Remove the risk, not the people - Slum transformation as key to housing justice and climate resilience

In the final Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress on SDG indicator 11.1 ("By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums") has stalled and, in many regions, reversed. Informal settlements already house more than one billion people and, without immediate and decisive action at scale, are projected to grow to three billion residents by 2050. At the same time, climate change is intensifying heat stress, flooding, landslides, water insecurity and health risks, disproportionately affecting residents of informal settlements and deepening existing housing and inequality gaps. With housing, climate and inequality crises intersecting most acutely in informal settlements, solutions are indispensable to building resilient cities and communities. In many places, authorities resort to forced evictions in the name of climate risk reduction, disproportionately affecting people living in informal settlements and disaster-prone areas. At least two million people are forcibly evicted every year, despite evidence showing that this undermines livelihoods, climate resilience, and progress on SDG achievement and carbon emission reductions in cities. In reaction to this, the Informality Task Force (ITF), a global dialogue space to support the implementation of the Global Action Plan for Accelerated Slum Transformation and connected resolutions, is proposing to bring together actors from governments, slum dweller communities, civil society, and international development cooperation to bring attention to this new wave of climate-related forced evictions and showcase alternatives that contribute to simultaneously advance housing justice, climate resilience, and sustainable development. Guided by the principle “Remove the risk, not the people” the session brings together scientific and practical evidence to spotlight the manifold impacts of forced evictions on sustainable development, to share experiences of in-situ upgrading in risk-prone areas that reduce risks without the need for displacement, and to position slum transformation as a core climate adaptation strategy aligned with national climate policies and the Global Goal on Adaptation and connected emerging financing flows to translate global commitments into local pathways for inclusive climate-resilient development.