Anacláudia Rossbach: Millions displaced by conflict or climate

Millions of people worldwide are displaced due to conflicts or climate-related causes, Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN-Habitat, said during the session themed Cities at the Center of Connectivity: Urban Reconstruction and Regional Cooperation held within the 13th Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, Report informs.

The director emphasized that 2.8 billion people globally still lack access to safe and adequate housing: "The world is more interconnected than ever, yet often more unequal than it should be. This is the paradox this session must confront: without inclusivity and a broader socio-economic perspective, connectivity becomes infrastructure that benefits only a few. Multimodal corridors not only ensure efficient movement of goods and people, but also reshape the economic geography of entire regions."

Rossbach emphasized the need to consider whole territories in urban planning: "When investing in transport corridors, we must also invest in the communities along those routes - their housing stock, markets, services, land, and livelihoods. This need is particularly acute in post-conflict recovery processes. Azerbaijan's reconstruction efforts in the Karabakh and East Zangazur economic regions are directly facing these challenges on a large scale."