Informal settlement upgrading post-COVID-19 / How to improve housing for low-income households

PART 1: Informal settlement upgrading post-COVID-19: Moving from upgrading to revitalization and sustainability Description of the session: In the face of a global scenario where more than one billion people live in informal settlements (slums), actions related to slum upgrading are crucial to improving living conditions in these areas, ranging from approaches to deliver better infrastructure to activities that can enhance social, economic and institutional aspects of these communities. This session proposes a discussion on the state-of-the-art of informal settlement upgrading in different regions of the world, picking up from successful examples of practices and existing challenges that need to be overcome. Speakers will also dwell on how to strengthen partnerships which are key in the uptake of slum upgrading projects. Moderator: Patrick Canagasingham – Chief Operating Officer, Habitat for Humanity Speakers: Julian Baskin – Cities Alliance Kerstin Sommer – Slum Upgrading Unit Leader and Project Leader Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme at UN-Habitat Ajay Suri – Senior Adviser at the Inclusive Development National Institute of Urban Affairs, India Chryssy Potsiou – Professor of Cadastre and Land Management, National Technical University of Athens, Honorary FIG President, former Vice-Chair of WPLA PART 2: Informality and Housing: How to improve housing affordability, adequacy and resiliency to meet the needs of low-income households? Global focus Description of the session: In the global south, one-third of urban populations live in informal housing, facing inadequate conditions, lack of infrastructure and basic services, and the threat of eviction or demolition. This roundtable will bring together experts in informality and housing from developing countries to analyse some of the driving elements and existing challenges for delivering housing improvements in informal settlements, discuss scaling up the offer of quality and affordable construction materials and engagement of community construction workers. Furthermore, the group will reflect upon connections between housing financing and incremental housing and how to stimulate housing value chains to provide more affordable, adequate and resilient housing. Moderator: Chris Herink – Vice President, Program Effectiveness at Habitat for Humanity International Speakers: Joseph Muturi – Chair of the Slum Dwellers International (SDI) Board of Directors (Kenya) Kecia Rust – Executive Director and founder of the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) (South Africa) Anaclaudia Rossbach – Regional Manager for Cities Alliance in LAC and Manager of the Global Programme on Informality (Brazil) Stephen Seidel – Senior Director, Global Program Design and Implementation at Habitat for Humanity International (USA)