This year, the UHPH attended the Ninth session of the World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This biennial event is a non-legislative technical forum convened by UN-Habitat to examine the most pressing issues facing the world in terms of human settlements. It involves analyzing challenges such as rapid urbanization and its impact on cities, communities, economies, climate change and policies. 

Since habitat and housing pose significant challenges for urbanization, UHPH and its partners organized an event called: “Urban Housing Practitioners Hub: A Network to Improve Housing Conditions in Latin America and Beyond”. This activity was used to introduce the UHPH platform and to exchange perspectives about its future and progress towards the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the sustainable development goals (SDGS). 

This networking event featured work streams, or 'Modules', of the Urban Housing Practitioners Hub (UHPH), to inspire attendees to participate in future activities of the Urban Housing Practitioners Hub, such as the 3rd Latin American and Caribbean Housing and Habitat Forum: Housing at the center of the New Urban Agenda. 

In addition, attendees were encouraged to share their experiences in relation to alliances and knowledge management platforms with which the Urban Housing Practitioners Hub could collaborate, thereby benefiting multiple housing and habitat stakeholders.  

The World Urban Forum is organized and directed by the United Nations Human Settlements Program and has the following objectives: 

raise awareness of sustainable urbanization among stakeholders and constituencies, including the general public; 

broaden the collective knowledge of sustainable urban development through inclusive open debates, sharing of lessons learned and exchange of best practices and good policies; and increase coordination and cooperation between different stakeholders and constituencies for the advancement and implementation of sustainable urbanization. 

For more information about the World Urban Forum and its scope, visit the following link: http://wuf9.org/ 

See the picture in this article here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yaaeapvr5c9i6ug/19-2-18FOTOWUF.png?dl=0 Caption: Our panelists during the presentation of the UHPH platform.