Cairo, Egypt, will host the crucial World Urban Forum in 2024
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Hashim Sheikh
- . April 7, 2023
- . Update: April 8, 2023 1:36 am
In November of next year, Egypt will play home to the 12th World Urban Forum, or WUF, which brings together top experts to tackle the global housing crisis.
On March 28 and 29, the UN-Habitat executive board’s first meeting of the year in Nairobi, Kenya, where it is known as UN-Habitat, made the announcement on the hosting location.
Wael Nasr El-Din Attia, Egypt’s ambassador to Kenya and permanent representative to UN-Habitat, reiterated his nation’s support for the work being done by the program under the leadership of the current executive director.
By 2041, 69 percent of Egyptians will reside in cities, according to Nasr El-Din Attia, necessitating a stronger commitment to urban development plans.
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In keeping with the UN’s aims for sustainable development, he claimed Egypt was trying to make sure the WUF reflected the aspirations of developing nations in the area of urban development.
He emphasized the necessity of increasing the number of country offices in developing nations as well as of providing more support for the program’s regional offices.
He argued that more personnel should be allocated to the initiative to assist nations in submitting their national reports in support of the New Urban Agenda.
The implementation of the president’s “Decent Life Initiative” was mentioned along with other significant areas of cooperation between the government and UN-Habitat.
About 58 percent of Egyptians live in slums and rural areas; the $35 billion presidential effort seeks to improve their quality of life.
The 11th World Urban Forum and the ministerial conference, which addressed urban development and climate change and was held in Sharm El-Sheikh in conjunction with COP27, would serve as a foundation for the Cairo conference.
The WUF, organized by UN Habitat, is the biggest conference ever held to discuss issues related to urban development.
Tens of thousands of delegates from governments, business, regional and international financial institutions, and civil society attend the WUF, which is held every two years.
The WUF was founded by the UN in 2001, according to its website, to address the issues of growing urbanization and its effects on communities, cities, economies, climate change, and policy. One of the most critical issues facing the world today is rapid urbanization.
