UN-Habitat: 'Necessary to change our approach to informal settlements'

More than 1.1 billion people worldwide currently live in informal settlements, and the international community urgently needs to change its approach to addressing this problem, a UN-Habitat representative said at the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, Report informs.

Speaking about the situation in informal settlements, the speaker emphasized that these areas are where the most vulnerable segments of the population are currently concentrated.

However, despite ongoing efforts, the total population in such areas continues to grow rapidly.

According to the organization's representative, the current situation requires the global community to abandon outdated dogmas. UN-Habitat, working with member states, is currently hoping to reverse this trend. To this end, fundamentally new approaches to the integrated development of informal settlements and systemic solutions to housing problems are being developed.