Between 4 and 8 November 2024, the 12th World Urban Forum (WUF12) will take place in Cairo, Egypt.
As in previous editions, HIC and its Members will be in attendance to advocate for the recognition, fulfilment and protection of Habitat Related Human Rights, both in the Agenda of UN-Habitat and of national and local governments present.
It is also an opportunity for strengthening ties and collaboration between organizations working on similar issues.
What is the WUF?
Organized by UN-Habitat, the World Urban Forum (WUF) is the premier global conference on sustainable urbanization. The WUF was established in 2001 as to raising awareness of sustainable urbanization and promote collaboration and cooperation between different stakeholders and constituencies.
Why is HIC attending?
Over the years, WUF has demonstrated to be a strategic space for coordination and discussion of strategies both between HIC members, friends and allies, but also other stakeholders such as UN Agencies, governments, academia and others. As the 2024 WUF centers on the general thematic of “It All Starts at Home: Local Actions for Sustainable Cities and Communities“, it invites participants to simmultaneously reflect on the plural definitions and implications of the concept of “home”, while also highlighting the emphasis on localization strategies from global agendas such as the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda.
WUF12 comes at a strategic moment both in terms of the UN-Habitat agenda and of the UN system at large. Following the appointment of its new Executive Director, Anaclaudia Rossbach, the agency is currently working on its upcoming strategic plan, building on the main discussions of the 2023 UN Habitat Assembly. At the same time, WUF12 will be held at a moment in which multilateral action for the acceleration of the 2030 Agenda is strenghtened in the wake of the Summit for the Future, held in September, in a delicate moment for fostering multilateral action, amid war, conflict and displacement.
Our demands at WUF
1) Denouncing the current situation of mounting displacement and evictions, both due to conflict and process of financialization of housing;
2) Discussing effective mechanisms to prevent and curb arbitrary forced evictions;
3) Promoting community-led practices for land and housing, particularly through the Social Production of Habitat;
4) Pushing for structural models and mechanisms for substantive collaboration with civil society organizations
HIC will be attending WUF12 with a delegation including HIC Representatives to the Board, HIC President and Vice-President as well as the HIC Regional Offices and General Secretariat focused both on promoting exchange and coordination among its members and allies, as well as to influence debate and discussions being held in the forum at large, particularly regarding the upcoming UN-Habitat Strategic plan.
Below, you can find the full programme of HIC activities being led by HIC and its Members, as to shine a light on such priorities:
> Our Coalition Programme at WUF
> Events organized by HIC
Wednesday, 6 November
Convergence of social and feminist movements
09:30 – 11:00
Habitat Village Stand H04-A15
Organized by HIC. Other organizations involved: Rooftoops Canada.
Stand event
Summary
In 2023, HIC launched a process calling for a cross-regional convergence of social and feminist movements as to construct a common agenda for action, informed by the struggles, local experiences, and political advocacy of the movements that operate within and outside of HIC, as well as to discuss the principles, processes, and practices that allow them to incorporate a feminist perspective.
This session aims to present that effort and the first conclusions of the ongoing discussions, opening-up the debate to a wider audience, as to further strengthen and continue the discussion on principles, processes, practices and trajectories that are enabling social movements to incorporate a feminist perspective and political leadership within them. The activity has been co-planned along with Rooftops Canada, which leads the Women Spaces Africa project, with a focus on promoting the implementation of women’s equitable rights to and control over land, housing and livelihoods in urban environments.
Dialogue 3: Stronger together - What partnerships are needed to make global agendas work for local realities and ensure local solutions shape global agendas?
10:00 – 12:00
Plenary room A – Organised by UN Habitat – WUF Dialogues
Summary
Cities need partnerships, and the world needs cities if global challenges are to be solved. In this dialogue, attendees will hear pathbreaking policymakers and practitioners from around the world discuss how to forge collaboration across scales and sectors to face global challenges and create inclusive innovation.
This session will explore the critical intersection of local action and global agendas in urban governance, focusing on partnerships, multilevel governance and the principle of leaving no one and no place behind as the foundations for localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Cities are central to achieving the SDGs, but without effective coordination between local and regional governments, over 100 SDGs will not be reached.
Housing, Land & Property Solutions for Displaced Persons & Communities
17:00 – 18:30
Multipurpose room 06 – Networking event
Summary
Communities affected by displacement in the context of development, climate change and conflict share common rights to remedy. A panel of rights holders from Europe, Middle East/North Africa and Great Lakes will share their various experiences of displacement and loss of housing, land and property (HLP), as well as remedy. These testimonies will be presented within the normative framework of international law that guides central and local spheres of government on prevention and remedy toward durable solutions and HLP restitution.
Thursday, 7 November
Public-community partnerships democratizing and improving decision-making and service delivery to advance the right to the city for all
9:00 – 12:00
Multipurpose room 4
Organizers: GPR2C, other organizations involved: HIC, UCLG
Training event
Summary
How can local communities and governments come together to find alternative models for collectively managing key resources and services, ensuring accessibility to all and strengthening community participation? This training will look at the opportunities held by public-community partnerships as an example of commoning and a localization strategy that goes beyond the public-private divide to guarantee the protection of housing; food systems; basic services, communication and other commons goods.
