DPU participation at the 11th World Urban Forum

The theme of WUF11, Transforming Our Cities for a Better Urban Future, will highlight a state of informed preparedness that provides the opportunity to anticipate change, correct the course of action if necessary, and become more knowledgeable on the different possibilities that the future of cities offers. WUF11 will provide greater insights and clarity on the future of cities based on existing trends and suggest ways cities can be better prepared to address future pandemics and a wide range of other shocks.

DPU staff will be participating in a number of events (listed below), and will additionally have a presence at the collaborative Habitat Village exhibition stall hosted by CoHabitat with partners including the DPU, as well as the Bartlett, HIC, Co-habitat, IIED and UCLG.

The exhibition will display the work and successes achieved by the CoHabitat Network and its members in promoting and advocating for community-led housing (CLH), all along standing as an important meeting point among housing stakeholders interested in community-led practices and the right to adequate housing. DPU will contribute a number of short events at the Habitat Village stand, listed below.

DPU staff in attendance at WUF11 will be Michael Walls, Adriana Allen, Emmanuel Osuteye, Barbara Lipietz, Jordana Ramalho, Julian Walker and Julia Wesely 

* We will be hosting a DPU alumni dinner on Tuesday 28th June. If you are a DPU alumni in attendance at WUF and are interested in attending, please contact Julian Walker (julian.walker@ucl.ac.uk) * 

DPU events at the Habitat Village

Climate change and resilience in urban Africa

Date and time: Tuesday 28^th June, 13:00-13:30
Location: Habitat Village Stand, Hall 2.4 – Stand #42

Emmanuel Osuteye (DPU) is joined in a dialogue by Kabelo Lethunya (Housing and Urban Resilience lead, African Union), Karl-Heinz Gaudry (GIZ Global initiative on DRM) and Fruzsina Strauss (DRR Regional Focal Point for Africa, UN Habitat) to share selected recent continental shifts in policy and practice aimed at addressing the critical challenge of climate change and building resilience in urban centres in Africa.

Chair: Emmanuel Osuteye (DPU)
Respondent: Michael Walls (DPU)

Activating universities' role in producing socially just habitats

Date: Jun 28th, 15:30-16:30
Organisers: Bartlett - DPU

This roundtable discussion will invite perspectives from and listen to the voices of CSOs and other actors engaging with universities in the production of socially just habitats. It is part of a wider project interrogating the ‘public’ role of the university across education, research and public engagement, and exploring how international networks with universities can activate levers of change.

Chaired by: Barbara Lipietz
Participation from: HIC, GPR2C, UrbaMonde, IIED

Claiming and producing housing rights: cross-regional experiences from grassroots organisations and international networks (Part 1)

Dates: Wednesday, June 29th, 9h30 – 11h30
Location: Habitat Village Stand, Hall 2.4 – Stand #42

The roundtable will be structured around two blocks. In this first one, grassroots leaders from different regions will briefly present initiatives being put forward for the claiming and production of housing rights. Through concrete examples, the roundtable will highlight legal and support mechanisms that can be put forward by governments, financial institutions, international organisations and other stakeholders in partnership with civil society in order to secure the right to housing.

Claiming and producing housing rights: cross-regional experiences from grassroots organisations and international networks (Part 2)

Date and time: Thursday, June 30th, 9h30 – 10h30,
Location: Habitat Village Stand, Hall 2.4 – Stand #42

This second block will reflect on the cases presented through testimonies from international networks of civil society organisations and governments, and research centers. Through concrete examples, the roundtable will highlight legal and support mechanisms that can be put forward by governments, financial institutions, international organisations and other stakeholders in partnership with civil society in order to secure the right to housing.

HIC's pedagogies: How do we learn to become agents of change for a socially just habitat?

