Visioning platform for a Global Action Plan to tackle the Slum Challenge

Multi-level partnerships for scaling slum upgrading for sustainable local transformation and delivery of the Right to Adequate Housing - About one billion people or a third of the current urban population dwells in slums. The rapid urbanization in many countries has outpaced the capacities of local and national governments in service provision. This gap in service provision and adequate housing has led to increase in urban poverty that is manifest in slums and informal settlements. Recent developments in the context of the COVID-19 pandemics have worsened the situation for many slum dwellers and have highlighted the manifold vulnerabilities in slums and informal settlements. The topic of slums and informal settlements has been high in global debates for 20 years. The inclusion of slums as critical global development issue in the period preceding the year 2000 culminated in the adoption of Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) as part of the United Nations Millennium Declaration in the year 2000 whereby slums were thought as opportunities to achieve the MDGs in cities. With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and specifically the “Urban Goal” SDG 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, the international community made sustainable urbanization part of the core of human development. Still, the formulation of MDGs, SDGs and the New Urban Agenda have not brought enough momentum to effectively tackle the challenge of slums. Many countries are not yet integrating the “slum issue” in national policies and city level planning and absolute numbers of people living in slums