Baku Call to Action planned for WUF13

Following WUF13, it is planned to adopt the Baku Call to Action, prioritizing housing and sustainable urban development, Katerina Bezgachina, chief of communication for the UN Human Settlements Program, said at an online briefing for regional media dedicated to WUF13, the largest global UN conference on sustainable urbanization, which will be held in Baku May 17-22, 2026, Report informs.

"The end of the forum will be the Baku Call to Action. It will be a call to prioritize housing and sustainable urban development to be adopted at WUF13. We understand and we are asking governments, national governments, cities, local governments, and also diverse stakeholders to contribute to this Baku call to action, to prioritize housing and to showcase solutions and to call to action these points.

Another very interesting feature of the World Urban Forum is urban export. It is a global marketplace of solutions that we will display at WUF13.

It will be an opportunity to showcase different housing models, different housing solutions from around the world, and exhibitors from around the world will come there and will showcase their products, their practices.

We will also have networking sessions with the decision makers, with industry leaders, potential partners, developers.

There will be a lot of startups and technical companies who are providing housing solutions. They will also showcase different innovative things that are happening in the housing sector. At the moment we are accepting applications still to be part of the Urban Expo," she added.

According to her, applications for participation in the Urban Expo are currently being accepted, and will close on March 31.

She also noted that networking meetings with government representatives, industry leaders, developers, startups, and tech companies are planned.

"I also just want to point out that World Urban Forum is the second biggest UN event after COP," she added.