Building Back Better How Urban Reconstruction Created an Innovation Lab for Urban Transformation in Azerbaijan

This event marks the launch of the publication “Building Back Better as driver for Urban Transformation” and presents Azerbaijan’s pioneering experience in post-conflict reconstruction as the starting point for a nationwide urban transformation agenda. With a focus on implemented urban innovations it offers a unique platform for know-how-transfer and exchange. The large-scale reconstruction of cities in Karabakh and the East Zangezur region demonstrates how recovery after conflict can be deliberately leveraged to initiate long-term, human-centred and climate-responsive urban development aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. Drawing on these reconstruction processes, the event highlights how post-conflict urban reconstruction acted as a catalyst for a broader transformation agenda that turned Azerbaijan into a nationwide innovation lab. Led by the Government of Azerbaijan and coordinated by SCUPA in close collaboration with UN-Habitat, this urban transformation process opened space for new ways of thinking and for developing forward-looking approaches in integrated planning, urban design, collaboration and co-creation. Rather than treating reconstruction as a finite task, it illustrates how rebuilding from the ground up enabled urban experimentation and methodological learning. The event brings together a concise keynote, a moderated dialogue and interactive exchange with high-level policymakers, international organisations and practitioners. It focuses on the continuum from reconstruction to urban transformation, highlighting housing as a foundational pillar for social stability and economic recovery, and as a key driver for building resilient and inclusive cities and communities in Azerbaijan and beyond. Objectives of the event are to: • Launch and contextualise the publication within the global WUF13 agenda • Share transferable lessons from Azerbaijan’s urban reconstruction and transformation process • Showcase Azerbaijan’s urban transformation as an innovation lab through selected implementation examples • Foster knowledge exchange between governments, international organisations and practitioners • Contribute to global dialogue on building back better and urban transformation The session is designed for policymakers, urban planners, UN agencies, development partners and practitioners seeking implementable solutions for complex urban transformation contexts.