Welcome: Urban Dialogue on Informal Settlements – Pretoria Thematic Meeting.

This online dialogue took place from 23 March to 3 April 2016  in advance of the Habitat III Thematic Meeting in Pretoria from 7 to 8 April. During the two-week online discussion, individuals and organisations from around the world were invited to discuss approaches and strategies in the inter-related areas of tenure security and housing, livelihoods, safety, and governance aimed at improving the living conditions of informal settlements dwellers.

The significant increase of the world’s urban population has lead to a crisis of unprecedented magnitude in urban shelter provision. All new urban citizens need to be provided with shelter, employment and with urban basic services. The limited capacity of most urban economies in developing countries is unable to meet more than a fraction of these needs, and as such most employment and housing opportunities are found in the informal sector, where around 67% of the urban population in developing countries are currently living and working.