UN-Habitat on Renewing Commitments on Sustainable Cities and Communities and the launch of the SDG 11 Global Synthesis Report 2026 - Press Conference

Great, thank you very much and good afternoon again, and thank you for your patience with this. We are delighted to be joined by Ana Claudia Rosbach, who is, you know, is the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat, and she is joined by Ambassador Lokale, Permanent Representative of Kenya, and next to Ms. Rosbach is Shirley Price, a member of the UN-Habitat Advisory Group on Gender Issues. and a member of the Jamaica Household Workers Union, GROOTS Jamaica. And you have the floor, Madam Executive Director.

It was on. Thank you. Good afternoon.

It is my pleasure to present the SDG 11 Global Report 2026, which assesses global progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. As we enter the final stretch towards 2030, this report offers a timely assessment of where the world stands, where progress is accelerating and where urgent action is still required. The report shows that progress is possible, But it is neither fast enough nor equitable enough to achieve SDG 11 by 2030. We have made important advances on SDG 11 across 126 countries. The share of the urban population with convenient access to public transport rose from 53.2% in 2020 to 61.5% in 2025. Across 123 countries, land consumption is now more closely aligned with population growth than in earlier decades. Cities are gradually improving municipal waste collection, with average collection levels exceeding 90% in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, but also in Western Asia, Northern Africa, Northern America and Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. However, these positive achievements are being outpaced by the scale and speed of urbanization and by growing inequalities within cities. 4 in 10 urban residents still lack convenient public transport access. The number of people affected by disasters annually remains high, between 20 2015 and 2024, an average of 123 million people per year. Natural disasters are also more frequent. The most urgent challenge remains housing, ladies and gentlemen. More than 1 billion people live in slums and informal settlements, representing an increase of more than 130 million people since 2015. This is part of a broader global housing crisis. 3 billion people lack adequate housing. Nearly half of all households worldwide now spend more than 30% of their income on rent, while house prices continue to rise faster than incomes. The report makes it clear that adequate housing is the foundation of sustainable cities and communities. Housing is not only about shelter. It determines access to transport, employment, education, healthcare, public space, and economic opportunities. It influences resilience to disasters, environmental quality, public health, and social inclusion. Without adequate housing, it is hard to achieve most Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, the well-being of more than 1 billion people living in informal settlements and slums is at stake. This report reminds us that the housing crisis is fundamentally a crisis of inequality. The people most affected are often those facing multiple forms of exclusion, including women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrants, displaced populations, indigenous people, and residents of informal settlements. Addressing these inequalities requires more than building houses. The report calls for in-situ upgrading of slums and informal settlements, in partnership with communities. Residents must be recognized as co-producers of solutions, with investments that improve housing, tenure security, infrastructure, public transport, public spaces, and resilience without displacement. The report highlights important changes in how cities are growing. Contrary to common assumptions, outward urban expansion is increasingly driven by planned low-rise development rather than informal settlements alone. Outward growth continues to significantly outpace compact urban redevelopment, emphasizing the importance of planning cities that are compact, connected, inclusive, and resource efficient. Environmental conditions remain another major concern. Despite gradual improvements in municipal waste collection, service coverage remains highly unequal across regions. Air pollution continues to pose one of the greatest threats to urban health. Public space also remains insufficient. Less than half of urban residents enjoy convenient access to open public spaces, while the amount of green space available per person has continued to decline over recent decades. These trends directly affect health, social cohesion, climate resilience, and quality of life. The report also demonstrates that climate-related disasters are becoming an increasingly central urban challenge. Encouragingly, countries are strengthening resilience planning. More national urban policies meet international standards, and an increasing number of countries have aligned national and local disaster risk reduction strategies. 141 countries have national disaster risk reduction strategies, and 116 countries report aligned local strategies. However, planning must now translate into implementation through safer housing, resilient infrastructure, risk-informed land use, and stronger local preparedness. One of the strongest findings emerging from the report concerns the importance of urban data. Effective urban policy depends on timely, reliable, and disaggregated data. Since 2020, an additional 44 countries have made substantial progress in strengthening urban monitoring systems and reporting on SDG 11. Today, a total of 101 countries report more than 50% of monitoring data for 10 targets of SDG 11. Yet, major data disaggregation gaps remain, particularly for women, children, persons with disabilities, informal settlements, and neighborhood-level inequalities. Greater investment is needed in official statistics, geospatial information, Earth observation, administrative systems, and other innovative data sources so that data supports real-time decision-making rather than periodic reporting alone. The evidence presented in this report demonstrates that the solutions already exist. But the SDG 11 Global Report 2026 is not simply an assessment of progress. It is a call to action. The report concludes with a call for renewed commitment during the remaining years of the 2030 Agenda. We need greater investment, especially inadequate housing, stronger political leadership, improved urban governance, and a renewed commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind as cities continue to grow. The choices made during the next 4 years will determine whether cities become engines of inclusion, resilience, and opportunity, or places where inequalities continue to deepen. UN-Habitat remains committed to working with Member States and partners to strengthen urban data, improve evidence-based policymaking, and support the transformation of cities into places where everyone can enjoy adequate housing, access to services, and a better quality of life. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. I'll now turn to, to the Ambassador of Kenya, please.

