Around 1.6 billion people live in housing that fails to meet basic standards. By 2030, some three billion will need access to adequate housing, roughly two in five people on Earth. Numbers like these speak first to a crisis of shelter. They also reveal a wider test of urban systems. 

 Whether cities can house people well depends not only on construction, but on how land is managed, how infrastructure is planned, how climate risks are anticipated, how finance is mobilised, and how institutions deliver. 

That wider question shaped the 13th World Urban Forum in Baku, held under the theme “Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities.” Across the Forum, housing was treated not as a standalone sector, but as part of the way cities function, grow, and respond to people’s needs.

For UNDP Saudi Arabia, the conversations in Baku connected directly to the Kingdom’s urban transformation under Vision 2030. Together with UN-Habitat Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing, Riyadh Amanah, and partners from across the urban development community, UNDP Saudi Arabia shared how stronger planning systems, municipal capacity, and national-local coordination are supporting this transformation.

Sustainable development begins locally

Cities are where urbanisation becomes real. People experience it through the homes they can access, the services they rely on, the streets they move through, the risks they face, and the public spaces that shape daily life.

That was the focus of “Rethinking Local Governance: Adaptive Municipal Systems for Efficient and Inclusive Urban Management,” convened by UNDP, UN-Habitat Saudi Arabia, and the Deputyship for Urban Planning and Lands at the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing. 

The session asked what happens when cities grow faster than the municipal systems designed to serve them. The discussion moved through the practical pressures that local governments face every day. Plans need to become delivery. Financing and partnerships need to keep pace with ambition. Citizens expect responsiveness at street level, even when responsibilities are spread across multiple layers of government. Boundaries, mandates, and service models must evolve as urban realities change.

Adaptive municipalities help close those gaps. They create the conditions for better coordination, more transparent service delivery, and urban management that responds to the needs of growing communities.

From national vision to delivery systems

Municipal delivery depends on the strength of the national systems around it.

In “National Vision, Global Partnership: Saudi Arabia’s Urban Transformation Journey,” the discussion turned to Saudi Arabia’s experience in translating Vision 2030 into coordinated action across cities, regions, and institutions. The session explored how spatial planning reform, municipal transformation, and international partnership can support a more integrated model of sustainable urban development.

This work is also reaching the city level through Technical Assistance to Riyadh Amanah (TARA), a UNDP engagement supporting one of the region’s largest municipal authorities as it strengthens its capacity to plan for and manage rapid urban growth.

Together, these efforts show how urban transformation depends on alignment across scales. National direction matters, but so does municipal delivery, and the bridge between them is institutional capacity. 

Connecting global mandate to local impact

The same thread ran through “From Global Mandate to Local Impact,” a UNDP panel on the organisation’s role in sustainable urbanisation worldwide.

Urban development is where many development priorities meet. Climate action, resilience, poverty reduction, service delivery, governance, and financing all converge in cities. Plans are essential but plans alone do not change outcomes. Cities also need partnerships, capacities, and financing mechanisms that allow plans to be implemented.

UNDP Saudi Arabia also joined the regional dialogue through “Resilient Arab Cities: Good Practices and Opportunities for the Future,” a One UN session co-organised with UN-Habitat and the League of Arab States. The discussion focused on practical approaches to climate resilience and risk-informed urban development across Arab cities, while creating space for countries to exchange lessons from different urban contexts.

Partnership behind progress

Across the Forum, one theme resounded again and again. Urban transformation is built through partnership. 

Through the Spatial Planning Reform and Visual Appeal Programme (SPRVAP), the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing, UNDP, and UN-Habitat are supporting Saudi Arabia’s urban transformation under Vision 2030. The programme supports the development of Saudi Arabia’s first National Urban Policy, the advancement of a new Spatial Planning Act, and the strengthening of municipal systems across the Kingdom.

Alongside this, UNDP’s collaboration with Riyadh Amanah through TARA is helping connect national reform with municipal practice. The focus is on the capacities needed to manage growth and deliver more sustainable, resilient, and people-centred urban outcomes.

The conversations in Baku now carry forward into the next phase of Vision 2030, as Saudi Arabia continues to shape the planning foundations that will influence how cities grow, connect, and respond to future pressures.

Housing the world is not only about building homes. It is about building the systems that allow cities, and the people within them, to thrive.