Date and time: Thursday, June 30th, 11:30h – 13h
Location: Habitat Village Stand, Hall 2.4 – Stand #42

Come join us to discover a short documentary series on the HIC-AL schools, highlighting how HIC members in Latin America and the Caribbean have been driving popular pedagogies approaches to build a more socially just habitat. The activity will be hosted in two parts, the first focusing on pedagogies for the social production of habitat, while the second discusses pedagogies for equality in diversity. Each session will start by projecting two videos (~10′ each, in ES and EN), followed by a short debate with two discussants.  The videos have been collaboratively produced by Members of Habitat International Coalition in Latin America and the DPU. 

More details at: https://www.hic-net.org/event/hic-at-world-urban-forum-11/

Inclusive neighbourhood planning, case of Banjarmasin with Kota Kita

Date and time: Thursday 30^th June, 13:00-13:30

Gender and just sanitation

Date and time: Thursday 30^th June, 15:30-16:00
Organised by DPU-UCL OVERDUE: Tackling the sanitation taboo across urban Africa
Habitat Village Co-Habitat Stand

Screening and discussion moderated by Adriana Allen and Julia Wesely

This session will screen a short film produced by the project OVERDUE - Tackling the sanitation taboo across urban Africa to provoke a discussion with OVERDUE researchers and the audience about the invisible work of women in the sanitation sector. We will explore ways towards creating visibility of the gendered dimensions of paid and unpaid sanitation work, to recognise the role of women and put it center-stage in working towards just sanitation.

Other events with DPU participationWorld Assembly of Local and Regional Governments

Date and time: Sunday 26th June, 15 and 18pm
Location: Roundtable Room 1
Organiser: Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments (GTF), facilitated by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)

On the occasion of the 11th session of the World Urban Forum, taking place in Katowice, the organized constituency of local and regional governments gathered within the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments (GTF), facilitated by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), will be convening the World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments. Inspired by the current context, the gathering of the World Assembly at WUF11 will address the overlapping crises, including the invasion of Ukraine, but will further build on the need for a sustainable recovery and development of a multilateral response to crises. It will also ensure that we can build pathways to peace and transform the commitments that were undertaken in Quito six years ago.

Prof Adriana Allen will be one of the speakers reflecting on the importance of local alliances for advancing towards urban and territorial equality.

Networking event - Toward New UN Habitat Stakeholder Engagement 

Date and time: Tuesday 28th June, 12:30 – 14:00
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 6
Organiser: HIC-HLRN

The networking event will provide background with a review the rich history of UN Habitat stakeholder engagement since 1976. Veterans of UN Habitat engagement, including UN Habitat officers and stakeholders from civil society and local government will share their 45 years of experience, culminating in the new UN Habitat Assembly and governance system.

That will provide the basis for consideration of current opportunities for engagement, as well as the proposals presented by the Institutional Mechanism Working Group and reports from the Stakeholder Advisory Group Enterprise (SAGE) for consideration of future prospects for developing the promising self-organized mechanism for supporting and advising UN Habitat’s normative and operational roles to meet the present and coming challenges of inclusive, equitable and sustainable human settlements development within the framework of New Urban Agenda commitments.

Special event: From "A Roof of My Own" (1964) to "Ciudad Infinita" (2018). Past and contemporary challenges of Lima's barriadas

Date and time: Tuesday 28^th June, 13.30–15.30
Location: Urban Cinema Room
Organiser: Habitat Norway

Special Film screening and panel discussion hosted by Habitat Norway featuring co-producer Kathrin Golda-Pongratz with leading urban experts.

Habitat Norway with UN Habitat Better Cities Film Festival present Special film screening and panel discussion hosted by Habitat Norway featuring:

•    Kathrin Golda-Pongratz - co-producer;
•    Adriana Allen, President - Habitat International Coalition;
•    Maitreyi B. Das - Practice Manager, Global Programs Unit, World Bank;
•    Kjersti Grut - Executive Board Member, Habitat Norway.

