, they also want to highlight what are the solutions that are coming up from grassroots and civil society organizations and social movements.
After those 40 minutes, we are going to have Madam ED joining at our session.
She will be here for a brief moment, but we want to make sure that our ideas and recommendations are heard by her and that she also addresses this constituency.
After that, we're going to be summarizing our main recommendations as civil society organizations and grassroots organizations, and we're going to be opening the floor for all of those participants here today.
We want to make sure that no one is excluded.
But because of that, we're going to be asking people to be brief.
We're going to have around 30 minutes in which people can present their ideas, their statements, et cetera, but we're going to ask everyone to use maximum 1 minute and a half.
So in order for all of us to have the opportunity to speak, you will need to be concise.
After that, we will have only 10 minutes of reactions from the panelists and we will have the closing.
It's a very simple structure, so we only ask you to follow through and to make sure that you participate when we open the floor for all of the participants.
I'm just going to dive into it now and I'm going to ask Madam Aun La, the Chair of the Board of the State Sport Agency for non governmental organizations and member of the organizing committee to give us a welcome to this session.
Thank you, Madam.
Thank you, miss Moderator.
Distinguished participants, esteemed colleagues, dear friends.
Baku today is hosting one of the world's most important global platform dedicated to the future of cities and communities.
More than 45,000 participants from 182 countries have gathered at WF 13, making it one of the largest forum in the history of the World Urban Forum.
This shows that cities today are no longer only about buildings and infrastructure.
The future of cities is directly connected to peace, security, social justice, environmental sustainability, and human dignity.
The fact that Azerbijan is hosting WUFly is not accidental.
Today, Azerbijan is increasingly recognized as a reliable platform for international dialogue and global cooperation.
Following Cop 29, the successful organization of WUF 13 once again reflects the trust placed in Azerbijan by the international community.
At the same time, this form carries a special meaning for Azerbijan itself.
Our country is currently implemented one of the world's largest post conflict reconstruction and urban recovery processes.
In the liberated territories of Karabakh and Eastern Dagzur, cities and villages destroyed during the occupation are being rebuilt from the ground up.
Smart cities and smart villages, green energy zones, and modern urban ecosystems are being created based on sustainability and human centered development principles.
But rebuilding cities is not only about roads, buildings, and infrastructure.
The real challenge is restored human right, social trust, and people's confidence in the future.
Is exactly why grassroots initiatives and civil society are so important.
Civil society organization are often the first to hear the concerns of communities and the first to support people during difficult times.
They build trust between institution and society and help ensure that development remains connecting to people's real needs.
As a member of Organizing Committee, WF 13, our agency strongly believe that resilient cities cannot exist without resilient societies and resilient societies are built through participation, solidarity, and mutual trust.
This understanding stood behind the organization of the first ever WF certain NGO forum within the official program of the World Urban Forum on May 19th, 2026, upon Azerbijan initiatives.
Organized together with the global South AngO platform, which unites angs from 116 countries.
The forum delivered an important message to the international community.
The future of cities cannot be shaped only by institution and infrastructure.
Sustainable cities must be also shaped by communities, public participation, and civil society.
Today, Azerbijan is also serving as an important bridge between global North and global South, promoting dialogue and international cooperation.
Because when we discuss the future of cities, we are also discussed the future of humanity, a future where development should unite people, raises them, divide them, where every person feels safe and respected, and where cities become places of dignity, inclusion, and opportunity.
Because resilient cities are not built by concrete alone.
They are built through solidarity, shared responsibility, and people's belief in a common future.
I'm confident that today's round table bringing together distinguished participants and colleagues from different countries will not only allow us to exchange value experience and perspectives, but will also strengthen the spirit of partnership, mutual trust, and collective responsibility that sustainable urban development requires today more than ever.
I thank you.
Thank you so much, Madam Aliyev.
We're going to go to our first panelists and I just want to share the key questions that we asked our panelists to respond.
We wanted to keep it simple to also give the opportunity for all of our participants to reflect around the same question.
That question is drawing from your work at the movement and the movements you represent, what do you see as the top priorities for addressing the global housing crisis today? We focus first on the priorities of civil society organizations, of grassroots organizations, et cetera And the second point that we would like you to answer is focus on the solutions that are already emerging from grassroots and civil society organizations.
Which solutions do you believe have real potential to scale and what specific asks or recommendations do you have for governments, funders, and other stakeholders to help make those solutions happen at scale.
We're going to ask all of our panelists to respond to those two questions in just one intervention of 5 minutes.
So we will kindly ask you to keep to the time and my colleagues Wycliffe and George are going to be keeping track of that time.
First of all, I would like to introduce our first panelist, Maskne.
He is representing the landed Water for Africa and Habitat International Coalition.
Masa, please go ahead.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for giving me the spaces as your representative of social movements.
I'm a member of the International Coalition of the inhabitants of my region.
I would like to speak about our priorities.
The solutions that we need today, we need housing solutions, and I will give you four recommendations.
Today is after 50 years of work of human habitat of different countries in order to find a solution to the housing crisis, we can see that the mechanisms that were prioritized are actually the problem.
We're talking about merchandising and the financiation of housing.
We have real estate companies that want to make profit.
When we speak about housing and habitat of communities that live on Earth, But we have this problem of financing and building housing has become a business and from there on, this had an impact on communities that had nothing.
Vulnerable communities.
We're talking about communities that live in neighborhoods with less means.
We can see that the gap is getting bigger and bigger.
The cities are getting bigger, but these people cannot afford to stay in the cities.
I'm going to the second proposition.
I only have 5 minutes.
When we build cities and when big companies take care of this building, if they gave a lot of money to just build a concrete city and The problem is that this land was there forever and the communities don't have the money to buy these buildings.
We would like to build in a durable way.
And instead of doing so, we're creating new development concepts with concrete developments, with housing that cost a lot and the poor cannot afford it.
So we need to take into account this problem of merchandising and financiation of housing and habitat.
The second point would be to take into account the mode of housing.
We would like to community based social housing, and social housing should take care of some values.
We need to have a community based architecture because our architecture is based on our culture.
And now it's very important that the way we build our habitat takes into account our our community knowledge.
This community knowledge is disappearing because we have all these big companies that have their own models and they don't care about the way we've always done it.
We need to be able to use our own knowledge, our own knowledge that we've generated over generations.
Social housing should be made accessible to everybody because we work for humanity, we don't work for businesses.
Now I want to make you a few recommendations.
First, we need to recognize at the institutional level that we need to build habitat but in a social manner.
Second, we need to prevent forced expulsions forced evictions.
I know sometimes we're talking about climate causes or other causes, but we always need to take into account what these people need sometimes, and the worst is when we're talking about business reasons, we really need to take care to take into account what the evicted people have to say.
We don't want them to get even poorer.
Third, recommendation, financing, housing, short term rental, that cannot go on this way.
Fourth recommendation, promote feminist housing, anti naturally housing.
Because when we talk about housing, we also have to deal with discrimination.
We're not talking about the size of the family.
We're not talking about the legitimacy of occupying these zones.
We're talking about the people that have more money and women, for example, that cannot afford housing.
The sick are not RG handicapped people are not taking into account while building cities, and we need to take vulnerable people into account.
That's why I'm talking about women, about vulnerable people.
These needs to be taken account within the policies.
The decision making bodies need to take these four recommendations into account, especially after 50 years of habitat because What have been done is catastrophic.
We have more and more people losing their house.
We have more and more people on Earth and new housing is way too expensive.
You cannot inhabit it.
Again, The business model was to not think about the rights of these people.
We're talking about injustice.
There won't be peace if we don't respect dignity.
