The World Urban Forum is a biennial event and an inclusive platform for a wide range of stakeholders in urban development. India participated in the 9th edition of WUF with a delegation led by the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep S Puri

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, inaugurated World Urban Forum (WUF9) and the exhibition, and welcomed the participants to the Forum. WUF9 deliberated on the theme Cities 2030 — Cities for All: Implementing the New Urban Agenda. The forum attended by 22,000 participants from 165 countries, is the first to convene since the adoption of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) at the Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador, in 2016. Among them more than 100 ministers and deputy ministers, debated concrete implementation steps and how to work together to build the ‘cities 2030’, the cities for all. It took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from February 7 to 13.

The India pavilion was inaugurated by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri. It was attended by many national and international dignitaries. The India pavilion presented the ‘India Urban Growth Story’ and exhibited panels to highlight the urban missions and their contribution towards achieving the SDG-11 and also the commitments made under the New Urban Agenda. The panels highlighted the vision of the Indian Prime Minister, to consider urbanisation not as a challenge, but an opportunity for sustainable development and improving the livelihoods and quality of life of citizens at large. The pavilion narrated the current context of urbanisation in the country, emerging realities, and efforts of government to address the challenge, and status of various missions. Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Additional Secretary (MoHUA) coordinated the design and execution of the exhibition, which also highlighted HUDCO’s efforts and contribution for the housing and urban development sector in India. The minister who is also the incoming president of the Governing Council of UN-Habitat, congratulated Maimunah Mohd Sharif on assuming charge as the new executive director UN-Habitat. The executive director stated that she looks forward towards collaboration, guidance and directions from GC president in building up UN-Habitat. Assuring support from India as well as the president of GC, Puri stressed the need for consolidating inter-agency efforts to front-end the implementation of New Urban Agenda. He underscored that in the current context of rapid urbanisation, the global community at large is looking forward to sustainable urban development strategies and UN-Habitat has a significant role to play in this regard. With the adoption of SDGs and the New Urban Agenda, the UN-Habitat has to translate the vision into reality and it needs to increase its policy and guidance support to the nations.

Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd (HUDCO), India organised a networking event on Innovative Models for Affordable housing, for research, training organisations and capacity building networks working on affordable housing issues to share innovative ideas, experiences and best practices in planning and design, land management, community mobilisation, finance and technology aspects of affordable housing. Dr M Ravi Kanth, Chairman and Managing Director, HUDCO in his introductory remarks, shared the research, training and capacity building efforts of HUDCO’s HSMI in the habitat sector and its role as a catalyst to stimulate innovative policy options and implementation strategies to facilitate the participation of all stakeholders in the goal of achieving affordable housing for all. The minister in his inaugural address spoke about the challenges of urbanisation being faced by nations across the globe as well as India. He talked about the current context of urbanisation, its contribution to economic development and also the need to harness the potential of urbanisation for ensuring improved access to housing and infrastructure facilities and promoting inclusive development. In this context, the minister explained various missions such as housing for all, smart cities, AMRUT mission, Swachch Bharat Mission et al which attempt to comprehensively address the development issues in urban areas, in a time bound manner.

In this context, he underscored that for India, the New Urban Agenda (NUA) is more important than ever before as it will surely provide direction and guidance to align and embed Indian urban agenda with global participatory principles.

The forum focused on arrangements and actions for implementation, with many delegates and participants emphasising on the importance of public, private and civil society cooperation in order to fully achieve the NUA. Ministerial-level roundtables and many special sessions convened to discuss concerns and share examples of good policies and practices towards sustainable and inclusive urbanisation. Several speakers highlighted NUA as a way of implementing the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, and called for aligning NUA monitoring and reporting with the follow-up and review process for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 11 on sustainable cities.

On the sidelines of WUF9, the minister held an interaction with representatives of various civil society organisations such as SEWA Mahila Trust, AIWC, YUVA, Jagori and also individual participants/youth representatives. The participating civil society members discussed various issues in the human settlements sector and put forth suggestions for a constructive partnership with the government in taking forward the urban agenda in the country. He also announced the intent to launch a Global Housing Technology Challenge. He acknowledged that to meet the ambitious goal, of providing affordable and quality houses to over 12 million families by 2022, there is a need to employ innovative technologies that could allow for speedier and cost-effective construction of homes while ensuring safety, sustainability, liveability and scalability. He stressed on the importance of partnerships and invited experts and technologies from around the world to participate in the challenge process. The minister also participated in several roundtables and panel discussions, to discuss key issues of sustainable urban development and explore meaningful partnerships to accelerate the process of implementing the New Urban Agenda. The ‘Kuala Lumpur Declaration on Cities 2030’ was adopted at the close of WUF9.