Moderator: Erik Berg, Chairman, Habitat Norway The two films describe 60 years of struggle and development in the El Ermitano neighborhood of Lima. Peru. They outline approaches like “land occupation”, “area development” and “helping the poor help themselves”. The barriadas movement has via a.o. the teachings of the English architect and anarchist John Turner inspired the World Bank’s 116 “sites and services” programmes in 52 countries (1972-1990) as well as the efforts of urban grassroot movements on all continents. The panelists will discuss experiences and the way ahead regarding social urban development models.

Urban Library event - DeCID Handbook – A practical guide for co-designing built interventions with children affected by displacement in the urban context

Date and time: Wednesday, June 29, 2022, 10:15-11:15
Location: Urban Expo- Urban Library room
Organiser - Catalyticaction

Based on their award-winning work, CatalyticAction and the Bartlett Development Planning Unit (University College London) teamed up with UNICEF and UN-Habitat to develop a practical handbook for the co-design of built interventions with children in displacement contexts. At the World Urban Forum 11, the project team will present the DeCID Handbook, illustrating key concepts and steps to achieve empowering co-designed built interventions with children. Children make up around half of the refugee population worldwide, and 40% of the 80 million displaced people globally. Approximately two-thirds of displaced people live in urban areas, the large majority in developing countries (UNHCR 2020). The quality of spaces available to children has an important impact on child development and wellbeing as it affects a number of children’s rights including play, health, safety and learning. Co-designing built interventions with children affected by displacement can:

• empower children and have a lasting positive impact;
• improve social cohesion, inclusion, social capital, and integration between refugee and host communities, and within the refugee community;
• have a positive impact on the local economy, build capacity and provide employment; and
• deliver better social infrastructures (child-friendly urban public spaces, including open public spaces, streets and public facilities such as schools and playgrounds) for children and their communities.

The DeCID handbook was born out of a lack of practical guidelines on co-designing built interventions with children affected by displacement in the urban context. In partnership with humanitarian actors, children and their local communities, municipalities, contractors, and academics, the DeCID team developed a practical handbook to support those involved in the co-design of such built spaces. Recently, CatalyticAction and its partners (including UNICEF and UN-Habitat Lebanon) have been heavily involved in the reconstruction of child-friendly public spaces in Beirut following the port blast on the 4th August 2020. This process has put the handbook into practice as these child-friendly spaces are co-designed with children.

At the WUF11, CatalyticAction will also present few completed projects in Lebanon where refugee and host children co-designed and built together new public spaces, breaking socio-spatial segregation. These projects will be used as practical examples to illustrate the main insights from the DeCID Handbook. Dr. Barbara Lipietz from the Bartlett Development Planning Unit will illustrate the academic importance of this publication, and finally representatives from UNICEF and UN-Habitat will make closing remarks. More information on the handbook project: www.decid.co.uk Information on CatalyticAction’s work: https://www.catalyticaction.org/work

Bottom-up alliances for global research agendas: lessons from a partnership for equality

Date and time: Wednesday 29th June, 12:30-13:30

UCLG Stand at WUF Exhibition Hall

Partners: UCLG, IIED, SDI, HIC, GPR2C, UrbaMonde and DPU

Democratising global reporting processes: Lessons from a partnership for equality

Date and time: Wednesday 29^th June, 12:30-13:30
Location: UCLG stand
Organiser - UCLG

The key focus of the dialogue will be on the role of partnerships between local and regional government networks with civil society and academic actors in global reporting processes. This could be an opportunity to reflect on the GOLD experience and its links to other UCLG processes (such as the Town Hall), as well as other processes led by civil society networks. We could also use this opportunity to let people know about our on-line repository of the GOLD outputs produced so far. By then, we will be able to have a link with all the case based contributions that many of you have written and contributed towards.

DPU's Adriana Allen and Barbara Lipietz will be in attendance.