In order to respect dignity, we need to respect the rights, respect equity.
Law is not only what's been created within tribunals or within governments, we're talking about the law that's also coming from history.
Thank you.
Of addressing the financialization of housing and alternatives that grassroots organizations and civil society organizations are providing through the social production of habitat.
I think this is a key message that also highlights the knowledge of the communities themselves.
I'm going to ask the second speaker to answer the same questions.
The second speaker is Samuel.
I'm sorry about that.
Samuel represents media for change.
Samuel, please respond to the same questions.
Okay.
Good day to everyone here.
I wanted to start with a video actually showing on the screen, and I do hope it comes up.
One of the topest priorities for many of our informal settlements, especially in Lagos in Nigeria, is to stop forced eviction.
And now I think in terms of how the perception comes in, most of our communities are most of the time criminalized and this comes as an excuse to remove most of us from the communities.
And what did we do? So as you can see in videos like this, changing our perception has to come with documentation.
We use media, photography and film to show the beauty of our community, to change that mindset to the broader general public because we do have mainstream media, most of the time, they don't tell stories that has to do with personal lives of people in communities.
What we do as young storytellers from different communities is we're going to where we stay, we find the beauty in it, and we push it around the country and the world in general.
What does this do? It shows how we humanize who we are.
Evictions coming in always try to make it seem like we are not people.
It seems like this is a piece of land for development.
And so as you see, most of these people, it brings a human face to these places, and that's why we tell most of these stories.
I would also like to share a recent eviction that happened, which was the Marcoco eviction, removing thousands of people from their homes.
As I've said before in some of the sessions, Eviction is something that I don't know if many of us in this room have been present in sat down or should I say have stood in and see how terrible it can be, how disorienting it can be, how much your psychology and your mental health can just drain at experiencing this.
It causes so much harm, and I will use this Marco example When we went to the communities to document the lived realities, unfortunately, one of the stories has to do with two babies that lost their lives due to these violations, and it comes with so much aggression that they throw tear gas as a tax force and the babies were in their homes, the mother trying to carry her baby, tried to salvage some things, but the tear gas was too much for the baby and the babies lost their lives.
Now, Using word does not really amplify how serious this is.
But as much as possible, this is one thing that is affecting many of our communities.
We are trying to be inclusive in decision making and that's why we ourselves, we document, we are collecting data that has to do with how we are organized, profiling our communities, knowing the number of structures that is in our communities.
That way, it doesn't seem as if we don't know what we are doing.
So I would want in terms of how, as we go forward, Documentation is important to show where we are coming from, who we are.
And the most important thing is ending this forced eviction, it will cause a lot of good to our communities.
We want to be on these kind of tables where we proffer solutions.
We have so many solutions that we can bring to the city.
I'll also add that our cities, sorry, our communities have been existing hundreds of years.
Communities doesn't just spring up most of the time, as the narrative like to say.
Most of our communities have been there hundreds of years and the cities form around it, and then it becomes, we need to remove these people away because of the vision that we have.
But dialogue has been running most of the time, but sometimes it feels like it's not working as effective as we want it to work.
So accountability is one of the things I feel we should hold our government accountable and with this kind of platform, if it's possible, holding them accountable to the awards and making sure eviction ends for our community and everybody is included in the process in the urban planning, and we are all benefiting from it at the end of the day.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Samuel.
I think your sentence on putting a face on a piece of land is a critical message to sensitize sensitize a problem that is not a problem.
It's actually a solution and the fact that the city start seeing the human side of informal settlements is critical.
Thank you so much for your answers, Samuel.
I'm going to pass the word now to Lagana Manan Ha.
She's the representative of Asian Coalition for Housing Rights and also Lmanti Shelter Support Group, Lagana, please.
Thank you, Brenda.
I'd like to start from where Sam stopped, mass evictions.
That's what we actually faced in Kathmandu.
It just happened recently and there has been a mass eviction.
About 3,000 homes houses were demolished and 15,000 families were affected.
Yes.
The solution that we proposed is as already being said, stop the forced eviction.
That is what we, the grassroots and the civil society organizations demand, the first thing.
No more displacement, no more forced evictions, and the communities are ready to have a peaceful and meaningful dialogue for co creating the solutions.
That's the first thing.
And yes, as a representation Coalition for housing rights and we've been in existence for the last more than 30 years.
It is not that nothing is happening in the world, in ancient part of the world also.
We have been able to show very good work, good achievements as we have promoted community late, women late saving and credit cooperatives that have contributed in supporting the poor families and permanent settlers accessing land and housing as well.
That has also led to women's empowerment, community empowerment, give them opportunities to work with the governments and the communities have also laid citywide mapping and enumeration of data.
That is also a very good piece of work that we've been able to show to the world like how the communities can also generate data.
And People Led slum upgrading program that we have been actually able to showcase a very, very good works in different countries in Asia, Banankong program in Thailand, ampu aquarium in Indonesia, and in Philippines and Nepal, also actually in other countries.
Also, We have been able to collaborate with the local governments and then able to contribute in improving access to secret tenure and also improving living condition, housing conditions, able to access some resources as well.
That's also a good achievement.
We have been able to make it and also capacity building, empowerment, peer to peer ex learning.
It's not among the community leaders, but also working along with the governments as well.
So it's been a teamwork that also has happened and also happening right? And so these are some of the good things that's already happening we have been able to initiate and that has also brought in.
So there is something happening, but then the need is to scale up.
So we have not been able to scale up.
And there are also some barriers.
So I would like to talk about the barriers as well and also like to give some solutions, right? So what we are actually facing or feel that the space for the civil society is shrinking, right? There's not much space, not much scope.
Now it's not easy for the civil society and the grassroot communities to work freely.
So we would like to see that, you know, there is a space that opens up, widening, and then to allow them to work freely, openly, the partnership work, access to resources, policy support, administrative policy support, administration flexibility in the countries.
That is all very, I think, important and that we see that it's getting shrinked now.
It's not like in the yesterday.
How do we expand this space for the grassroot communities and civil societies to achieve our global agenda housing the world.
That's very important.
The solution would be guaranteed flexible operational space for the civil society and the grassroot communities.
See the other issue is what we are actually facing is as we talked about, we listen, we also saw the video, we see that there's a mass evictions happening in some part of the world.
We can't actually deny it happened in Nepal.
We actually saw the video from Africa as well in Nigeria, I think so.
When people civil society organizations, when the communities are advocating for their rights, they are not seen as really advocating for their rights So the protection of the housing rights advocates is very important that need to be done, right? So they need to be seen that they are the right advocates, the housing right advocates, the human rights defenders, activist, they need protection.
They need to be the governments and everyone need to see them that they are voicing the people's voice.
They're making the voice of the people heard.
They're actually advocating for the rights and they need the protection that we don't see it is happening.
They feel insecure, sometimes harassed, sometimes also taken to jail.
Those things, I think should not happen.
They should be allowed to voice to advocate the right of the people.
So there is a protection is required.
The street recognition as human rights defenders, I think it's very, very important and it needs to be practiced.
See, and also there is a gap in the consultations as well, there needs to be a systematic platform.
There needs to be some kind of platform or system that allows the civil society and the grads studentts have a continuous dialogue with the UN agencies and also other concerned agencies as well to have a talk to talk on these matters, It's not like a one time talk and you finish it.
You go to the meeting one time, then you finish after you go back home, then it's over.
It should not happen like that, but then there should be some kind of a system or permanent mechanism platform that allows everyone to come together and continue and continue discuss on these topics at the national level and also at the regional level.
I think that is also very, very important.
So then we know what is happening.
We work together.
We don't work in isolation.
Otherwise, everyone seems to be doing the things on their own way in isolation.
