From June 25th to 30th, Habitat International Coalition and its members will be present at the World Urban Forum in Katowice, carrying out activities inside and outside the main forum, with a focus on networking and coalition-building along with members.
Among the main activities to be carried out are the HIC General Assembly on the 25th of June, a series of side events organized by HIC structures and members and parallel activities to take place in the Habitat Village collective exhibition stand, focused on the work of Cohabitat Network members on community-led housing initiatives.
HIC Thematic Priorities
Learn more about what HIC is doing:
Our Programme
During WUF11, HIC and its members will be engaging in a series of events, from speaking at official roundtables, leading side events and organizing parallel activities in the Habitat Village Stand. Check our programme below and find more information at the official WUF programme here.
HIC-LED side-events
Date: Saturday 25 June 2022, 2pm – 5pm UTC (see your local time here)
Register on Zoom: https://bit.ly/3Hh3ecP
In-Person Venue: Novotel Katowice Centrum, Aleja Roździeńskiego 16, 40-202 Katowice
Interpretation: Arabic, English, French, Spanish
HIC Members, Friends and Allies are invited to join us for the HIC General Assembly 2022 to reflect on current challenges, debate strategies and priorities, and look ahead.
Toward New UN Habitat Stakeholder Engagement
Date: Tuesday, June 28th – 12:30 – 14:00
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 6
The networking event will provide background with a review the rich history of UN Habitat stakeholder engagement since 1976. Veterans of UN Habitat engagement, including UN Habitat officers and stakeholders from civil society and local government will share their 45 years of experience, culminating in the new UN Habitat Assembly and governance system. That will provide the basis for consideration of current opportunities for engagement, as well as the proposals presented by the Institutional Mechanism Working Group and reports from the Stakeholder Advisory Group Enterprise (SAGE) for consideration of future prospects for developing the promising self-organized mechanism for supporting and advising UN Habitat’s normative and operational roles to meet the present and coming challenges of inclusive, equitable and sustainable human settlements development within the framework of New Urban Agenda commitments.
Celebrating 45 years of HIC: Building Social Force through Co-Learning and Advocacy
Date: Wednesday, June 29th – 14.30-16:00
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 7
HIC’s Co-learning and Advocacy spaces have emerged from the Coalition’s long-standing history of connecting diverse civil society actors through joint learning and advocacy. These spaces are cross-regional, multi-session encounters that support participating community and civil society organizations to prioritize, strategise, learn and advocate together on human rights related to habitat. The event will provide the space for a joint reflexion on the past and current practices and possibilities of popular pedagogies for building social force around habitat rights. The first block of discussion will focus on an exchange with representatives of networks and organizations of different regions on the past and contemporary role of critical pedagogies in building social force within different social movements related to the right to housing, feminist persctives and beyond. The second block will focus on the key discussions and actions emerging from three specific Co-learning and Advocacy Spaces developed by HIC during the first semester of 2022 on (i) Feminist approaches to habitat, (ii) Land Rights and (iii) Multi-level advocacy.
Habitat Village stand – Hall 2.4 – Stand #42
HIC will be joining other organizations from the Cohabitat Network at the Habitat Village stand for a series of exchanges and activities. Come meet us and join the following activities:
HIC / HLRN – Climate displacement and the HLRN Violations database
Date: Tuesday, June 28th, 17h – 18h
Location: Habitat Village Stand, Hall 2.4 – Stand #42
As the climate emergency carries on, the number of people displaced due to environmental phenomena such as droughts and floods, or due to conflicts and the belligerent occupation of peoples’ sovereign territories – often motivated by ideologies of violence to control the extraction of resources — has been rising. This session will discuss the issue of climate-related displacements, building on the work carried out and data collected by the Housing and Land Rights Network, on their Violation Database, which maps housing and land rights violations across the globe, in particular regarding the social and territorial effects of conflict, megaprojects, privatization of public services and the commodification of social housing.
Cohabitat Network / HIC – Claiming and producing housing rights: cross-regional experiences from grassroots organizations and international networks (Part 1 and 2)
Dates: Wednesday, June 29th, 9h30 – 11h30
Thursday, June 30th, 9h30 – 10h30,
Location: Habitat Village Stand, Hall 2.4 – Stand #42
The roundtable will be structured around two blocks. In the first one, grassroots leaders from different regions will briefly present initiatives being put forward for the claiming and production of housing rights. The second block will then reflect on the cases presented through testimonies from international networks of civil society organizations and governments, and research centers. Through concrete examples, the roundtable will highlight legal and support mechanisms that can be put forward by governments, financial institutions, international organizations and other stakeholders in partnership with civil society in order to secure the right to housing.
HIC-AL schools: How do we learn to become agents of change for a socially just habitat?
