Towards a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive recovery: implementing the Sustainable Cities Framework in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's cities carry the imprint of Soviet-era urban planning: housing stock predominantly built in the 1960s and 1970s, infrastructure stretched beyond its original design parameters, and institutions only partially adapted to the demands of a 21st-century market economy. This lecture applies the Sustainable Cities Implementation Framework to the Azerbaijani context, assessing how global frameworks for green, resilient, and inclusive urban recovery can take root in hybrid governance environments where institutional capacity, political economy, and spatial legacies create distinctive challenges. It draws on original research from ADA University to evaluate what has worked, what has stalled, and what conditions enable transformative urban change in post-Soviet contexts. The case of Azerbaijan illuminates broader questions relevant to any country navigating the gap between international sustainability commitments and local institutional realities.