How do we reduce these gaps? How do we work more in collaboration? And when these things happen, when the mass evictions happen, it takes place, so we have a unified unified voice, unified demand.
And then, you know, we work in solidarity.
That is very, very important when we are talking about scaling up to access to housing, achieving the housing rights, housing the poor people, securing the tenure.
It's very important.
And the last point I would like to say is Because we know that the access to fund for the community is also decreasing.
It's not easy to access the funds.
The housing process, the housing process is not only like constructing a house.
The communities, the organizations, they really need to invest in getting the houses to be constructed.
It's not like it's not you go and build a house, but the process is also very important and the communities need to access funding support.
To get going on everything that needs to get going on, the ball needs to get rolled.
Like, they need to learn from each other.
They also need to pidget each other, they need to talk to each other, they need to plan, they need to do a participatory exercise, collect data, all these also cost funds.
It also requires money, but then it's very hard for them to access funds.
Can we also think of setting up funds um, um, at the regional level so that, you know, this housing process can get supported, housing the processes can get supported.
So the worth of the communities get institutionalized in the long run, and they can keep on working on that because this is the issue that we're talking.
It's not going to achieve in one day, two day, not even a year, not even a two year.
It's a long term agenda.
We really need to keep on working.
We really need to keep on fighting because there are also many issues coming on.
Now the climate issues, how do we the climate, how do we also make the climate, um, uh, you know, the climate resilient houses? How do we include the climate agenda there? How do we include the other necessary agenda, livelihood agenda, vulnerability agenda, all these poverty? It's all there, that all need to be integrated and people need support to keep on fighting to see the things in a world not in a piecemeal kind of basis, not in a world, to securing the community itself, to help the communities to prosper? I think this is very important.
There is some kind of support fund available or set up at the regional level so that people can have access to get your work going on.
I think that is also very, very important.
I think the core philosophy is these priorities and solutions built on the firm belief that the urban poor are not a burden to cities.
They are the primary resource and active solution themselves to the housing deficit.
True urban resilience is impossible without resourcing their leadership.
So that is what you statement I would like to make at the end.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Lana.
I'm going to ask those of you who are in the back if you want to join the main table so we can be closer to each other.
And thank you, Lagana, for the points that you were raising.
I think there was very key messages for other stakeholders as well.
Not just thinking about what unites us as a constituency of civil society and grassroots organizations, but also very clear requests for governments and financial actors on thinking about the schemes that can actually support the processes that people are already leading, flexible regulations, financial schemes that work for the people who are already doing the work on the grounds with the grassroots organizations.
Thank you, Lagana, for those points.
I'm now going to ask our colleague, Maurice Usa Autista from the Global Disability funct to respond the same questions.
Maurisi please.
Thank you, Brenda.
I'm speaking on behalf of the Global Disability Fund or GDF.
We are a United Nations interagency pool funding mechanism, and our focus is advancing the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Since 2012, GDF has supported 111 joint programs across 100 countries.
We have worked alongside more than 2,900 organizations of Persons with Disabilities, and across that work, one lesson has been very clear.
Persons with disabilities and their organizations need to be part of housing, land, basic services, and climate resilience from the start.
Not after the plans have been already designed not only as beneficiaries and not only through consultation.
This matters because more than half of the world's 1.3 billion persons with disabilities live in urban areas.
They are among the people most affected by the housing crisis.
They are affected by forced evictions, by inaccessible services, and by informal settlements that become even more dangerous during climate events.
Persons with disabilities also disproportionately affected in climate and humanitarian crisis.
But disability led organizations, OPDs are still too often absent from the system that shaped how cities plan, respond, and reveal.
Across GDF work, we have seen that when organizations of persons with disabilities are brought as co designers and decision makers, their outcomes are different.
They are more practical, they are more credible, and they are more likely to last.
Our programs have contributed to 260 system level changes and the adoption and 118 laws and policies.
The common thread in the changes that held is that when OPDs had real agency in the process, these had real impact on the ground.
And that's why our new 2025 23 strategy marks a delivered shift from consultation to co leadership, not as a slogan, but as an operational principle based on 12 years of learning.
For us, genuine partnership means going beyond consultation.
It means working with OPDs as strategic partners, sharing decisions, sharing priorities togethers, and making sure that resources reach them as essential actors in delivery and systems change.
For us, the priority is very clear.
Housing and climate action must be disability inclusive by design, and OPDs must be recognized as urban governance actors, not just only as group to be consulted.
For us, one solution with real potential to scale is not just one project, and it's not just one technical fix.
It's a different way of working altogether.
It means bringing local governments, UN agencies, donors and organizations of persons with disabilities as well as the rest of civil society working together from the start.
It means attaching resources to that participation.
This is the approach behind RH, the resilient and inclusive cities H strategy launched by GDF, the Global Disability Summit last year.
It's currently piloting systemic approaches to disability inclusive urban resilience across 11 cities and four regions.
The model brings together local governments, UN agencies, and OPD from the beginning.
While these are still early stage pilots, the model behind them is deliberate.
OPD leadership is not an atom, is what makes the solution credible, practical, and more likely to last.
There is also a financial gap that we clearly need to name.
Only a very small share of global development aid targets disability inclusion.
This is despite the fact that over 1 billion persons with disabilities live in low and middle income countries.
Just to close, my recommendation for governments, funders, and other stakeholders, it's threefold.
First, recognize organizations of persons with disability as urban governance actors, not just as groups to be consulted.
Second, fund their participation in a meaningful way.
This includes the role in delivery, monitoring, and systems change.
And third, make sure that the backup call to action is specific.
It should include commitments on accessible housing, disability, inclusive climate resilience, and OPD leadership in urban planning and response.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mauricio, for bringing the perspective of the people with disabilities.
We're now going to go to connect online with Dan Nkander.
He's representing the International Union of Tenants.
I believe we're ready for the online connection.
Thank you, Dan.
Can you go ahead? Okay.
Can you hear me and see me? Is it okay? We hear you.
Lou.
Can you see me? Yes, we see you now.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you.
Greetings from Sweden.
My name is Dana Kander and I'm the Secretary-General of the International Union of Tenants IoT and we represent tenant organizations globally.
I would like to structure my remarks around three points, the role, the barriers, and the solutions.
The role.
What is our contribution? As civil society, we don't only deliver projects.
Our contribution is something more.
It's fundamental.
We organize people, we make needs visible, and we develop solutions grounded in reality.
And this aligns with you habitats emphasis on participation, but our role is also structural.
It's about strengthening people's influence, directing resources where needs are greatest, and ensuring housing policy is rooted in human rights.
What unites us is a shared starting point.
Housing is a right, not a market commodity, and this is the IoT's number one priority.
Let me be clear, grassroots and CISO action should not replace the state.
It should shape how the state acts.
Now to the barriers where the system isn't delivering.
If we are honest, this is not a lack of solutions, it's a result of structural barriers.
First, I want to point out the inequality and affordability.
Housing costs should not exceed 25% of the households income.
In many countries, the costs are far higher.
The consequence is less income for essential needs and reduced access to cities, to jobs, and to services.
And second, displacement is a big problem.
Short term rentals, gentrification, and lack of affordable housing are forcing people to move, and this weakens social cohesion and creates insecurity.
Third, we have the problems or the barriers with financialization.
Housing is increasingly treated as a financial asset rather than a home, and this leads to rising rents, short term ownership, and reduced long term quality.
And we see globally how large investors acquire housing, they raise the rents, and they exit with profit.
Fourth, barrier, there's a need for strong tenant rights and security.
People need stability.
They need protection from eviction, they need fair rents and transparent contracts.
