Sanitation as a Foundation for Safe and Resilient Housing Lessons from Low-Income Cities in Asia-Pacific

This side event will highlight sanitation as a foundational urban system for safe, adequate, and climate-resilient housing, with a particular focus on low-income and informal urban communities in Asia. Convened at the 13th World Urban Forum (WUF-13) in Baku and co-organized by ESCAP, UN-Habitat, and partner organizations, the event addresses the sanitation crisis and its direct implications for housing safety and urban resilience.

The event will link sanitation to the WUF13 theme, “Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities,” and demonstrate how inadequate sanitation undermines housing habitability and safety through flooding risks, structural damage, and public health hazards. At its core, the event will feature an interactive panel discussion, bringing together city representatives, policymakers, technical experts, and development partners to explore how sanitation solutions can be scaled and effectively integrated into broader housing and urban resilience frameworks.

The discussion will examine institutional, policy, technical, and financing barriers, with particular attention to the disproportionate impacts on women, girls, persons with disabilities, and older persons. By sharing practical experiences and regional insights, the event will promote peer-to-peer learning and provide pathways for adapting and scaling solutions across diverse urban contexts. Participants will leave with actionable recommendations to strengthen sanitation service capacity and to systematically integrate climate-resilient sanitation into housing and urban development agendas, contributing to SDG 6 and inclusive urban development.

The session will also draw on ongoing regional efforts led by UN-Habitat in collaboration with ESCAP and partners, including the Development Account (DA17) project on sanitation services for low-income urban communities in South and South-East Asia, to inform practical solutions and pathways for scale.

Objectives of the session include:
- Elevate sanitation as a central priority at the World Urban Forum, highlighting its role as a critical foundation for safe, adequate, and resilient housing in low-income and informal urban areas;
- Leverage the interactive panel discussion to bring together diverse experiences, generate actionable solutions, and advance the integration of climate-resilient sanitation into housing and urban resilience strategies;
- Facilitate peer-to-peer learning and knowledge exchange among cities at different stages of development;
- Identify key success factors related to the capacity of public sanitation service providers and the regulatory, governance, and policy frameworks that enable integrated housing–sanitation solutions;
- Strengthen regional and global collaboration and informal networks of urban practitioners, policymakers, and development partners.