Local economic development and housing. Building inclusive and resilient cities

In a world marked by rising inequalities, rapid urbanization, climate change, and the lasting impacts of economic and health crises, millions of people still lack adequate, safe, and affordable housing. Such disparities in access to housing undermine fundamental rights, limit development opportunities, weaken social cohesion, and restrict the economic potential of cities and territories. Housing vulnerability is no longer only a social challenge, it is a critical driver of broader economic and territorial development.

The global housing crisis is one of the most urgent urban challenges today, with far-reaching economic, social, and territorial consequences. It is closely linked to prevailing urban and economic development models, including scarce affordable land, informality, socio-spatial segregation, real estate pressures, loss and damages, and weak coordination across urban, economic, and social policies. These factors have widened territorial disparities and are often addressed in isolation rather than through long-term strategies that foster inclusion, sustainability, adaptation and resilience. Addressing this requires integrated and place-based approaches that position adaptation as a central pillar of development.

Local economic development provides a strategic framework to connect housing with decent jobs, productive innovation, stronger local economies, and environmental sustainability. From this perspective, housing shifts from being a social cost to a catalyst for energizing value chains, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, and enhancing the well-being of neighborhoods and communities.

The World Forum on Local Economic Development (WFLED) serves as a global platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, and multi-actor, multi-level partnerships. Through the WFLED, cities and territories share good practices linking housing, employment, and local economic development, supporting the localization of the SDGs, and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda through coordinated coherent policies. Increasingly, these discussions recognize that adaptation and resilience are not only environmental priorities, but also essential foundations for protecting livelihoods, sustaining local economies, reducing future economic losses, and strengthening long-term territorial competitiveness.

This event highlights local economic development as a key tool to tackle the global housing challenge, demonstrating how integrated and place-based solutions can transform it into an opportunity to build inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities where housing and economic development reinforce each other, creating lasting social and economic impact.