The last and fifth barrier is the link to the climate crisis.
Too often, solutions focus on temporary housing, low quality construction, and segregated development, and these are not sustainable.
They create higher long term costs and new social problems.
So what are the solutions? What works and can be scaled? The key message is simple.
We already know the solutions.
First, community led development.
When people are involved, solutions become more accurate, more cost effective, and more sustainable.
The issue is not whether community led development works.
The issue is whether systems are designed to support it.
Second solution is around social function of housing.
Housing is for living, not for speculation, and this requires strong public and non profit housing, more affordable supply.
IoT thinks that at least 30% should be social or affordable housing.
The third solution is regarding climate solutions.
We must move from buildings to neighborhood level solutions.
For example, district heating and cooling, local energy systems and shared infrastructure.
These are more scalable and more inclusive, especially for low income households, and it's very important that the green transition is socially fair.
Energy renovations must not increase housing costs.
This is cost neutrality.
The fourth solution is about effective regulation because we know that rent regulation reduces inequality.
Strong rent systems have proven they can reduce inequality and stabilize cities.
This is not ideology, it's practical policy.
And we know that regulating short term rentals return housing to residents.
And we also know that secure tenure strengthens stability.
The key message regarding all the solutions I talked about is that housing stability is the foundation for climate action, participation, and social justice because without security of tenure and affordability, nothing else works.
So the conclusion is, let me conclude with three shifts from housing as an investment to housing as a right and from isolated projects to systemic solutions and from participation to real influence.
We in the civil society are already contributing.
The question is, how do we scale it together? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Dan.
I really like the idea of thinking in terms of shifts.
What are the shifts that need to happen? The changes that need to happen at the systemic level for us to see real change on the ground that reaches the scale of the need.
We're going to close this initial panel with Madam Bushra Mati, who represents the permanent mission of Somalia to UN Habitat UNEP in Nairobi.
We're going to ask her to focus a little bit more on a subject that has been touched by many of the speakers as of now, and that is the support systems, the policies, the regulations, the financial schemes that need to be in place to support all of these solutions that have been introduced here today.
I would like you to expand on the first questions, precisely because of your representation on the government side, what is it that the governments need to do to support these systems? Thank you.
Thank you.
Brenda.
My name is Bushra.
I'm from Somalia embassy in Kenya.
I'm the senior advisor to the ambassador there on matters of UN Habitat, UNP and non.
I shall start with the first two questions.
I speak mainly from a Somalia perspective, but I think I can speak for many African countries here and From this perspective, I think one of our biggest priorities is strengthening locally driven housing systems that respond to the realities of rapid urbanization, climate vulnerability and informality and many African cities communities are growing faster than infrastructure and formal housing systems can keep up with.
As a result, large portions of urban populations rely on informal settlements and community led coping mechanisms for access to shelter and services.
Major priority therefore is improving access to land and basic services in a way that is practical and inclusive.
In many contexts, the challenge is not only the shortage of housing units, but also the lack of secure tenure, as has been mentioned, drainage, roads, sanitation, water systems, and climate resistant infrastructure.
Without addressing these systems together, housing interventions remain limited in impact.
Climate resilience is also becoming increasingly urgent across Somalia and many parts of Africa, drought, flooding, displacement, environmental pressures are directly affecting housing security and urban developments.
Communities are already adapting at local level, but there's still a need for stronger integration between climate adaptation, settlement planning, and housing delivery systems.
In Somalia, we have seasons that we know for a fact is going to happen.
There's a season for drought, six months of the year, and then there's six months of the year where we are bombarded by flooding.
So this happens every single year and it's not just in Somali, it happens in Kenya, most of East Africa as well.
So having these climate adaptations and settlement plannings would greatly help in these areas.
Another priority is recognizing the role of grassroots organizations and community structures in urban development.
In many cities, communities already leading upgrading efforts, collecting local data, organizing savings groups, and supporting vulnerable populations.
These local systems are often highly effective because they're grounded in community knowledge and daily realities.
The challenge is ensuring that national and municipal systems are designed to work with these actors rather than around them, which has been mentioned by our previous panelists.
Some of the solutions that I think should be implemented, especially at government level would be a strong potential to scale community led settlement upgrading.
Across Africa, many communities are already improving drainage systems, upgrading housing incrementally, mapping settlements, and organizing around basic service delivery.
These approaches are more often are often more sustainable because they build on existing social structures and local priorities rather than replacing them.
Another scalable solution is participatory land management, community mapping, local enumeration, and incremental tenure approaches, as has been mentioned, can help cities plan more effectively while improving housing security for low income communities.
These approaches are especially important in rapidly growing urban areas.
There's also strong potential in linking climate adaptation financing to local housing infrastructure initiatives.
We have financing silos.
There's climate funds, there's housing funds, there's financing silos all over governments in many governments in the world.
Being able to link these and having them work together in an integrated way can further service delivery systems by government.
I think there's a need to invest more in local data systems and community generated information.
In many African cities, communities themselves often have the most accurate understanding of infrastructure gaps, vulnerability patterns and settlement conditions.
Strengthening these local knowledge systems can improve planning, targeting, and long term urban resilience.
I understand that these sound like a dream and things that are very difficult to achieve, especially within governments, but one step at a time, one organization at a time, and one silo connecting to another.
Hopefully we'll be able to implement these slowly.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Burchm.
What we have in the plan right now is to open the floor to all of us.
We're expecting that Madame Edi and Ana Calder Rosb' going to join us at some point during this discussion, but we want to keep this space flexible for all of us.
What I would encourage you to do is to start thinking if you want to make a statement, if you want to add it to any of the points that have been raised so far, we're going to do our best to collect the ideas and not to the key recommendations that have been already included based on the assembly, but also in these initial presentations.
We're just going to open the floor to the interventions.
We have a couple of people who have already approached us who wanted to speak, so I'm going to call on them first.
If any of you wants to make a statement to open a question or an additional debate, please just go ahead and do it.
The only thing is that I'm going to remind you because we want everybody to be able to provide their opinions and statements, please keep it as short as possible.
We're going to be counting 1 minute and a half per person.
And in that way, we're going to have the possibility of have a final discussion when the open floor moment is finished.
So the first person that I'm going to call because he contacted us before and he wanted to present some ideas in the open floor is Edmundo Werner.
So Edmundo, if you may go ahead and take your 1 minute and a half, please.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Well, to quickly present myself, I have several hats.
This is one of them.
In terms of the issues here, grassroots and civil society, I've been involved with the HIC Habitat International Coalition as an officer or of an institution which is a member of HIC.
I also have I still have the opportunity to serve as vice president of the General Assembly of Partners, which had played a very important role leading Habitat three, but still exists and can continue to contribute.
I wanted to make a suggestion we're talking about HIC, talking about GAP which are coalitions of civil society organizations.
It could sound a little bit contradictory, but at the same time that grassroots civil society organizations, perhaps, by definition, they need to have the freedom not to be controlled or regulated, which I totally agree with.
I would support, and I think other people here also would support a more integrated complementarity and joint work by these coalitions which are already here that I mentioned HIC, which is, I think it exists since Habitat one I've mentioned GP, which needs some upgrading, but still it's there.
The International Union of Tenants, that is the International Alliance of Inhabitants, the slum dwellers, international and others.
It's not that everybody has to become a member, institutions have to become a member of this, but If we find a way to work together, coalition of coalitions, perhaps we can reach more.
I just leave this and as I don't have much time, coming from this broad level to grassroots, I fully agree with everything has been said in terms of the empowering communities and communities giving their own contributions and leading the process.
One thing that I'm not totally comfortable with is asking communities to physically build the spaces for free.
