PURPOSE: More than 30 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly took an important step in promoting the idea that everyone deserves a decent place to live by declaring that the first Monday in October would be World Habitat Day. Every year, UN-Habitat recognizes the basic right of everyone to adequate shelter and asks everyone to join together as one global network in communicating the message that every one of us deserves the opportunity for a better future, and that a decent place to live can remove barriers to opportunity, health and success that might have been part of a family’s life for years, and in many cases for generations. the aims of the day is to focus on shelter provision, to highlight the plight of the homeless, leadership in post conflict reconstruction, and developing and improving the human settlements and the quality of urban life. Subscribe to the prize! and Get the list of the 2022 UN-HABITAT Scroll of Honour Award Winners!.

FORUM: "Resilient urban economies. Cities as drivers of growth and recovery." World Habitat 2023. The Year 2023 has been a particularly challenging year for Urban Economies. The global economy growth itself is declining to about 2.5% and, apart from the initial COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and the global financial crisis in 2009, this is the weakest growth experienced since 2001. Given the size of the contribution of cities to the national economy, the future of many countries will be determined by the productivity of its urban areas. Cities are the engines that create value that boosts economic recovery. For this economic growth and recovery to be sustainable, we need cities that can absorb, recover, and prepare for future economic shocks. It is crucial that this is also packaged under the green recovery framework that scales up private and public investments to finance the transition to a climate-neutral economy in a post-COVID world. Cities all over the world have already embarked on this journey through implementing various models. UN-Habitat, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, believes that these models can be localised and scaled up through the Global Partnership for Local Investment, where experiences are shared to build a local finance framework for cities and communities, to help distribute existing funding and finance to where it can deliver the greatest impact. In the prevailing economic situation, local governments have faced increased difficulty to gain increased access to external resources to fund their development. The local finance framework integrates three key solutions to facilitate this access: 1. Cities Investment Facility (CIF); 2. UN-Habitat/UNCDF Guarantee Facility for Sustainable Cities; 3. Rapid Own Source Revenue Analysis (ROSRA).

Expected Outcomes of the World Habitat Day 2023: This year’s World Habitat Day aims to convene various city stakeholders to discuss the ways in which cities can be primed for recovery following the global intersecting negative economic shocks of COVID-19 and conflicts by:

• Broaching the different dimensions of economic slowdown that cities are currently experiencing and identifying actions that cities can take to boost economic recovery.

• Sharing experiences among different cities on how they are positioning themselves to tackle inflationary pressures and other tight global financial conditions

Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #WorldHabitatDay, #UrbanOctober, #HousingattheCentre, #Right2Housing, #MindtheGap, #LeaveNoOneBehind, #adequatehousing.

EVENTS: On October 2nd, in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Global Observance of World Habitat Day 2023, under the theme "Resilient urban economies. Cities as drivers of growth and recovery", will look at how cities can position their economies to benefit residents. From 09:40 to 12:30 AM will be hold the High-Level Opening Ceremony of the Global Observance of the World Habitat Day, following by the Roundtable 1: Cities as national and regional drivers of socioeconomic resilience and growth and the Roundtable 2: Post-crisis urban recovery from 14:30 to 17:20. PM. The Closing Ceremony of the Global Observance of World Habitat Day 2023 will start at 17:20 PM. Get the draft Programme of the World Habitat Day 2023 and Click the link here to join the webinar.

SECOND NATIONAL URBAN FORUM OF AZERBAIJAN: The National Urban Forum is organized by the government of Azerbaijan in collaboration with UN-Habitat. It is preceding World Habitat Day. It will take place in the cities of Zangilan and Baku, from 29 September - 1 October 2023. The event will bring together a diverse range of national and international urban stakeholders. The forum will address key emerging urban challenges and showcase international experience focusing on the role of urban productivity and economic growth, hereby fully deploying the potential of the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda for economic resilience and transition to a more sustainable urban future. To register for the event.

SCROLL OF HONOUR: UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency focusing on sustainable urbanization, has launched nominations for its prestigious 2023 Scroll of Honour Award. Nominations were open from 20 March to 20 June 2023. Nominations closed on 20 June 2023 and five winners have been selected. The winners are the EcoVironment, Sierra Leone, the Assembleia de Moradores from Braga, Portugal, the FICA (Fundo Imobiliário Comunitário para Aluguel), from São Paulo, Brazil, the Dubai Municipality, United Arab Emirates, the Fundación Pro Empleo Productivo A,C., from Mexico City, Mexico. The winners will receive their awards at the global observance of World Habitat Day on 2 October 2023.

STATEMENTS: Read the statement of the United Nations Secretary-General on World Habitat Day 2023 and the message of UN-Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif on World Habitat Day 2023, October 2nd.