“We started our road to WUF13 long before today. Since 2021, Azerbaijan has been actively organising national urban forums that have become an important national platform for dialogue on sustainable urban development," said Chairman of the State Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture and WUF13 National Coordinator Anar Guliyev during his speech at the official opening press conference held within the framework of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, APA-Economics reports.
He noted that these forums brought together different segments of society and created opportunities to discuss the future of cities and human settlements:
“These forums helped us strengthen national coordination, identify priorities, exchange experiences and align our policies with the principles of the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. More importantly, these forums shaped a culture of inclusive urban dialogue. Different voices and different sectors contributed here to building better cities. In many ways, those national urban forums formed the foundation of our journey to hosting WUF13. They demonstrated Azerbaijan’s commitment not only to urban development, but also to multilateral cooperation, stakeholder engagement and practical implementation.
Today, holding WUF13 in Baku is a natural continuation of that journey, a global expansion of the national dialogues we have built over recent years.”