This has become very romanticized, in my opinion, I'm sure all of you know what I'm talking about, mutual self help.
People have to make a living and unfortunately is more and more difficult for low income people and for everybody to make a living.
They have to wait eight, ten or 12 hours every day in the little time they have left, then they have still to work in the building of their houses or the settlement as a whole.
There should be ways to support them so that they can have a decent living as well, not 100% paid work and unpaid work.
There are a number of solutions that have been said here.
I support them.
What I don't support is people working for free and saying, Oh, look how nice this community.
It is building itself, but it is building itself on the benefit of others which don't have to support and perhaps inequality is connected to it.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Edmundo.
That of course adds from the discussion on what are the systems that are required when people are building on their own.
What type of supports can be provided also from governments and other stakeholders so that work is not done for free.
That is a very key message that I think we should take as a critical recommendation.
The second person that I'm going to invite to open the floor is Rose Moloua from Slumders International.
Rose, if you want to go ahead and present your points.
I think something that I would like to emphasize is that we would like to collect recommendations from this table.
It is critical that we are propositional, that we come with ideas on what can and needs to be changed.
Recommendations is what we're hoping to gather from this moment.
Rose, are you ready? Thank you very much.
I'm Rose Malkan from Shake Dwellers International.
I think I feel very honored to have attended this World Urban Forum and to realize that amongst all the sessions, the grassroots and civil society organization was given a space to come together on a serious note and talk the issues It is strengthening the base of the people who has to help each other to advocate and influence the entire process of the World Urban Forum and the support that needs to be given to U habitat.
What needs to happen from here, what I think is that when we go back home, we have to work hard with our national government and local governments so that the outcome of this World Urban Forum become an implementable outcome because if we don't advocate, if we don't lobby our governments, it will be like, yes, we have attended, then what? So the process that should unfold from here As the ED with her team had created this space for us.
It is now upon us all to remind each other our importance in this process of housing the world.
What is it that we are going to do back home as independent organizations? I think we have to strongly organize and mobilize ourselves further.
We have to make sure that we create our own organizational agendas that has to influence the outcome of this World Urban Forum.
The declaration will be given out.
We all have to visit that declaration and check whether our issues that we have agreed upon have been catered for within the Declaration.
I hope that the grassroots and the civil society organization, the voices are being heard in this World Eran Forum.
The issue of housing the world For a safe and resilient cities and communities.
We are the communities to be resilient against all the aspects of life.
We have to protect our space.
We have to come up with information that will influence the outcome of our member states.
We have to show that we are not beggars, but we are partners of the process.
When wuf 14 come or wuf 14 come, It has to be a case study of the civil society and organization that shows the unity among the organization.
We really I don't think government will follow us We are the ones to follow them when we go back to our respective countries.
We have to knock at their doors.
We have to hold them accountable on what they have agreed within this World Et Forum.
But we don't just have to advocate without doing anything on the ground.
Our agendas that we have created for ourselves should be an agenda that drives us to give us the power, the wisdom, and the encouragement to knock at our government's door and to make them listen to us because rest assured, they will never come to us.
We have to be the sick people that always visit the doctors because the doctors are always in their surgeries.
They need us to come and tell them how sick we are.
So this is the process that we should unfold.
Baku for what? Action, whatever.
Call for action.
Yeah.
Baku called for action.
And then what is our action as the civil society and the grassroots? Our action is to say, the commitments that we have done by continuing to organize, identifying priority projects and processes in our organization, mobilizing resources that will address our development that we drive on our own, influencing policies of government that are addressing the issues of housing, land, and economy.
Information that is relevant to be utilized to influence this policy will be of a fundamental outcome of this civil society and grassroots program.
I'm proud to become a grassroots community leader because what I talk is what I do.
What I say is what I do.
My action speaks louder than my word.
So I wish all of us our actions should speak louder than our words.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
We have the first lady in orange.
Yeah.
Sorry, I don't know.
Okay.
Thank you.
I've been asked.
Sorry.
She raised her hand before just a sorry.
You can go.
Sorry.
I'm coming from Brazil and I've been witnessing that in Latin America, in the Caribbean, especially in the large cities and metropolis.
Some forced evictions have been happening this guiding charter, in the backho we should highlight that force must be made.
I don't know what to be used, but we need the right guidelines.
Roadmap.
We need some roadmap local governments stop all these forced evictions that are taking place in their respective countries.
The second issue I'd like to raise when it comes to forced removal in a risk area that people have to leave because of climate change.
Housing should be insured and free housing should also be insured.
Thank you so much.
Okay.
Thank you.
Katherine Kline and Michael and I co chair the General Assembly Partners Older Persons Partner constituency group.
But first, I'd like to extend an invitation to all of you to join the Women's Caucus tomorrow morning.
I know it's early at 8:00 A.M.
But Amina Mohammed, the second highest UN official is going to be present.
If you want to continue your advocacy, she will be there and open.
I also, I guess, I'm 80 and maybe I'm getting a bit more radical and a bit more skeptical.
But we all talk about what should be done.
I come from a country United States, where we know what should be done, we know what is not being done, and we know where we're going backwards.
I'd love us to talk about what happens when our governments don't care.
Because we talk with such heart, such compassion.
I know Rose how good you are, but I'm really struggling to figure out what do we do when we're confronting I found out yesterday that the Nepali government was just created by Gen Z people who overthrew their government.
They're now throwing the very people who allowed them to get into office, evictions right after the other and in jail.
How do we stop that? What do we do when there are people who don't care? I don't know.
I'm getting a bit frustrated as you can tell.
But come tomorrow.
Thank you, Catherine, please go ahead.
Hi everyone.
Well, actually, I'm representing here the International Dialogue for Environmental Action in terms of the grassroots that all colleagues said, My speech or my presentation here mostly is about what I in terms of grassroots has done in Azerbijan for the recent years.
If it's possible in a few minutes, I will be as short as possible.
I IDE is mostly organization and the biggest environmental organization Azerbaijan working with ecology, climate, and related facilities through the direct work with the communities, with the people.
It was founded by Vice President of the Hydraalia Foundation, La Han Maliva in 2011 and since the first days of this date until now, the core values, innovation, collaboration, environmental responsibility and use action.
Everything combined has been realized.
In terms of grassroots, one of the most interesting things that I would like to share is that about 158 yards were repaired, renovated, added planted a lot of trees, but it's not about restoration and not just the repair.
It's just to support, help people living in the city region, more engaged with the nature, with the place where they're living.
It's not just putting some armchairs, putting several trims and making the yard is nice, but helping people to interact with the nature and understand that we are a part of something together with the nature and we have to, I forget this sorry.
We have to how to say, interact with the city and understand this nature, save the climate, save the environment.
This project, we call it our yard, Bsat.
In terms of things that our code said about the flooding, about the pollution and some kind of things, Azerbjan also is not exception.
We are in the downstream of the biggest river of Azerbian is the Kura River.
Unfortunately, it's also enough polluted and every year, a lot of actions are being happening.
We are realizing to clean up the beaches, clean up the rivers.
Beaches especially is problematic because of the use of fish nets.
They interact with how they nature killing a lot of habitats, then this come return back to the humans.
Here you see the numbers, I mean, it represents the scale how an idea, with the support of the local communities, with the support of the young people, we try our best to support this.
In addition, as I said, the main driver for our approach is the work with the yours.
In terms of the education development, we organize different kinds of uh I mean, scout camps, summer camps.
I have been participating in many of them, trying to community, trying to local inhabitants of different regions of Azerbijan and not only to develop from different sides, not only in terms of environmental protection, but also understand our interaction with the nature.
Our interaction, how we must live, how we must behave in the normal cities condition, how to take care of our environment.
