UCLG Sec-.Gen. calls for reform of financial architecture to address global housing crisis

Financial architecture must be transformed to address the global housing crisis, Emilia Saiz, Secretary General of UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments), said at the panel discussion "The Global Housing Crisis - What's the Plan?" as part of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, according to Report.

"We continue to plan social housing in the wrong places. We need to change this, with the participation of many organizations. We continue to evict people-those who built their own homes with their own hands-because they live in informal areas, because we cannot provide them with adequate housing, or because the value of this land has increased, and we perceive land as a source of income.

We need to change this. We have called on national governments to develop different strategies, to engage communities in determining their own living conditions, to take into account indigenous knowledge-especially in this changing world, where climate change and forced displacement are changing demographics. We have long hoped that local economic development would meet all needs and that housing markets would follow. We need to change the financial architecture to address these problems," said Saiz.