BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 21. Global housing
strategies require direct support through specialized, ring-fenced
budgets and concrete executive operations to secure actual societal
impact, said Maimunah Mohd Sharif, former Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and
former Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements
Programme (UN-Habitat), Trend reports.


She made the remarks during a high-level session titled
"Advancing Housing Policy Through Multilateralism: From Global
Commitments to Local Impact," held within the framework of the 13th
session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku.


According to her, deploying global multilateral commitments and
international urban agendas at the local level—encompassing both
dense metropolitan zones and rural settlements—depends
fundamentally on reinforcing vertical and horizontal policy
integration layers. Vertical integration requires matching
macro-level international policies systematically down to municipal
executive units, while horizontal integration demands the
structural inclusion of local communities, private enterprise, and
civic organizations in strategic decision-making pipelines.


Sharif noted that Malaysia serves as an active model for this
integration workflow, where UN Sustainable Development Goal 11
(SDG11) and the New Urban Agenda undergo initial absorption into
the nation's five-year master development plans before entering
state-level planning frameworks and local municipal operational
directives.


"Merely ratifying abstract strategies and policy declarations
remains completely insufficient. Their actual execution demands the
allocation of concrete fiscal budgets. For instance, within the
Kuala Lumpur City Hall municipal budget, 300 million Malaysian
Ringgits underwent direct allocation for affordable housing
pipelines, alongside an additional 200 million Ringgits dedicated
entirely to underpinning micro-entrepreneurs and local traders. To
yield tangible, field-level outcomes, policy documents must
systematically transform into practical, funded operations.
Otherwise, these comprehensive frameworks will function as nothing
more than ink on paper," the former executive director
emphasized.


According to her, driving the successful implementation of
housing policies at national and municipal tiers requires
engineering an enabling regulatory environment and structuring
financial incentives that maximize capital deployment from private
institutional investors and international financial institutions
(IFIs).


She directed focus toward the critical application of the
expanded "4P" partnership framework linking the public sector,
private industry, and local populations.


"We must move past the conventional, restricted scope of
standard Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Modern urban
governance requires an evolved architecture: a
Public-Private-People Partnership model. Embedding localized
grassroots communities directly into these development loops
operates as a non-negotiable prerequisite for sustainable
operational success," Sharif explained.


The former UN-Habitat head added that cultivating specialized
affordable housing institutions, securing high-tier executive
leadership, building deep professional human capital pools, and
maintaining absolute transparency in public management serve as the
foundational pillars of resilient urban evolution.


Sharif called upon delegates to utilize future World Urban
Forums as data-driven clearinghouses to showcase highly scalable,
successful municipal practices.


"We must halt unnecessary institutional workflows aimed at
re-inventing entirely new models for identical systemic urban
bottlenecks every single cycle. Our collective focus must center on
sharing empirical success stories, cross-analyzing data
performance, and precision-adapting proven global workflows to
match the distinct spatial and demographic features of our
respective home cities," she concluded.







Today marks the fifth day of WUF13 in Baku.


The first day included a ministerial meeting dedicated to the
New Urban Agenda, a ministerial roundtable, assemblies for women
and civil society, business sessions, and discussions on urban
prosperity. An official ceremony marking the raising of the UN and
Azerbaijani flags also took place.


The second day stood out for the inaugural Leaders' Summit,
featuring high-level discussions on the global housing crisis,
urbanization policy, and urban resilience. Concurrently, the
opening of the Mexico City pavilion took place, serving as a
significant platform for expanding cooperation with the Latin
American region and preparing for WUF14.


The third day of WUF13 featured a comprehensive program of
events covering the global housing crisis, the formation of safe
and inclusive cities, climate resilience, artificial intelligence
and urban governance, green urbanization, social equity, and
sustainable transport.


One of the highlights of the third day was the signing of a
sister-city memorandum between the Azerbaijani city of Shusha and
the Turkish city of Trabzon.


The fourth day of WUF13 featured a broad program of events
dedicated to urbanization, climate change, inclusive urban
development, housing policy, and sustainable governance.


One of the important events of the UN Special Programme for the
Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) Cities Forum, held on the fourth
day, was the announcement of Almaty’s official accession to the
“Declaration of Intent on the Establishment of the SPECA Smart
Climate-Resilient Cities Forum.”


Also, for the first time in WUF history and at Azerbaijan’s
initiative, the “WUF13 NGO Forum: Global Partnership and
Decision-Making” was held.


WUF13, which has attracted more than 40,000 registered
participants from 182 countries, will continue until May 22. Held
under the theme “Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and
communities,” the forum brings together governments, international
organizations, experts, and representatives of civil society to
strengthen global cooperation in the field of sustainable urban
development.