Preventing homelessness, combatting the climate emergency and providing emergency housing – a celebration of outstanding housing solutions

Innovative housing projects addressing the climate emergency, homelessness prevention and emergency housing will be the focus of this special online Presentation Event.

The event – to celebrate the winners of the 2020 World Habitat Awards (run in partnership between World Habitat and UN-Habitat) and the Outstanding Contribution to Housing Award – will provide an opportunity to discover and analyse the processes, lessons and solutions to three of the biggest housing challenges, from three remarkable organisations.

Taking place on Tuesday 12 October 2021, the event will feature, the two World Habitat Award Gold winners:

Newcastle City Council, UK – which has developed a ground-breaking, partnership approach to tackle homelessness preventing around 24,000 households from becoming homeless.

The Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, Pakistan – which has worked on the frontlines of the climate emergency to empower rural indigenous communities to integrate their local knowledge with key technological climate adaptation tools.

Also featured will be the winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Housing Award – presented by World Habitat for the first time – which recognises the incredible work of youth-led organisation TECHO, who have provided emergency housing to many thousands of people in 18 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.

The event will begin with a film introducing and highlighting the remarkable work of these three organisations, as well as the World Habitat Awards 2020 Silver and Bronze winners. This will be followed by insightful commentary from a panel key housing experts, including:

• Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing and current Global Director of The Shift;
• David Ireland, Chief Executive of World Habitat;
• Christophe Lalande, Head of Housing Unit at UN-Habitat; and
• Claudia Murray, Research Fellow at the School of Real Estate and Planning at the University of Reading.

Discussing the impactful work of their organisations, Onno Ruhl, General Manager of the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH), Neil Munslow, Housing Services Manager at Newcastle City Council, and Héctor Guarda the Capellán (Chaplain) of TECHO will also feature on the panel. A Q&A session for audience members will conclude the event, where there will be the opportunity to ask panellists about their projects and gain insight into their achievements.

David Ireland, Chief Executive of World Habitat, said:

“These extraordinary projects show that there are answers to the biggest threats to people’s homes. Whether it’s combatting the impacts of the climate emergency or ending the global crisis of homelessness and inadequate housing; the solutions already exist. The challenge is scaling them up so they have global impact. We look forward to sharing, celebrating and debating the remarkable work of these projects with you.”

This event will take place from 14:00 – 15:30 (BST) on Tuesday 12 October. To attend, please register here.

Since 1986 World Habitat has hosted and presented the annual World Habitat Awards, in partnership with UN-Habitat, to recognise outstanding housing solutions.