WUF12: It all starts at home

Can 24,000 minds solve the world’s urban woes? Laura Puttkamer delves into WUF12’s ambitious agenda in Cairo, where gender parity and African voices took centre stage in reimagining our cities’ future.

“It all starts at home” was the motto of UN-Habitat’s 12^th World Urban Forum, a biennial gathering of urban experts from all over the world. This year’s edition was held in Cairo, a city itself undergoing rapid urban development. Around 24,000 urban experts convened in over 500 events, noteworthy for achieving gender parity among speakers. At the heart of the conference were six dialogues, focusing on housing, cities and climate, partnerships, finance, people and technology, as well as resilience and recovery in the face of conflict and disasters.

“Around the world, 1 billion people still live in informal settlements, and a total of 3 billion live in inadequate housing”, Anaclaudía Rossbach, Executive Director of UN Habitat, said when she opened the conference. This year’s theme, “It all starts at home: Local actions for sustainable cities and communities” brought together leaders, innovators, and advocates from a wide array of sectors. All of them focused on building resilient, equitable cities that can address future demands. As only the second World Urban Forum to be held in Africa, this event was particularly significant, drawing 69 per cent of the attendees from the continent, followed by Asia (13.9 per cent), Europe (11 per cent), the Americas (5.7 per cent), and Oceania (0.3 per cent). The forum showcased a remarkable lineup. 407 speakers including four heads of state, 60 ministers, and 96 mayors, addressed key urban issues.

German Pavilion at an Event ©GIZ/Mohamed Subahi

Financing took centre stage, given that SDG 11 is lagging behind and needs considerable funding to meet its goals by 2030. The dialogue extended beyond funding to encompass vital topics such as climate-resilient urban design — essential for safeguarding cities against the impacts of climate change —, affordable housing for all, and smart cities for sustainable growth, children, and youth.

How can we build green, inclusive, and equitable cities all over the world? Various stakeholders and partners presented approaches and best practices to this question. It also echoed at the German Pavilion throughout the Forum. Niels Annen, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), who officially opened the pavilion emphasised: “Cities are like a laboratory for what is going to happen next on our planet. So, if we do not manage to create green energy, to create sustainable ways of working, and living and create wealth, if we are not able to build the infrastructure that is necessary to provide the needs of so many people around the world in a sustainable way, we will fail.”

Egyptian Minister at the Opening of the German Stand ©GIZ/Mohamed Subahi

During the opening event, the focus was on the longstanding relationship between Germany and Egypt in jointly working towards a sustainable urban future for over 20 years. Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Egypt’s Minister of Planning, Economic Development and International Cooperation, took centre stage with a powerful declaration: “We are here to do the heavy lifting with the help of a range of stakeholders”, reaffirming the mutual interests of Germany and Egypt. Her words emphasised the importance of working together and working locally and that through collaboration it will be possible to achieve greener, more inclusive cities.

Strategic Action on Financing Climate Resilience

This year’s World Urban Forum showcased innovative urban solutions. Highlights included mycelium houses, large-scale tree planting in Jordan and Lebanon, and Alexandria’s climate-resilient dry port project. The forum also featured a GIS app for land titles in Mozambique and community planning workshops in Mexico.

The Cities Adapt programme, that stood out with its “Sembrando Ciudades” project, works with the Ikoots community and its traditional authorities to learn from the ancient knowledge of local women. Through participatory workshops and interactive dialogues, local priorities and challenges have been brought to the forefront, ensuring that solutions are truly community-driven.

In San José del Cabo, Cities Adapt has achieved a remarkable feat of community engagement. Together with local residents, the programme redesigned a space of 1,600 square metres in a participatory design process. “We are improving ecological knowledge, cleaning the park and providing micro-basins to combat rainwater effects”, explained Auribel Villa, advisor at GIZ Mexico. The result? Innovative rain gardens that can be scaled up in the future. The project’s “How-to guide for future-proofing neighbourhoods” details six steps for hyper-local climate adaptation measures, including practical tools, a resource library, and case studies from South Africa and Mexico.

State Secretary Niels Annen ©GIZ/Mohamed Subahi

Futures thinking is another important tool for urban development, as Viktoria Juliet Ach from the C40 Cities Finance Facility and GIZ stated: “Strategic foresight with local partners is increasingly becoming a priority area. For example, Rwanda’s vision 2050 is based on GIZ workshops with the government and has resulted in the German-Rwandan Climate Partnership”. Similarly, the Cities Finance Facility by C40 Cities and GIZ promotes access to finance for projects with a focus on adaptation and resilience. From cleaning waterways and waste in eThekwini to preventing landslides in informal settlements in El Salvador, this facility supports projects to make their business case and to be sustainable beyond the original funding. The World Cities Report 2024, presented during the Forum, provides a useful database of successful projects, finance, and recommendations for political action.

Beyond WUF12: The Cairo Call to Action

Cairo, with its mix of ancient and modern architecture and many construction sites that display its ambitions, provided a unique and inspiring environment for the World Urban Forum. The Egyptian capital has as many as 23 million inhabitants. And it only continues to grow, which places enormous strain on the old infrastructure, on housing, and on the distribution of land. In response, the government is clearing informal settlements in Old Cairo and rehousing residents in social housing projects like Al-Asmarat, while making space for large touristic sites. Funding gaps are a key challenge for the city, as they are everywhere. At the same time, the New Administrative Capital, designed for up to eight million people, is mushrooming out of the desert to the East of the city, giving us an idea of what lies ahead for megacities.

There are four main lessons that WUF12 holds:

1. Addressing the housing crisis is of critical urgency.
2. Sustainable and equitable financing is a priority for urban sustainability.
3. We need to capture, share, and learn from existing solutions to accelerate actions and scale up ideas that work.
4. Coalitions and partnerships are one of our most powerful tools.

At the closing ceremony, the Cairo Call to Action – the conference’s main outcome – was unveiled. This document encapsulates key messages and ideas from the five days of discussions. In less than two years’ time, it will be Baku’s turn to host urban experts. For now, recommendations will be taken to COP29 to align efforts to meet the Paris Agreement goals, achieve the SDGs, and implement the New Urban Agenda.
The challenges are immense, but so too is the collective will to create cities that are not just sustainable, but thriving, equitable, and resilient for all their inhabitants.