Because if the cities will be always just a stone or just the buildings, they will be very difficult to survive inside of this.
Nature, human beings, and our life all together must be balanced.
Another one of the interesting things that every year we try to support Earth's power.
I mean, it's not maybe big deal things, but supporting general worldwide initiatives, saving a little bit electricity or something else, but it still gives a big value for the long period of time in saving the balanced life, with the nature and with the I'd say city life.
Oh, I mixed with these things and the computer, that's why generally coming to everything that was discussed, I am climatologists, by the way, and working with the floods for many years.
I can say this climate change in different parts of the planet, it happens differently.
In the places where before there was no flooding, now it's appearing able to flood and starts affecting the life of the people, life of the community.
To deal with it for sure, local communities in the personal level of the humans and in the government level, we almost must have to collaborate, work together.
Flooding is not something that we can stop or deal with it.
But if we touch too much, not use too much our agricultural lands, if we plant a lot of trees, with that, we can save the microclimate in the region.
In that way, life will be more flexible and our interaction to the nature and at least in the micro scale, you can more or less manage normal life.
Otherwise, it will be desertification, floods, storms, something else.
Based on my own research with the international community and our papers, situation in the Caspian or Central Asia, especially or Africa will not go to the positive way if we not stop working.
Everybody has a responsibility.
Economy of water, economy of the light energy.
This is all should be generated altogether.
Sorry if I took too much of your time to try I mostly worked with the climate, flood, sea level, climate change impacts on things.
But Finally, come to this topic.
It's a critical connection.
Thank you very much.
I think several of the statements have touched on the idea that climate action can be done through housing.
Housing action can be climate action.
It's a key message that we need to integrate.
Please, we have to 1 second and third.
Thank you.
Fourth and five.
Yeah, please go ahead.
Thank you.
I will speak Spanish.
Thank you very much.
My name is Ana Gonzalez.
I come from a civil organization who's been present from Habitu one.
I come from Mexico.
What I've come to share is that in two years, we will have the world Forum in Mexico City and this city encompasses a great deal of social diversification, and as far as housing is concerned and the right to land, the right to water, the right to improvement, all of those factors have been taken on board by us.
We were lobbying for public policies, talking about the community led housing and social justice.
We think is extremely important, and this is my message to you.
We should strive to find a mechanism as grassroots and civil organizations to work together to revisit the agenda that we have here, the platforms.
We are all involved in our respective territories and countries so that we can find a common space.
And in that regard, I'd like to make a proposal to the walk together for two years until we get to the next forum and to be there stronger than ever in the 14th session in the city of Mexico so that we can be committed, we can pursue alliances, and to be able to stay connected.
So it's complicated to reach the status of connection in global forum like this one.
But that would be my proposal.
Thank you very much.
Yeah.
I'll see you next.
Go ahead.
Thank you very much.
My name is Desmond Ch.
I work for Habitat International Coalition, the Africa region.
And I think at the heart of the root of the housing crisis is the treatment of land as a financial asset.
And so rather than looking at it as a social resource.
So what I'm saying is that we need to push hard for removing the land as speculative in the market.
And then when placing it under collective community ownership at this it can ensure affordability across generation.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
I'm Alessandra.
I'm Deputy Secretary of Federal Property of Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services in Brazil.
I'd like to do some remarks from national government perspective.
And in Brazil, social participation plays a strategic role in the formulation of urban housing and territorial policies.
Over the past decades, the country has built many important national participatory institutions such as national conference, forums, and councils dedicated to various social and urban policies.
These spaces reaffirm the understanding that urban and housing policies and programs cannot be designed solely by technicians.
They must incorporate a territorial perspective and practice active listening and cooperative policy making with social movements and communities.
Social participation does not occur only in the formulation of public policies, but also in several programs, implementations itself, incorporates civil society organizations, grassroots movements, and local communities as central actors.
In experience related to land regularization, technical assistance for social housing, and upgrading of informal settments, social participation constitutes a structural element of public policy.
These initiatives demonstrates that social participation is not merely a consultative mechanisms, but a concrete instrument for instruments for building public policies that are more responsive to the real needs of the population.
It is within this context that the Federal Property Secretariat established guidelines to ensure that federal public lands fulfill their social function and contribute to reducing urban and territorial inequalities.
So these guidelines carries a strategic meaning by articulating public land to housing and land regularization through social participation within the Urban agenda.
With the object of improving local dialogue, state forums were created.
These forums function as a space for feederative coordination and social participation.
Bringing together civil society, grassroots movements, local governments and federal agencies to discuss the allocation of public properties.
For public land to become instruments of urban transformformation, their management must take local specificities and demands into account.
This can only be achieved through mechanisms connected to participatory democracy, social inclusion, and the recognition of communities as multi level instance of participation in urban and housing policies, not only in federal councils, but going through to the communities acting directly in the projects.
But SLL and another recommendation that public land has to be a good example of acting as a basis of urban and housing policy.
Thank you.
I think we had someone else you had Mr.
Hand.
Good afternoon.
My name is Garcia Keo.
I'm an executive director of the Institute, which is an organization that for 40 years has been working on the right to the city in Brazil.
I believe that the key key recommendation I'd like to put forward is based on what I was told by Gsa the concern about the Developments.
We want to create a tool that links local agendas, local diloment agendas with international mechanisms of human rights.
Many communities are facing threats.
They can be forcily evicted and their reports are not made internationally visible.
There is no political pressure involved.
So they don't get an institutional answer.
This tool should be designed to be a bridge between communities, organizations, networks, habitat, and the special rapporteur.
The first step is to allow that movements, grassroots organizations, and advocates take note of these events.
They should gather data with a gender based approach, disability approach, and age related approach to showcase who is severely affected These reports should be disseminated to national networks to know which ones require legal support, which require international support, and which ones should be reported to the UN system.
Finally, we have to ensure a return to communities.
Make an international claim doesn't mean to remove the voices from people on the territories, we have to ensure that they can stay in their territories and that their rights are uphold.
I believe we had some other people.
Yeah.
Please go ahead.
Lady, Orange, please.
Okay.
I'm Mirabenb from Cameroon and ULte organization Ajq.
I want to contribute to the solutions that we are bringing on the table as a grassroot umbrella organization.
And the solution that I want to propose here is that as a umbrella organization, we connect, we seek to bridge the gap between the grassroots organization and voices with the government.
So we just discovered that many grassroots organization and people in the communities, they have what they can contribute, but they don't know how to contribute it or where to contribute it.
So we give them this platform that we could gather their experiences, gather their points, and we take it to the government for as a recommendation.
So our recommendation here today is that advocacy, we want more advocacy in the field because where we are coming from, they don't even know housing policies.
Most of them don't even know housing policies.
They don't even know that there's something called housing policies.
And these communities, most of them are living even in the slums.
Most of them are living in the slums, so we advocate for human rights and bridging the gap between the grassroots and the government.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you very much for this opportunity.
I'm Mijang Yvonne Barr from Cameroon.
I'm representing Green and Better World, which is a grassroots organization, and I'm the vice president in charge of gender and the environment.
So I wish to ask a question.
Most of these houses, most of the community lives they live at the slums area, and many a times the government comes in and take the lands and give it to the developers and the community becomes stranded.
So which are the solutions that the United Nations can come in to propose or the United Nations can come in to ensure that this is not happening because the person at the grassroots is the one suffering.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Is there any additional questions? What we want to propose is that we're going to have the last 10 minutes for the panelists to respond and also for Andrés who is in representation of the ED here to respond to the questions.
Maybe we can close the round to the statements and then we go to the reactions from the panel and from your inhabitants.
