UN: WUF13 could offer key solutions to the global housing crisis
Baku, May 17, AZERTAC
“In a world where approximately 2.8 billion people live in inadequate housing conditions, the WUF13 forum could offer vital solutions.,” the head of UN-Habitat, Anacláudia Rossbach said in an interview with UN Video, describing the situation as a “global housing crisis”.
The theme of the forum is a call to action: Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities. According to the UN, nearly 2.8 billion people today are living in inadequate housing conditions, while more than 300 million have no home at all. With close to 70 per cent of the global population expected to live in cities by 2050, the crisis is only set to intensify.
“This crisis has long been most severe and structural in the Global South, but now it is also being felt in the Global North as well,” she added.
According to Ms. Rossbach, the rising cost of living has become a major issue, while international crises, including the war in the Middle East and the related risks to global supply chains, further aggravate the situation.
The crisis goes far beyond bricks and mortar. Housing is increasingly seen as a cornerstone of human dignity, urban resilience and even global stability. Its impacts ripple across every aspect of life, the UN warns – straining healthcare and education systems, weakening economies and fraying the social fabric.
Francine Pickup, Deputy Director of the UN Development Programme and head of the UNDP delegation to WUF13, said the agency hopes to use the forum in Baku to strengthen partnerships in promoting integrated urban solutions that combine housing, climate resilience, governance and local financing.
“This global housing crisis that we’re in is not primarily a construction problem,” Ms. Pickup said. “We need to go beyond looking at building homes and houses and look at the urban setting and look at the housing issue as a complex problem.”
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