Date: Thursday, June 30th, 11:30h – 13h
Location: Habitat Village Stand, Hall 2.4 – Stand #42
Come join us to discover a short documentary series on the HIC-AL schools, highlighting how HIC members in Latin America and the Caribbean have been driving popular pedagogies approaches to build a more socially just habitat. The activity will be hosted in two parts, the first focusing on pedagogies for the social production of habitat, while the second discusses pedagogies for equality in diversity. Each session will start by projecting two videos (~10′ each, in ES and EN), followed by a short debate with two discussants. The videos have been collaboratively produced by Members of Habitat International Coalition in Latin America and the DPU.
Find out more activities at the Habitat Village Stand:
HIC Member and Partner Events
WUF Assemblies: Women, Grassroots, Children and youth, business, local and regional governments
Date: Sunday, June 26th, 9:30h-18h
Location: Auditorium
Assemblies, whether in plenary or break out groups, also offer the potential for stakeholders to contribute ideas or language to the set of WUF11 Declared Actions: all of which will form part of the consensus document that emerges from the convening to provide a roadmap for cities to achieve the Sustainable Development Agenda. Assemblies will be held for the following constituencies: Women, Grassroots, Children and youth, business, local and regional governments.
World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments
Date: Sunday 26th June, 15 and 18pm CEST
Location: Roundtable Room 1
Organised by the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments (GTF), facilitated by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)
On the occasion of the 11th session of the World Urban Forum, taking place in Katowice, the organized constituency of local and regional governments gathered within the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments (GTF), facilitated by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), will be convening the World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments. Inspired by the current context, the gathering of the World Assembly at WUF11 will address the overlapping crises, including the invasion of Ukraine, but will further build on the need for a sustainable recovery and development of a multilateral response to crises. It will also ensure that we can build pathways to peace and transform the commitments that were undertaken in Quito six years ago.
Networking event – IIED – Better cities are possible: responding to the twin urban crises of climate change and inequality
Date: Monday, June 27th, 13.30h – 15h
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 3 – Hybrid participation
This event’s key objectives are to facilitate knowledge sharing and promote networking opportunities around the following question: How can cities promote resilient, low-carbon and just urbanization in a context of increasing climate breakdown and inequality. This networking event also aims to launch the publication of an agenda-setting document by the Human Settlements Group of The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) focused on how the housing, poverty, migration and resilience agendas can inform and engage with global debates concerning urban sustainability and climate change.
Training event – Architecture Sans Frontieres – IIED – Scaling up community-led planning: Learning from Freetown
CANCELLED
Date: Tuesday, June 28th, 9h – 12h
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 6
This Training Event aims to explore the relevance of community-led planning as a means for making cities more inclusive, localizing the Sustainable Development Goals and implementing the New Urban Agenda. Drawing lessons from the experience of Freetown, Sierra Leone, the focus will be on informal settlement upgrading initiatives and on the challenges and opportunities for taking community-led planning for informal settlement upgrading to scale. The event is hosted by Architecture Sans Frontières UK with the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre and the International Institute for Environment and Development. More information here.
UN Habitat Better Cities Film Festival – Habitat Norway – Special Screening “A Roof of My Own” (1964) to “Ciudad Infinita” (2018), past and contemporary challenges of Lima’s barriadas
Date: Tuesday, June 28th, 13:30h – 15:30h
Location: Urban Cinema
From “A Roof of My Own” (1964) to “Ciudad Infinita” (2018), past and contemporary challenges of Lima’s barriadas: A Special Film screening and panel discussion hosted by Habitat Norway featuring co-producer Kathrin Golda-Pongratz with leading urban experts, including Adriana Allen, HIC president.
Networking Event – ENDA Ecopop – Participatory budgeting to promote cities in harmony and build a future better urban
Date: Tuesday, June 28th, 14:30h – 16h
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 19
This networking session will strengthen the dialogue of experiences in terms of inclusive and participatory governance. It will promote the latest innovations attempted in cities on the concept of participatory budgets. Specifically, this will be through presentations made by decision-makers representing countries and cities, civil society practitioners and academics, researchers from Africa, America, Asia and Europe i) to strengthen knowledge on innovations and participatory budgeting mechanisms as tools for inclusive governance, and ii) to share on the progress, achievements and challenges of participatory budgeting approaches as mechanisms for co-construction between a multitude of actors at the various levels of urban governance , to transform cities for a better urban future.
Stand event – GPR2C – Presentation on Thematic Paper on Cities and Human Settlements with Quality Public Spaces
Date: Tuesday, June 28th, 15h30 – 16h30
Location: Public Spaces Stand- Hall 2.2, Stand #15
Join us for the public release of the GPR2C Policy Paper on Cities and Human Settlements with Quality Public Spaces. This paper explores the complexity of public space across different dimensions: urban, cultural, artistic and performative, political, environmental, and virtual. Public space is not simply a well-designed physical space for public enjoyment; it is primarily a way of re-thinking cities and human settlements so that they can powerfully contribute to the effective implementation of the main pillars of the right to the city. The author of the paper, Luisa Bravo from City Space Architecture, will join us for the presentation and debate with other organizations working on the theme.