Thank you very much and good afternoon. Kenya is honored to participate in today's launch and commends UN-Habitat and all partner agencies for the comprehensive report, which comes at a pivotal moment as the international community prepares for the high-level meeting on the midterm review of the New Urban Agenda. The report sends a clear and urgent message, which is that Despite progress in areas such as public transport, waste management, and urban policy, the world remains significantly off track in achieving SDG 11. The findings reinforce that adequate housing is not only an enabler of SDG 11, but indeed all the other Sustainable Development Goals. Deeply guided by our Constitution and the bottom-up economic transformation agenda, we have placed affordable housing, integrated urban planning, and resilient infrastructure at the center of our national development priorities. Through the affordable housing program, informal settlement upgrading initiatives, expanded urban infrastructure, and investments in sustainable mobility, we are working to ensure that urbanization becomes a driver of economic opportunity, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. Our affordable housing program seeks to address our country's estimated annual housing demand of 250,000 units against current supply of only 50,000 units. To date, and over the last 3 years, more than 270,000 new units have been completed or are at advanced stages of construction, demonstrating Kenya's commitment to accelerate access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing for all. Kenya is also proud to have hosted in April 2026 the Urban— the Africa Urban Forum in Nairobi, which reaffirmed Africa's shared commitment to implementing the New Urban Agenda. The forum highlighted the importance of strengthening multi-level governance, empowering local authorities, mobilizing sustainable financing, leveraging innovation and data, and promoting partnerships that respond to Africa's rapid urbanization. The midterm review, therefore, is an opportunity to renew our collective resolve towards the attainment of the New Urban Agenda by assessing progress made, identifying challenges, and and recommending strategic actions to advance implementation. The Declaration's call for integrated urban planning, climate-resilient development, stronger local governments, improved access to adequate housing, and enhanced means of implementation aligns closely with Kenya's national development priorities. We particularly welcome its emphasis on accelerating action through stronger international cooperation, capacity building, technology transfer, and increased investment in sustainable urban development. The successful conclusion of the intergovernmental negotiations on the political declaration is a clear demonstration of the collective resolve to accelerate implementation of the New Urban Agenda and SDG 11 in the remaining years to 2030 and beyond. The next 4 years are critical. We must move beyond acknowledging the challenges to actually implementing practical solutions by placing people at the center of urban development, empowering local governments, strengthening urban data systems, investing in affordable housing, and building cities that are resilient to climate change and future shocks. As host of UN-Habitat, Kenya remains committed to supporting the organization's global mandate. Nairobi continues to serve as a unique home for advancing international dialogue on sustainable urbanization, and we stand ready to work with all member states to translate this report's findings into concrete action. Kenya looks forward to the high-level meeting on the midterm review of the New Urban Agenda And to working with all partners to ensure that the renewed political commitments that are contained in the political declaration actually translate into tangible improvements that improve people's lives and indeed leave no one behind. I thank you.

Thank you very much. Ms. Price, and then we'll take some questions, please.

Good afternoon, everyone. I must give thanks first for the opportunity for me as a domestic worker to be here. Very happy for that. On behalf of urban stakeholders, especially grassroots and domestic workers' organizations, women around the world, I welcome the launch of the SDGs 11 Global Report 2026 and recognize the work those involved in producing this report does. I would like to make my commentary particularly from the perspective of grassroots women who live in poor, underserved urban, rural, indigenous communities. For these women, this is not simply a housing crisis. It is a crisis of rights, Truth, opportunity, and resilience. Every city have people we rarely see.

