World Urban Forum in Cairo: Highlights and Reflections from days 4&5

The last two days of the World Urban Forum 12 Egypt brought more speaking engagements for IHS staff in several events, as well as a celebratory moment for the IHS Alumni Impact Award winner, selected during the IHS lead training event. Read more about how we rounded up #WUF12 below!

Housing Policy Practices and Tools?

This training event was a collaboration between the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP), represented by Claudio Acioly Jr.; the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance Africa (CAHF), represented by Kecia Rust; and IHS, represented by Alonso Ayala. Claudio Acioly framed the global housing challenge, provided a historical overview of the evolution of housing in international policymaking and advocacy, and introduced the Housing Barometer—a tool for rapidly assessing the housing sector's performance. Afterwards, Kecia Rust introduced the House Delivery Value Chain, emphasizing the various financial stages necessary to achieve each step while highlighting bottlenecks along the value chain in the context of Africa and sharing examples of how to overcome them. Alonso Ayala presented four case studies where innovative housing finance mechanisms enabled the provision of affordable housing to the bottom 40% of the population, with a vision for scaling up. The training concluded with all participants applying the Housing Barometer and engaging in a vivid Q&A discussion.?

Global Coalition for Urban Data?

On Thursday, David Dodman participated in a closed-door event with the Executive Director and staff from the Research and Capacity Development Branch at UN-Habitat to discuss the development of a Global Coalition for Urban Data. This coalition will require a range of sources and approaches, from Earth Observation and GIS to large-scale quantitative surveys and critically engaged community-generated data.?

Challenge of Housing in Africa?

Anthony Boanada-Fuchs, IHS's new Head of Projects and Partnerships, spoke at the Challenge of Housing in Africa, linking housing needs analysis within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) timeframe (2015-2030) to material innovation and the value supply chain. It is estimated that globally, 40 million housing units are needed annually. This challenge is most severe in Africa, where some countries must triple their current housing stock within 15 years. However, this significant challenge also presents a unique opportunity for a green transition. EPFL has developed low-carbon cement (LC3) that reduces CO2 emissions by 40%. This solution is particularly relevant for Africa, where limestone is scarce, but clay is abundant. Skat presented their work in supporting both private and public sector actors to establish low-carbon brick supply chains for affordable housing in Africa’s major urbanization hotspots.?

Local Economic Development in Secondary Cities?

Secondary cities in the global South often have high unemployment levels and lack the political clout to address this. Jan Fransen organised an event jointly with UN-Habitat, SwissContact and the Government of Bangladesh to discuss how to create sustainable livelihoods in cities with limited capacities and resources. The session was based on innovative practices from Bangladesh and discussed if and how these can be applied in other contexts.

Mobilizing Knowledge and Data for Climate Action

In his final engagement of the week, David Dodman delivered a keynote address at the One UN Academia Roundtable event on Friday, discussing the mobilization of knowledge and data for climate action. In his presentation, he emphasized the need for various forms of data, the importance of a systems approach to understanding climate change in urban areas, and the necessity of assessing the implications of both climate action and climate change. A video of this event is available at the Academia Roundtable (World Urban Forum 12th Session) on UN Web TV.?

A video of this event is available on the Academia Roundtable (World Urban Forum 12th Session) | UN Web TV.?

IHS Alumni Impact Award?

On the final day of the forum, IHS hosted a training event on leveraging inclusive partnerships for sustainable urban development. Hosts Alonso Ayala and Maartje van Eerd introduced participants to the concept of Theory of Change. Special guest Ikbel Dridi, Senior Project Manager for Cities Alliance (UNOPS), presented the Femmedina project, which adopts an inclusive approach to public spaces for women. The training also featured projects from the three finalists of the IHS Alumni Impact Award, facilitating an open discussion on implementing the Theory of Change. The discussion focused on the impact of each initiative, and ultimately, the audience selected this year’s winner, Zamikaya Mgwatyu from South Africa, with his development programme Contractor & Developer Academy. We congratulate all the finalists and look forward to the advancement of their initiatives in the future.?

Unleashing the creativity of marginalized communities?

Alice Menya moderated this SDG in Action event, with Jan Fransen on the panel. Marginalized communities constantly adapt to shocks, finding creative solutions to climate change and other problems. Ahmed Saada, Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity, introduced how the Civil Society Development Fund supports community initiatives. Following inputs from SDI Kenya, UN-Habitat, IHS, Urban Futures and the Huairou Commission, the participants joined a very interactive and successful fishbowl session.?