Networking event – Redeus_LAC, CPR, CUBES, UN-Habitat – Envisioning slum upgrading for the city of tomorrow
Date: Tuesday, June 28th, 16:30h – 18h
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 1 – Hybrid participation
The aim of this network event is to continue expanding and consolidating the global community of production of knowledge, learning and practice on slum upgrading, building on the previous efforts and consensus, envisioning a platform of practitioners & researchers that can implement joining activities and meet regularly and grow at every WUF session.
Training on the Right to the City and No Discrimination and Inclusive Citizenship
Date: Wednesday, June 29th, 11h – 12:30h
Location: UCLG Stand, Hall 2.3 – Stand #21
The training event will contribute to the understanding of the commitments included in the International Human Rights framework, 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda by connecting them to the existing practice and collective knowledge around cities with inclusive citizenship as a component of the Right to the City. This understanding will empower participants to demand the implementation of these commitments, therefore, strengthening their work on the Right to the City to achieve Cities with Inclusive Citizenship.
Networking event – Women and Habitat Network LAC – Feminist perspectives on cities – the intersection of theories and praxis
Date: Wednesday, June 29th, 12:30h – 14h
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 16
This networking event will talk about feminist perspectives in the cities and the right that women have to use and enjoy the cities and for them to be designed with a gender perspective and meet their needs.
Bottom-up alliances for global research agendas: lessons from a partnership for equality
Date: Wednesday 29th, from 12:30-13:30.
Location: UCLG Stand – Stand Hall 2.3 – Stand #21
The key focus of the dialogue will be on the role of partnerships between local and regional government networks with civil society and academic actors in global reporting processes. This could be an opportunity to reflect on the GOLD experience and its links to other UCLG processes (such as the Town Hall), as well as other processes led by civil society networks. We could also use this opportunity to let people know about our on-line repository of the GOLD outputs produced so far. By then, we will be able to have a link with all the case based contributions that many of you have written and contributed towards.
Special Session – Accelerating Post Covid-19 Recovery, Social Inclusion and Urban Inequality Reduction in Communities
Date: Wednesday, June 29th, 16h – 18h
Location: Special Sesssion Room 2
The crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that urban action at the neighborhood level has the potential to generate direct impacts and benefits on the quality of life and the exercise of human rights of all people. Neighborhood action allows for the promotion of close, compact and connected city models, which in turn work as strategies for social inclusion, as well as for the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. This special session will highlight best practices of intervention at the neighborhood level that have been implemented to address the effects of the pandemic in different countries of the global south. More information here.
Voices from Cities event – Ieder(In), VNG International, Netherlands and UCLG – How to work with a local inclusion agenda?
Date: Thursday, June 30th, 9h – 10:30h
Location: Room B
Traveling by public transport, going to school, doing something fun or applying for a job can be quite a challenge for people with disabilities. Municipalities draw up local inclusion agenda’s to ensure that anyone can fairly participate in society. This event guides you through the do’s and don’ts, voiced by the experts. More information here.
TRIALOG Conference 2022 – “Co-operation revisited” Perspectives for cross-cultural education, work and exchange in the urban development field
Post WUF event in Glwice, Poland
Date: Friday, July 30th, 9h – 18h
Location: Gliwice, Akademicka 7, Faculty of Architecture or Marcina Strzody 10 – Glwice, Poland
International cooperation between the Global North and Global South still suffers from a neo-colonial imbalance in both academic and political circles, – a premise that is, however, increasingly and justifiably coming under criticism. Moreover, the assumed bipolarity between North and South has long been outdated while numerous young development poles have popped up in the former developing countries and are growing with an impressive rapid dynamic, while at the same time, the cards are being reshuffled within the northern hemisphere as well between East and West. This year’s TRIALOG conference aims to analyse current practices and discourses in this context, discuss progressive experiences and outline possibly more egalitarian approaches for the future. Learn more here.
About WUF 11
The World Urban Forum (WUF) is the premier global conference on sustainable urbanization, established in 2001 by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies. The first WUF was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2002 and has been held around the world ever since. Representatives of national, regional and local governments, academics, business people, community leaders, urban planners and civil society representatives will be among the thousands of people expected to attend this year’s 11th session.
The theme of WUF11, Transforming our Cities for a Better Urban Future, seeks to provide greater insights and clarity on the future of cities based on existing trends, challenges and opportunities, as well as suggest ways cities can be better prepared to address future pandemics and a wide range of other shocks.
