Ministers, mayors, urban planners and international organizations gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 17 May 2026 for the thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13), tackling a global housing crisis that affects nearly 2.8 billion people worldwide, according to UN News. The week-long forum, convened under the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), opened on Sunday with discussions on how cities can be made safer, more resilient, and housing more affordable. More than 1.1 billion people currently live in slums or informal settlements globally. The opening sessions placed particular focus on social housing, climate resilience and post-conflict recovery. Participants are seeking practical solutions to one of the world’s fastest-growing urban challenges.
The forum builds on a decade of incremental progress in urban governance worldwide. Around 160 countries have already adopted or are developing national urban policies, while more than two-thirds of countries have introduced housing affordability programmes. Despite these efforts, UN-Habitat reports that they remain insufficient to meet rising demand. Over the last decade, more than 120 million people were either born into or moved into slums and informal settlements. The discussions in Baku are rooted in the New Urban Agenda, adopted ten years ago at the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador.
Recovery from war and destruction featured prominently on the opening day’s agenda. Bashar Al Sebaai, mayor of Homs, Syria, said his city urgently needs ideas, expertise and financing to restore basic services and infrastructure after years of conflict. Expanded social housing programmes, upgrades to informal settlements and protections for vulnerable populations were among the proposed solutions. Climate change also emerged as a central concern, as the construction sector remains one of the world’s largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Low-carbon construction, resilient urban planning and climate-sensitive upgrading of informal settlements are on the forum’s agenda.
The first day of the forum itself was marked by prolonged heavy rain in Baku, forcing city authorities to take urgent measures to drain flooded roads. Local residents noted that such weather events were rare in Azerbaijan just a few years ago, especially at this time of year. Lance Jay Brown, founder of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, highlighted that homelessness is not confined to poorer nations.
“When we have a homeless population of hundreds of thousands of people in the streets in the United States, and we’re considered to be wealthy…In New York, it looks like a crisis right now,” he told UN News.
Mr. Brown noted that during his lifetime, the world’s population has nearly quadrupled while affordable housing for low-income communities has become increasingly difficult to secure.
Alongside the ministerial meetings, several thematic assemblies began work in Baku, bringing together governments, civil society, the private sector and international organizations. The assemblies focused on issues ranging from women and youth to the role of civil society and private companies in urban development. Mayor Al Sebaai told UN News that “400,000 returned to the city after the war,” coming back to severely damaged neighbourhoods facing problems with solid waste, infrastructure and electricity. The ministerial meetings are expected to help prepare for the July session of the UN General Assembly, which will conduct the official review of progress in implementing the New Urban Agenda. The Agenda outlines global principles for urban development through 2036.