There was a question over there, the gentleman in the white cap recommend.
Go ahead.
Thank you very much.
My name is van.
I am from Cameroon and I'm the President of the Association of Young Interpreters in Cameroon.
We are coming to this forum in order to suggest some solutions because this is what today is about, we are presenting solutions, not the issues.
Our association is an organization of youth people and what we suggest is to digitalize the land property title, especially for the women in order to implement the housing policies.
We have created a technology that would allow these documents to be digitalized in order to ensure the land rights in order for the youth and the woman to have access.
I think one of the representatives today managed and listed the issues.
This is the solutions by the Association in Cameroon.
This is what we suggest We have requested the support of our government and the minister for land affairs, but unfortunately, they have not replied.
We thought that maybe by coming to this forum, we might be heard.
Maybe we would be taken into account.
Maybe we would take our solution seriously because we have an innovation for this issue linked to land.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Is there any other questions statement? Go ahead.
I remember.
Hi, I'm N from India.
I wanted to ask, first of all, I am amplifying the voices of informal workers here and who, as everybody know, informal workers are the contributors of making cities climate resilient, as well as the forefront of climate change.
I wanted to ask here how we can ensure their recognition as climate contributors or as making cities climate resilient.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Should we close the round of questions and comments and then go to the reactions from the panelists and from you and habitat? Are we all okay with that? Okay.
I think that you wanted to react to one of the points or was that a wrong impression? Yeah.
So I have listened carefully to all the speakers, and I think there is something missing, and I think this is very important.
We have been talking about private property, but the recognition of common goods is the first solution to our issue, I think, the recognition of common goods.
We live in communities.
We live together and private property is a societal value of the societies on earth.
Why don't we access other values? Maybe we should value earth as a common good.
We live in our communities.
Everybody who speaks about communities talk about common good and the recognition of this good is a way to become actors of our own development.
I disagree when we say that the communities cannot self develop.
I disagree.
This is not true.
We are people with a lot of experience.
We have now know how that is not being valued because you have some patents that exist that are monetized because it is business using things that are on Earth.
We have to listen to Earth to listen to this kind of know how.
We need solution to climate change, but we have to recognize common good and social housing.
This should be done thanks to the diversity of communities.
And this is all the actors, all the humans on earth that are actors.
And I think this is part and parcel.
As a representative of social movements, we have obtained this recognition in Mali, in Western Africa.
On agricultural land, not on housing land, but we also need it on the housing land because this gives the community the way to defend themselves if they are evicted.
If there is eviction, they ask you, what are your rights? Do you have tenure? But you don't have the tenure and to show that you are entitled.
But by recognizing this goods, the communities do have this right and they can negotiate if they are forcingly evicted.
They have a voice, they have the power, and they can be listened by the politicians.
If you have some kind of tenure that is legally recognized, we are legitimate.
But now we don't have this.
Here this is legitimate rights versus legal rights.
This is what we have to solve for peace and stability.
First, you have to have a proper housing before you can develop.
If you don't have housing, you are evicted, you are scared.
How can you participate in development? You can't.
I think that there are some issues that needs to be solved.
In order to do that, citizens needs to be respected.
Their dignity needs to be respected and have some rights.
They are legitimate on the land.
This is the first ever priority before we can talk about anything else.
Thank you so much, Rosa.
I'm going to pass the floor also to Bourgeois.
You wanted to react to Rose's points? Yes, I did.
Thank you.
I think I have the very difficult job of being a government representative in a room full of advocates, but I would like to tell you that I am an advocate.
I see the pain and I know what is happening and would like to do my very best to help.
But at the same time, I think one of the main reasons why I was actually invited to this panel is because Somalia and Azerbijan are currently co chairs for a UN Habitat working group called the Open Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on adequate housing for all.
This is the first time it's a UN mandated working group, the very first of its kind that has been brought during the UN Habitat General Assembly.
I believe two years ago now almost two years ago, and last year it was actually headed by France and Kenya and this year it is being chaired by Somalia and Azerbijan.
What we're doing there is we're bringing experts in housing who are coming together and discussing these themes that we're discussing here today.
Some of the themes that we're discussing this year, actually, we did one of the first intersectional meetings here in Wolf the day before yesterday and Tuesday, it was on climate resilience and housing and sustainability.
And these recommendations brought together by housing experts will all be brought together in one full document in 2029 during the UN Habitat General Assembly and that might have broader policy directions by member states during the General Assembly.
So what my call would be is go back home.
We send call to nominate nominations to every single member state of the UN.
We go back home, pester your government.
We ask them to nominate experts, and it's free.
We do online intersessional meetings.
I believe this was the first in person intersional meeting that we did since the bringing together of the working group and in Sm because many of the housing experts were actually here.
So pastor your government, we send cult nominations all the time.
Some of the themes that we're dealing with this year is integrated housing policies.
We're also working on enabling land management tools.
So those are the two that are left.
If you are able to come together and give recommendations on these topics and these themes and represent your countries and bring your voice to the table, it would go a long way into more policies being brought together in 2029 when all of these recommendations are being considered by the member states.
So I think I'm going to leave it at that and hand over back to Brenda.
Is there anyone from the panelists who want to react? Go ahead.
Thank you.
To points I would like to make.
From my own experience, what I've realized is there is a large percentage of the city population in the city who don't belong to the government, who is not from the communities, who is not from the CS who is also not from the CSOs.
But then your opinions also influence the city development agenda.
There is a gap of communication between us as a CS civ governments and the public.
Because your opinion also is influencing in the city development agenda, and that matters a lot.
I think we also need to work with the public in general and get their opinions in favor of the communities, the poor communities, the vulnerabilities, their housing issues.
We also need to think, how do we reduce that gap of communication, understanding, and the narratives that being built up, right? That is one thing.
The other point is, see, also bringing the example experience from Kathmandu, We have the constitution guarantees the housing right.
It's regarded as a fundamental right.
Housing right is a fundamental right and we also have a and Policy Act that actually guarantees communities access to land and housing.
We have the community organizations, we have the governments, we have in the past, we have actually spent years to get this policy Act finalized and bring this in place.
It's there.
It's actually there.
Still, this eviction happened, the government actually did evicted the communities, although the policy is there, but then it's not respected, it's not taken care of.
When this happens all the investment that has been actually happening in the communities is all gone in in in a minute.
Right? All the investments, all the efforts that has been actually made by the communities invested so many years by so many agencies, the people by themselves, it's all gone.
It's all gone.
It's so painful.
We don't know what to do.
A, you know, this has been expressed earlier, like, you know, how do we react? Like we have actually gone num, you know, what do we do? Then I think the important is, how do we make the governments accountable? Because it's not only the Kathmandu, we also have actually heard and it's been now being reported.
It's happening in so many other countries.
How do we make the government accountable? You know, what are the strict measures that need to be implemented to make the governments accountable? That is very important.
Maybe something is missing there to make them accountable.
What do we do? What do we do? It means like what can the youth organizers and UN agencies at the higher level can do to make the government accountable? What should be the monitoring mechanism? How do we monitor the progress, the performance, the actions, the results, that is being actually produced through the actions of the governments.
What should be the monitoring mechanism? How do they report? What should they be reporting? How do they report? Do you report, you know, also in consultants and it has to be in the people, how do we react? You know, how does the how would the UN should be reacting when these kind of things happen in the countries? You know, writing the statement, producing a statement like, you know, oh, you know, this has happened and we condemn that and you violated the rise of housing rate? Is that the end? Is that all you do and finish it? Like, what next then now? How do we discuss for solutions that actually becomes a win win solution for the communities and for the government itself and people are ready for that.
