Held under the central theme, “Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities,” the conference aims to address the global housing crisis and accelerate collective global action to build inclusive, sustainable, and climate-resilient urban systems.

The Lao PDR delegation will engage in the official opening ceremony, participate in strategic bilateral meetings, and showcase the nation's progressive urban development strategy at a dedicated national exhibition booth.

On the opening day of WUF13 in Baku, the Ministerial Roundtable convened member states to deliberate on pressing global urbanization challenges. Representing Lao PDR, Mr. Detsongkham Thammavong, Deputy Minister of Public Works and Transport, delivered a comprehensive national statement outlining the country's unique urban challenges and its ongoing commitment to sustainable development.

"The theme 'Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities' is both timely and urgent," Deputy Minister Thammavong stated.

"For the Lao PDR, it reflects an acute reality we face every year. Our cities and towns are growing steadily, with urban areas now home to nearly half of our population. At the same time, the Lao PDR remains highly vulnerable to climate change."

The Deputy Minister underscored the scale of these climate impacts, noting that in 2025 alone, severe floods affected over 170,000 people across multiple provinces—devastating homes, damaging critical infrastructure, and disrupting basic public services.

"Urban resilience is therefore not a choice. It is a necessity," he emphasized.

The Lao PDR is taking decisive steps to build inclusive, secure, and sustainable urban environments.

Key national initiatives highlighted at the forum include factoring climate risk assessments directly into urban designs, driving the National Adaptation Plan forward and contributing actively to the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0) framework and prioritizing resilient infrastructure projects specifically within vulnerable small and secondary towns.

The Lao PDR has also positioned itself as a regional leader in urban governance accountability.

 The country was the first in the Asia-Pacific region to submit its national report on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda in 2023, and it continues to demonstrate this proactive leadership by submitting its second implementation report in 2025.

Collaborations with key international bodies, particularly UN-Habitat, are yielding measurable progress on the ground. Recent milestones feature the construction of climate-resilient housing, the optimization of clean water supply networks, and the reinforcement of local governance capacities to prepare for and respond to disasters.

Additionally, the Lao PDR is increasingly relying on nature-based solutions. The government formally recognizes that natural ecosystems, such as wetlands, function as critical biological infrastructure indispensable for regional flood management and urban climate defenses.

Looking ahead, Deputy Minister Thammavong noted that expanding these local victories into nationwide standards will require sustained global investments, accessible climate finance, and technical capacity building. These resources are especially vital for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) navigating rapid urbanization alongside compounding climate risks.

"The choices we make today will determine whether our cities become centers of risk or engines of resilience," Thammavong concluded. "The Lao PDR is choosing resilience, and we invite our global partners to move forward with the exact same urgency and ambition."

The World Urban Forum (WUF) was established by the United Nations in 2001 to address one of the most pressing issues facing the modern world: rapid global urbanization and its impact on communities, economies, and the environment.

The forum is jointly organized by UN-Habitat and the Government of Azerbaijan. Convened biennially by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), it has grown to become the world’s premier open arena for discussing sustainable urban development.

KPL