With nearly 300 active participants, UN-Habitat Egypt, in collaboration with the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) and the World Urban Forum (WUF) Coordination Office, successfully convened a virtual capacity-building workshop to support national stakeholders across the Arab region in preparing strong, collaborative proposals for partner-led events at the thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13), scheduled to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, in May 2026.
This workshop forms part of “Egypt Urban Week: From Egypt to Azerbaijan”, an initiative aimed at mobilizing the legacy of WUF12, hosted in Cairo, and ensuring its continuity through meaningful and coordinated regional engagement in the lead-up to WUF13.
In his opening remarks, H.E. Dr. Elkhan Polukhov, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Egypt, welcomed participants and underscored the global importance of the World Urban Forum as a platform for dialogue and exchange on pressing urban challenges. He emphasized that, as Azerbaijan prepares to host WUF13 in Baku in May 2026, capacity-building initiatives such as this workshop play a critical role in educating, mobilizing, and engaging stakeholders, and in fostering meaningful participation from across regions. He invited partners to actively engage in the process and to join the global urban dialogue in Baku.
The workshop brought together a diverse group of participants from across the Arab region, representing government entities, academic institutions, civil society organizations, research centres, youth groups, and the private sector. This broad participation reflected strong regional interest and growing momentum towards active and coordinated engagement in WUF13.
Mrs. Rania Hedeya, Regional Director of UN-Habitat for the Arab States, emphasized the responsibility of carrying forward the region’s institutional knowledge and experience following WUF12. She highlighted the need to strengthen regional engagement, and empower partners to leverage WUF13 as a platform for collaboration, dialogue, and transformative urban action across the region. She also underscored the importance of partner-led events as vehicles for amplifying regional voices, experiences, and innovation, and encouraged participants to actively engage and collaborate.
Discussions focused on strengthening participants’ understanding of the World Urban Forum structure, the role and value of partner-led events, and the application and selection process for WUF13, building on lessons learned from previous WUF editions.
Highlighting Egypt’s legacy as host of WUF12, Mr. Ahmed Rezk, UN-Habitat Egypt Country Director, emphasized the importance of continuity, partnership, and inclusive engagement. He recalled that WUF12 in Cairo was successful not only because of its scale, but also due to the diversity of voices, formats, and partnerships it brought together. Looking ahead to WUF13 in Azerbaijan, he stressed the need to build on this success by encouraging deeper collaboration among governments, academia, civil society, the private sector, and youth, and by fostering dialogue, co-creation, and joint engagement to ensure rich and impactful discussions at the next World Urban Forum.
Partner-led events are a core component of the WUF programme, providing an inclusive platform for partners to showcase solutions, exchange experiences, foster dialogue, and contribute to the global urban agenda through a range of formats, including Networking Events, Voices from Cities, Urban Library, SDGs in Action, among others.
The technical component of the workshop guided participants through the partner-led event proposal development process, focusing on key elements required to produce high-quality submissions, including:
• Defining clear objectives and actionable outcomes
• Aligning proposals with WUF thematic priorities, including housing, informal settlements, urban resilience, crisis recovery, public spaces, and heritage
• Developing compelling session titles and executive summaries
• Structuring proposals around the “what, why, and how”
• Building diverse and balanced panels
• Designing effective promotion, monitoring, and follow-up strategies
Participants engaged in hands-on exercises, breakout rooms, and proposal clinics, where they explored potential collaborations and refined their ideas. Formats such as Voices from Cities and Networking Events emerged as particularly popular, reflecting strong interest in peer exchange and partnership-building.
Interactive Q&A discussions reflected strong interest in joint submissions, youth engagement, hybrid formats, and regional partnerships addressing housing policy, urban resilience, and post-crisis reconstruction.
Participants welcomed the practical nature of the workshop and the opportunity to connect with potential partners from across the region.
The session also addressed practical questions related to application timelines, selection criteria, available support mechanisms, and the responsible use of digital tools.
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