The government need to accept that? They have to come to the dialogue and who's going to mediate that dialogue? Then probably UN agencies have a bigger role there.
That's why I also stated earlier as a solution, there has to be a platform that allows everyone to come together and continuously talk on this issue, on this agenda.
How do we strengthen? How do we strengthen? How do we act on the policies that already is existing and that is the commitment of the government.
Thank you so much, Lagana.
We only have 5 minutes left.
I'm going to give the word to you very briefly, please because we still have a couple of things to do.
Okay.
I think I just want to actually amplify what Lagana was saying.
I The eviction that happened in Ottoma last year, which was around March, this was an example where we were actually thinking, you know, government and the people have started dialogue that would actually help the community because there was a series of, you know, datas profiling and the community was involved.
The government, you know, it was a common ground where everyone was carried along.
I and this was feeling like something that could be an example to, you know, the broader issues of eviction that is happening in Lagos.
But then what happened is, you know, the community got evicted at the end of the day, now it's a mega estate for the rich.
So I know we've tried so many strategies, we've done our organization, which is our data capturing profile, even documentation, but Even dialogue, the communities still remain resilient and even though most of these things feel like there is a gap in how we want to move forward from this exclusion, dialogue that we've tried that we felt would be good for the community, as an example, has turned to be something else.
So it raises a question of trust.
Like, how much trust can we give to the government to follow through and we will cycle back to accountability again in terms of accountability, how do we find our accountability in terms of what we believe them say when they say, okay, we are ready to work with your community, we are ready to do this.
Because we've seen example where it was trying to happen and then it turned to eviction.
What we want at the end of the day is proper dialogue that would benefit the communities.
Eviction causes more and more housing crisis, and this is something we as community want to end.
That's my final intervention.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Samuel.
I'm going to take maybe 2 minutes to summarize some key ideas that I'm drawing from all of this discussion.
Of course, it won't color everything, but we're hoping that it's an umbrella subject, umbrella, key messages that can be brought into the Bu code for action, and then I'm going to ask our colleague from you and habitat to close the session.
There are five points that I think have been critical in this discussion.
The first one is that we need to reframe housing systems from a commodity to a public good.
That implies addressing the root causes of the housing crisis and advancing collective and community ownership models, including the social production of housing.
The second one is that evictions and forced evictions need to be ended and we need to advance the rights based urban transformation.
That also entails establishing systems to monitor and document evictions and displacements and prioritize participatory upgrading and institute solutions over displacements.
The third one is that community development needs to be institutionalized and participation needs to be multi layered, and it should be seen as a structural element of public policy where co design and co implementation is recognized not only as a contribution of communities, but as a way of delivering housing in a co creative manner.
Multi level participation mechanisms need to be established and we need to ensure that communities are fairly compensated for their time, knowledge, and contributions to the delivery of housing.
The fourth point is that we need to strengthen partnerships and enable systemic change and that includes building long term system level collaboration, flexible regulatory and financial frameworks and using existing platforms such as the Global Assembly of Partners that was mentioned today.
This process that we followed as a stakeholder engagement for this process and for Wolf particularly, but also the open ended working group on adequate housing.
These are platforms that are already in place and we need to use them and make sure that these messages are conveyed in those spaces.
The fifth one is that we need to invest in data, accountability, and climate resilient housing action.
We need to support and strengthen community led data systems, use disaggregated and locally grounded data, and recognize and scale community led climate action.
These are just general, high level ideas that we want to make sure that are conveyed to the Baku call for action, but it has been a broader process, so we will revisit all of these conversations to include the messages that you have delivered.
Now, I'm going to ask All right.
I'm going to ask our colleague, Andrés from Unhabitat.
I'm sorry.
I don't know your last name.
Sq.
That's correct.
Andrés, please.
He's the head of the Organ Basic Services section at Unhabitat and please close the session and respond to some of those key questions.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Brenda.
And also thank you so much to all of you for this very intensive discussion.
I've been listening for 2 hours and I've really learned a lot.
I've had a lot of insights, and I think my colleagues were sitting to my right and over there.
They have also been taking very, very strong notes and putting this together for the reports, but also putting this together and what you're sharing as inputs to the Baku call for action.
And listening to all of you, what I've seen is, I think, we've come a far way, but there's still a lot to be done.
If we look back, I just quickly checked, I think it was actually only in 1972, where the first time civil society organizations actually participated in a UN meeting in the Stockholm Conference, which is also the founding meeting for UN Habitat, which was the founding elements for environment, the green environment and the Brown environment, which is for UN Habitat.
And those of you who might know in 1976, Habitat one was held, that was actually one of the first times also in the urban sphere where civil societies could join.
And those of you who have time, please go to the Canada Pavilion because they have a very nice video on Habitat one.
And something I didn't know is Mother Theresa actually joined Habitat one.
I mean, very powerful speaking from the slums of Calcata in Vancouver on Habitat one, and really the big turning point I feel in and habitat and I'm happy I've been with habitat for 35 years was in 1996, habitat two, which was really a turning point where UN Habitat became an agency for partnerships.
Over the years, I've worked with many of you in this room, Lumani in Nepal, and in other places.
We've worked together and We are sitting here now in the World Urban Forum, which was the outcome of Habitat two.
This is really the platform.
It was in 2002 where misses Tb Joker, the executive director at that time, had the vision of creating this platform for all the different stakeholders, civil society groups, grassroots group to meet every two years and to discuss and put forward their suggestions to the member states, to the governing council of U and habitat.
So this interaction, and we had a representative from the government between the civil society and grassroots organizations and making recommendations to the Governing Council of U and habitat.
Now we have a different governance structure and habitat.
We have every four years, we have the habitat Assembly, three times a year, we have the executive board, and then we have an open ended committee of Permanent Repatives which meets every two years.
So there is still this opportunity of influencing and communicating to the member states.
I think this platform of this exchange with member states is very important.
The other thing I wanted to mention is I had a quick look at the SDG Indicator 1132, which really is actually quite a powerful indicator, which is on the proportion of cities with direct participation structure of civil society in urban planning and management that operate regularly and democratically.
We actually have a very, very powerful SDG.
But are we making use of it? And if I look at it, some of the indicators which are there, disaggregated looking at what are the formal petitions, town hall meetings, neighborhood advisory committees, even protests and demonstrations are supposed to be recorded as part of this indicator, local referenda, elections.
So I feel this is something which we have not really made enough use of to see how we can raise awareness in this indicator and how we can encourage local authorities to actually collect data and start reporting because we have this formal mechanism within the SDGs The other thing I wanted to mention is looking forward, we have coming up now the high level meeting of the General Assembly on the review of the new Urban agenda, which is taking place in July.
And this is also an important element where all of you have a lot to contribute.
There's going to be a political declaration coming out of this.
So civil society groups, grassroots organizations have been invited to contribute to this.
And looking forward also beyond this, We had habitat three, we're going to have most probably habitat four in 2036.
If you look at it in this way, we're five world urban fora away from habitat four.
So how can we create a roadmap from Baku and all of you are contributing towards the Baku call for action and pass on the baton to Mexico.
Pass on the baton to the next.
To have an accountable process of the World Urban Forum where you can put forward a platform and actually have measurable indicators going from one urban forum to the next.
This could also in turn influence, let's say, the next, the post 2030 development agenda, and where does urban and housing fit in or informal settlements, slums.
How do they fit into the post 2030 agenda? These are some of the opportunities I feel you could look at in terms of this roadmap.
Thank you very much.
With that, I think we can close the session.
Thank you, everyone for having come and shared your thoughts.
We're taking all of these as learnings and also as a critical action paths for all of us, this collaboration.
Thank you.
Have a great rest of the day.