Baku (TDI): Ministers and senior government officials from across the globe convened at the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, Azerbaijan, for a ministerial meeting aimed at reinvigorating international commitments on housing and the New Urban Agenda.
The meeting comes at what UN-Habitat Executive Director Anacláudia Rossbach described as a critical turning point; ten years since member states adopted the New Urban Agenda in Quito, and ten years before its 20-year implementation period draws to a close.
Speaking at the opening of the ministerial session, Rossbach called on participants to treat the midterm review not as a box-ticking exercise but as a genuine moment of political reckoning.
“Let us use this meeting to renew political will and ensure that the New Urban Agenda delivers real improvements in people’s lives over the next decade,” she said.
📍Global leaders at the Official Opening Press Conference of #WUF13 are highlighting the urgent need for safe, resilient and inclusive cities and communities.#HousingTheWorld #Baku2026 pic.twitter.com/HGDJitKnjv
— World Urban Forum (@WUF_UNHabitat) May 18, 2026
The urgency behind her words is hard to dispute. More than one billion people currently live in slums or informal settlements worldwide, and over the past decade, that number has grown by an additional 120 million.
A further 300 million people have no housing at all. Rossbach was unsparing in her assessment: commitments have too often failed to translate into sustained investments, local-level results, or measurable improvements in people’s lives.
Malaysia’s Minister of Housing and Local Government, Nga Kor Ming, who also serves as President of the UN-Habitat Assembly, announced plans to construct one million affordable and inclusive housing units over the next ten years, as part of the country’s 13th national development plan.
Gabon’s Minister of Housing, Ludovic Megne Ndong, outlined steps his country has taken to address a deficit of 300,000 housing units, including the creation of a national housing fund, expanded public-private partnerships, and a new data system tracking over 250 housing indicators.
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WUF13 is widely seen as a critical political staging post ahead of the formal midterm review of the New Urban Agenda scheduled for July at the United Nations in New York.
Outcomes from the Forum, including a ministerial summary and a broader “Baku Call to Action,” are expected to feed directly into those global review processes.
The co-facilitators of the UN review process, from Poland and Norway, travelled to Baku in person, signaling the meeting’s weight in the global urban policy calendar.
Rossbach framed the housing crisis as inseparable from broader questions of land, infrastructure, finance, governance, climate action and human rights and called for the next decade to become one of large-scale implementation, linking housing with transport, jobs, public spaces and services.
WUF13 runs under the theme “Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities,” bringing together governments, civil society, the private sector, academia and local communities for more than 300 events across six days.