They are the women who walk before sunrise to care for children, older persons, and households. They are women rebuilding homes after fire, storms, hurricanes, floods with little or no support. They are the women organizing their neighbors, supporting one another through crisis and finding solutions long before help arrives. Yet these same women, such as domestic workers and grassroots women, are often the ones living in inadequate housing, lacking secure tenure, reliable services, safe transport, affordable childcare, and a meaningful voice in decisions that shape their own community and to have a dignified livelihood. That's why this report matters. The SDG Global Report reminds us that we are running out of time. Progress is possible, but it remains too slow and too unequal. More than 3 billion people still live in inadequate housing, and over 1 billion people live in informal settlements. These are not simply statistics. They represent millions of families whose daily reality is shaped by exclusion and inequality. Coming from Jamaica and the Caribbean, I know that resilience is not built after disaster strikes. It's built every day through decent housing, strong neighborhoods, and organized communities. In our region, climate change is not a future threat. It is a lived reality. Hurricanes, flooding, rising costs continue to test our communities time and time again. It's the grassroots women who organize as first responders. We remain long after the headlines have disappeared.

We are still there working fighting for survival.

This is why I strongly welcome the ED's dominant message in her report that housing must be placed at the centre of sustained— sustainable development. But housing is much more than a roof over our heads or 4 walls. Housing is dignity. It's safety. Housing is health. Housing is opportunity. It is where children learn, where families recover, where older persons find security, and where resilience begins. The report also reminds us that housing cannot separate from transport in public spaces, basic services, environmental Thank you. I would add one more essential element: care. Cities depend on care workers every single day. Care for children, care for older persons, care for persons with disability, care for neighbors, and care for our communities. Yet, Care remains likely largely invisible in the way we design our cities and our policies. If we truly want inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities, then we must recognize care as part of the essential urban infrastructure. Investing in housing without investing in care will never achieve truly inclusive cities. Over many years, I have worked alongside grassroots women, domestic workers, community organizations in Jamaica, across the Caribbean, and globally. I have seen that communities are not waiting for a solution. They are already creating them. Too often, communities are counseled— counseled after— consulted after decisions have already been made. This can't continue. Woman-led organizations map informal settlements, collect community data, organize savings groups, strengthen disaster preparedness, improve neighborhoods, and work alongside local government every day. As grassroots women leaders, Myself, I, Shirley Price, this is an everyday reality for me. We are not beneficiaries of development, we are partners in development, and that partnership should become a norm, not exclusion. We are the oil in the engine that makes change happen. As we approach the review of the New Urban Agenda, And the final years before 2030, I would like to leave 3 messages. First, invest directly in community-led solutions. Small investments in organized communities create lasting change because they build ownership, resilience, and accountability. Secondly, move beyond consultation. Grassroots organizations, especially those led by women, must have a permanent place at the decision-making tables where urban policies, budgets, and investments are shaped. Thirdly, strengthen local government and equip them with work and to work hand in hand with organized communities and organizations. Sustainable communities cannot be built by government alone. They require genuine partnership based on trust, shared responsibility, and mutual respect. The SDG Global Review gives us strong evidence, evidence about the challenges before us. However, communities have spent decades providing equally strong evidence about the solution and how to build their communities for resilience and sustainable development. We have been doing that for years. They generate practical solutions because they understood the local realities. They live it daily. The question before us is no longer whether we know what needs to be done. The question is, whether we prepare to invest in the people who are already doing the job. Because sustainable cities are not built only through concrete and infrastructure. They are built through people. They are built through trust. They are built through care and are built when communities are recognized not simply as beneficiaries of development, but as equal partners in shaping the future of our communities. Today I'm saying, as water flows downhill, so does inequality unless we design differently. Sustainability must design with everyone. Nothing for us without us.

Let's leave no one behind. Thank you very much.

Ms. Price, thank you very much for those words. Um, we'll We'll take first questions from Amélie at AFP.

Thank you very much. On behalf of the UN Correspondents Association, thank you for doing this briefing. I'm Amélie Bottelier from AFP News Agency. You mentioned the issue of adaptation to climate change, so my question is on that. I mean, we saw in the last few weeks extreme heat waves hitting Europe, countries where we saw people rushing to buy air conditioning. Even some who swore before they would never do that. We know air conditioning is contributing significantly to climate change, is heating the cities by themselves. So do you see air conditioning as a possible temporary solution to save some people? Because you know we cannot just let elderly people die in in the heat in in retirement home until we actually put in place a real sustainable housing solution in this big city, or do you think that developing AC could even, I mean, create the risk of postponing any more sustainable solution to sustain the heat in the future because we will have air conditioning?

