On February 21, 2025, the Global Cities Hub and UN-Habitat organized a workshop on “Cities and Human Security: Urbanization and Housing in an Unstable World”. The purpose of the meeting was for Geneva-based partners to develop a way forward for consolidating their work with UN-Habitat, building on UN-Habitat’s legacy of 30 years of the safer cities programme and with due cognizance of its new strategic plan, which focuses on addressing the global housing crisis. Key challenges concerning the positioning of adequate housing at the center of human security policies dominated the discussion. Development of tools for comprehensive human-centred safety and security in cities was also discussed with the goal of developing a global hub in Geneva for sharing common practices to tackle the main issues in this area and to enhance city to city learning. These issues affect cities worldwide, both in the global north and global south.
During her opening remarks, UN-Habitat Executive Director Anacláudia Rossbach emphasized the importance of participatory multilateralism and stressed the need for reliable data, knowledge, and research as part of a global infrastructure for collaborative perspectives. She highlighted key challenges such as homelessness, affordability, and impending disasters, while advocating for a holistic approach to investments in these areas. “Cities want to know what’s going on with other cities” she said. She also underscored the gender dimension in all discussions related to housing, stating that after taking care of others and working, women must be able to return home safely, most notably in acute areas such as informal settlements. ED Rossbach made a plea for a “social contract for the cities that we want” and promised to raise this issue on the international agenda. Links to the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Group on Adequate Housing for All, were also discussed.
DCAF Director Ambassador Nathalie Chuard underscored the connection between the discussion and DCAF’s work on SDG 16. Participants echoed that housing insecurity is a form of violence in itself and can also cause violence. Climate security and its link with sustainable housing was also high on the agenda of the workshop.
UNECE Director of the Land, Housing and Forest Division, Ms. Paola Deda, highlighted the important role that spaces such as the UN Forum of Mayors, and the forthcoming UNECE Ministerial meeting on housing have in fostering discussions on these topics, as well as the need for alliances to strengthen the relations between local, regional, national and global levels.
Moreover, during the discussion sessions, various inputs were provided on issues of housing insecurity, evictions, slums, urban violence, among others. Participants were drawn from key partners such as the OHCHR, UNEP, UNDP, academic institutions such as the GCSP, Geneva Graduate Institute, city networks, and other partners elaborated on different aspects of this complex issue.
Some raised provocative questions, like the mass migration from cities on the seashore and the role of criminal organizations with effective control over the local communities through public service delivery. Participants stressed the role of local and regional governance in defining people-centered security and risk management for the future of cities and urbanization matters.
Finally, other organizations and academia stressed the need for better tools and data to achieve peace in local contexts affected by violence and insecurity. Participants concluded that housing is a holistic issue with multidimensional importance, and that action by the international community must be continuous and operate on multiple levels. “The biggest energy for peace is at the city level” – a participant concluded.
UN-Habitat will be developing a report of the workshop with a view to establishing a hub on the linkages of housing and human security.