Celebrating 45 years of HIC: Building Social Force through Co-Learning and Advocacy

Date: Wednesday, June 29th – 14.30-16:00
Location: Multifunction Hall Room 7

HIC’s Co-learning and Advocacy spaces have emerged from the Coalition’s long-standing history of connecting diverse civil society actors through joint learning and advocacy. These spaces are cross-regional, multi-session encounters that support participating community and civil society organizations to prioritize, strategise, learn and advocate together on human rights related to habitat. The event will provide the space for a joint reflexion on the past and current practices and possibilities of popular pedagogies for building social force around habitat rights. The first block of discussion will focus on an exchange with representatives of networks and organizations of different regions on the past and contemporary role of critical pedagogies in building social force within different social movements related to the right to housing, feminist persctives and beyond. The second block will focus on the key discussions and actions emerging from three specific Co-learning and Advocacy Spaces developed by HIC during the first semester of 2022 on (i) Feminist approaches to habitat, (ii) Land Rights and (iii) Multi-level advocacy.

UN-Habitat Special Session : Accelerating Post Covid-19 Recovery, Social Inclusion and Urban Inequality Reduction in Communities

Date and time: Wednesday 29^th June, 16:00 to 18:00
Location: The HUB: Special Session Room 2
Organiser - UN-Habitat

DPU's Adriana Allen will participate as Speaker
 
The crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that urban action at the neighbourhood scale has the potential to generate direct impacts and benefits on the quality of life and the exercise of human rights of all people. Neighbourhood action allows for the promotion of close, compact and connected city models, which in turn works as a strategy for social inclusion, as well as for the adaptation and mitigation of climate change and, therefore, can favour the response to future crises and threats.
 
Best practices in urban planning and governance arrangements in cities around the world demonstrate that sustainable green neighbourhoods are an optimal option for responding to future threats while balancing sustainable urbanization and biodiversity protection. Acting at the neighbourhood scale will enable a more effective response to new vulnerabilities and risks in cities and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the principles of the New Urban Agenda (NUA).
 
Considering the above, this special session is based on the exchange and highlighting of best practices of interventions at the neighbourhood scale that have been implemented to address the effects of the pandemic in different countries of the global south.
 
The aim is to advance in the development of criteria and proposals for sustainable urban interventions that contribute to enhancing the social and environmental urban functions of neighbourhoods and thus, improve inclusion and resilience at the city level. This, from a comprehensive approach that includes the development of sustainable interventions in terms of housing, public spaces, mobility, services and facilities -including health and education-, the strengthening of local governance and the participation of community organizations, the promotion of the circular economy and the generation of urban resilience.

Urban Library event - Addressing Environmental Challenges and Rapid Urbanisation by Enabling Green, Circular Transitions

Date and time: Wednesday 29 June, 17.00-18.00
Location: Urban Expo: Urban Library Room
Organiser - UN Environment Programme, UN Human Settlement Programme (Habitat)

Between 1950 and 2000, urban areas grew by an additional 2.1 billion inhabitants, and this growth is expected to more than double between 2000 and 2050. This unprecedented urban growth is a key driver of environmental change: local governments are at the centre of the triple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, while facinging gaps in capacity to respond to urbanisation challenges. Challenges like service delivery, infrastructure gaps, stagnant labour markets are further complicated by the exposure to the need to increase resilience to climate change, mitigating emissions and simultaneously sustainably manage demand for resources.

Responding to the need to support cities in identifying pathways towards resilience and sustainability, UNEP and UN-Habitat joined hands to develop new knowledge and guidance to help cities make peace with nature and enable a sustainable and just urban transition. The GEO for Cities report outlines the impacts of environmental challenges on cities and their residents and provides a ‘how-to guide’ for cities for achieving their specific environmental and equity goals.

To contribute to the ongoing discussion on the challenges and opportunities related to rapid urbanisation, UNEP, UN Habitat, ICLEI, Circle Economy, the OECD and Ellen MacArthur Foundation are now developing a new discussion paper that unpacks problems arising from rapid urbanisation, maps key pressure points, and identifies circular interventions designed to help address challenges in urban planning.

In this session, leading researchers, practitioners and global experts will present the key findings of these publications, and discuss how better, more integrated and circular planning can help ensure more sustainable, resilient and circular urban futures.

The event will feature DPU's Barabara Lipietz as a speaker.