Please.

Well, thank you, Amélie.

I think this is a very specific context, right? Because indeed the heat waves, they have been affecting cities globally, and we spoke a lot about informal settlements. For example, our studies, and some studies actually led by communities— there's one by communities in Rio de Janeiro— in our studies, they showed that differences between the temperature in the city and informal settlements can be, you know, even 8 or 10 degrees Celsius. And if we talk about these low-income families, even the purchase power to, you know, go for air conditioning or more sophisticated cooling systems is limited, right? So this is a very, you know, specific context. I don't I don't think I would have a concrete opinion about the use of air conditioning or not. It's kind of controversial, it's kind of, uh, how can I say, um, debatable, because you need to save energy, but you also need to save people's lives. What we advocate for at UN-Habitat is to really make sure that we max out the built environment that we have and that we renew and recycle in a way that works for the people and for the planet. When building new buildings— and we have to build, because especially in the Global South, we are talking about 2 billion people coming to cities in the next couple of decades— cities there don't have the massive built environment that you find in the Global North or in the Americas, so you still have to build. What we advocate for, what we assist member states, on regulations, building codes, national urban policies, local plans, where, you know, the localization is a priority, where building means also green spaces and building cities and with local materials and with sustainable materials and designs that are more energy efficient. So we have an opportunity with the new buildings to work by design, starting with.

Thank you. Go to Noreen, then Gabriel, then I'll go to you, ma'am.

Thank you very much. My name is Noreen Hossein with IPS News. I have a question for Ms. Price with regards to something that you said during your statement. You said, and if I understand this correctly, that care and the role of caregivers in communities is the needs of caregivers is largely invisible when it comes to urban development policies and how countries design their cities. I wanted to ask if you could clarify on that. What do you mean when you say that care is invisible in policy design?

Thank you.

Care—

I said care is invisible. It is, and I think it's globally, not just in the Caribbean, because the system are designed to leave us behind. I'm a caregiver. Many, many community workers are giving care, receive care, and are giving care. The system not designed for us.

For example, you know, the first, first, um, ED spoke about, um, building communities. Yes.

with green space. When you're building, building houses with green space, you're not building— also don't build— also build communities. It has to be very inclusive. Green area, space for childcare facility, space elder care facility, community center. It must be holistic. So you, so you have space to go there for to take care of, whether you, you've seen a citizen, your young child, you, you, you're going to work and, and, and your, your child is left behind. I'm talking about in the context of a domestic worker or, or, or inner city communities where slums are. We don't have, have paid caregiver, you know, so we've gone to work and then leave the children behind to, to get ready for school, to take care of themselves.

So, so, so care is very expensive. We can't afford care.

And, and as caregivers, we are being left behind all the time, not just most time, but all the time.

So care is essential.

Thank you.

Gabriel?

Thank you very much.

Does that answer your question? It does? Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much for the briefing. My name is Gabriel Zondo from Al Jazeera English. Very informative briefing. Thank you. Just 2 quick questions. One is, um, the report states, as you also stated, that from 2020 to 2025, the number of people, or the percentage of people that have access to reliable public transport, has jumped from 53% to 61%. That strikes me as a pretty big increase. What do you attribute that to specifically with that particular issue? And secondly, on housing, not all informal settlements are built the same around the world, as you all know better than anyone. What is UN-Habitat's position when it comes to governments or municipalities providing land titles to people that live on these types of settlements?

Please.

Thank you very much.

So on public transportation, I do think that it's an area where we have developed faster ways of having access to development finance, let's say so. So if you look at the IFIs, the international development banks, they have strong transportation teams. Strong transportation frameworks.

There are resources.