Temporary rental platforms one more face of the commodification of housing. Debate on the problems and possible solutions.
15:00 – 16:30
Multipurpose room 3
Organized by HIC-AL. Other organizations involved: CEAPI, The Shift, Urban Front
Networking event
Summary
The growth of temporary rentals around the world is playing a significant role in the housing affordability crisis. Its geographic and quantitative expansion – which today is of increasing interest also to the Global South – is taking place in a context of generalized deregulation and is benefiting from digital capitalism. In this context, even the most progressive governments find themselves facing a series of difficulties in designing and, above all, implementing adequate regulations to protect the population’s right to housing.
It is necessary to confront temporary and/or platform rentals as a new economic model for cities, a new housing industry; and not only as a phenomenon that affects access to housing. To this end, this event seeks to outline an analysis of how the temporary rental sector is being structured in its global and local components, what is the role of the different actors involved, the real impact on the right to housing of different sectors of the population and what are some ways to guarantee this right in the current context. In this sense, the conversation seeks to bring together a diverse range of actors and organizations from the global North and South that are organizing and thinking about the phenomenon of temporary and/or platform rentals from a human rights perspective, reinforcing translocal alliances committed to the right to housing in a context of increasing speculation on a global scale.
Friday, 8 November
Towards an action research agenda on housing justice
12:00 – 13:00
Habitat Village , located in Stand H04-A15
Organized by HIC, other organizations involved: Polis, IIED
Stand event
Summary
The objective of this session is to present and collectively discuss a proposal for an overarching action-research on national housing policies and land tenure arrangements to be carried-out starting 2024 under the leadership of HIC, IIED and Polis Institute. The research aims to build a case for the role of the state, through effective housing policies, to advance equitable access to and affordability of housing and land by all, with a particular focus on policies related to forced evictions, land tenure arrangements, commodification of housing, community-led processes and meaningful stakeholder participation.
The Habitat Village discussion seeks to present the effort and collectively discuss how this could be carried forward in terms of the research objectives and analytical frameworks to be used. The idea is for the final outcome to be presented in an open-source document that can be used and modified by different organizations. Thus, having input from a wider audience from the beginning is crucial so the effort is relevant and useful.
> Events organized by HIC’s Members
Tuesday, 5 November
Feminist Cities. Advancing Care, Climate Justice, and Inclusive Urban Planning
13:00 – 14:30
Multipurpose room 16
Organized by Red Mujer y Habitat de America Latina
Networking event
Time to Walk the Talk - Forefronting Local Action towards Urban Equality
15:00 – 16:30
Multipurpose room 14
Organised by The Bartlett Development Planning Unit DPU University College London UCL.
Networking event
Wednesday, 6 November
Multi-scale and multi-actor partnerships to advance the Right to the City and the New Urban Agenda
The legacy and topicality of John F.C. Turner on housing policy and lessons for community-led development
17:00 – 18:30
Multipurpose room 16
Organised by Geoffrey Payne – GPA (UK), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya UPC Barcelona
Networking event
Thursday, 7 November
Hub for Housing Justice - Strengthening alliances for just housing futures
13:00 – 14:30
Multipurpose room 5
Organized by IIED – International Institute for Environment and Development
Networking event
Urban cinema: ‘Lo que queremos es cambiarlo todo’ (What we want is to change everything)
17:45 -18:30
Urban Cinema
Organized by Adriana Allen – The Bartlett Development Planning Unit DPU University College London UCL
Urban Cinema
> Meet us at the Habitat Village
The Habitat Village is a collaborative initiative involving a unique consortium of partners, spanning civil society organizations, academic institutions, and grassroots movements, committed to advancing just, equitable, and sustainable cities.
Location: Habitat Village – Stand H04-A15
What will you find at the Habitat Village?
The Habitat Village will feature thematic discussions, collective brainstorm activities and debriefing sessions to showcase locally driven solutions and build links with international movements advocating for the right to inclusive and healthy urban
environments.

>HIC’s participation within the Official Programme
Monday, 4 November
Dialogue 1: Housing our future
Summary
This session will delve into key dynamics behind the housing crisis, including the commodification of housing and cities’ over-reliance on a narrow range of solutions, leading to soaring housing costs, and structural weakness, all of which are being exacerbated by the climate crisis.
Organizers: UN Habitat
Grassroots Assembly & Roundtable, with HIC's President participation
Wednesday, 6 November
Dialogue 3: Stronger together - What partnerships are needed to make global agendas work for local realities and ensure local solutions shape global agendas?
10:00 – 12:00
Plenary room A – Organised by UN Habitat
WUF Dialogues
Summary
Cities need partnerships, and the world needs cities if global challenges are to be solved. In this dialogue, attendees will hear pathbreaking policymakers and practitioners from around the world discuss how to forge collaboration across scales and sectors to face global challenges and create inclusive innovation.
This session will explore the critical intersection of local action and global agendas in urban governance, focusing on partnerships, multilevel governance and the principle of leaving no one and no place behind as the foundations for localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Cities are central to achieving the SDGs, but without effective coordination between local and regional governments, over 100 SDGs will not be reached.
Friday, 8 November
Civil society roundtable, with the participation of HIC Secretary General, Yolande Hendler
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