If you look at their portfolio, there's a large part that goes to transport. Housing, on the other hand, and informality is much more complex because you depend on several sectors and several areas. You depend on local coordination by cities. You depend on resources that come from the national level or internationally. You depend on regulations. So I think sectorially it's easier to work on public transportation. So perhaps this is one of the reasons where we advance. We have expertise, we have more resources, and we learned the way to do. In terms of informal settlements, the reality is indeed very diverse and there are different situations. So what we advocate for is that first of all, we map, we have the information, because if we don't have the information, we cannot differentiate and we cannot design the right policy to address the issue in different places. The second aspect is what Shirley was saying, engaging with communities. So it's very important to engage with communities to understand the history of these informal settlements And also who owns what, right? And the borders of the informal sector.

So this work is very important because first of all we need to clear the area until we go to a phase which is providing the title.

Different countries, they have different regulations. In Latin America and the Caribbean, many countries, they have in their national constitutions or national frameworks, they recognize the social function of the housing. So they accept the informal settlements are there, and they have developed many policies to address informality, some of them with provisional titles, some of them with the possibility of going to a final title. The UN-HAFTAD has developed an approach and has been working with informal settlements in Africa, in Southeast Asia, globally, on what we call the continuum of Um, uh, lands, um, rights. So, uh, there are phases. So first of all, what we want is to protect people who are there, make sure that, uh, you know, we minimize the risk and the threats of evictions and displacement, forced displacement. And then second, see how can we improve the guarantee of tenure depending on the local legislation and of course, um, the feasibility. Some of these informal settlements, they are located in risk areas. How high-risk areas. So in some cases, you do need to relocate.

Also, in many, many cases, when you are upgrading informal settlements, you have to review the layout to make sure there is access, there are public spaces, there are spaces for what Shirley was talking about, the care, all the social infrastructure that you need.

And sometimes you have to remove and resettle.

In many cases, you have to densify.

because we are talking about metropolitan areas, areas where we don't have much land, right? So the approaches and the titling will depend on the conditions, on the communities, on, on the legal framework. But our advocacy is towards really, you know, protect the people where they are and improve their lives where they are.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am, please.

My name is Sibel Bule. I'm with EchoIQ Turkey. I have 2 questions. First one for Ms. Price, if you could share with us maybe an example of a good— a good example of community action. And my second question is to Madame Rosbach, we talk about 2 billion people moving into cities. Looking at it from a different perspective, are there any initiatives to keep people in rural communities, to make them more attractive so that they're drawing young people in there, maybe the attractiveness of a different lifestyle? Just—

Yes.

Wondering if there are any initiatives in that perspective.

Okay. One of the main community actions that we did is needs assessment. Before you go into a community to do any activity, any building, whether it's infrastructure upgrade or whatever you're doing, you have to do needs assessment. We don't want anybody to come into our community to just push something onto us. You got to come in and work with us as community and, um, to see the— what are our needs, the greatest need, what do we want. So, so, so the first activity, or the greatest activity, it is to come in the community and to work with the community leaders you know, and to do a needs assessment than what government do most times, just say, I'm gonna build here, I'm gonna do this here, I'm gonna do that. We want to be inclusive in decisions making, and that's the bottom line. That's what should happen in the first place, you know. So because we know what we want in communities, so come to us. What are the needs? Collectively, we work together, but we don't work fragmented. Thank you.

Thank you. Executive Director?

Cities are the places that offer a set of opportunities for people that you cannot compare to any other place, to start with.

And I'm not only talking about jobs.

I'm talking about—

jobs is one important factor, and we all need jobs, but I'm talking about aspirations. I'm talking about dreams. I'm talking about possibilities. I'm also talking about access to higher-level education. I'm talking about access to a higher-level health, sophisticated health systems. I'm talking about access to culture, to leisure, to sports, to human development, to social development. UN-Habitat does have a strong body of work on, on the connection of rural and urban, right? We call it the rural-urban linkages, and this is on the New Urban Agenda that has His Excellency was mentioning will be reviewed at its midpoint next week on the, on the 16th, right? So why building stronger rural-urban links are important?

Exactly to protect and to preserve the communities living in rural areas. It's important that we make sure that the communities living in rural areas, they have to access to all possibilities that cities can offer, including consumer markets, including training.

If we want to improve family agriculture efficiency, for example, then these people, they need access to training. Consumer markets are in cities, exports are in cities, cities are the channel, right? So for us, this is what's important. So people decide what they're going to do. Our estimates show that urbanization is happening at a very accelerated pace and very concentrated in Africa and Southeast Asia.

One last question. I think Joseph online. Joseph, can you hear us? Joseph, can you hear us?

Okay, well—

It's a very important report.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman.