Anaclaúdia Rossbach, UN-Habitat’s Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, is widely recognized for her work advancing inclusive, sustainable urban development and expanding access to adequate housing. She is a Brazilian economist and urban development expert who since her appointment in 2024, has brought more than 20 years of experience in housing, informal settlements, land management, and urban policy to the organization. We spoke with her to understand how she is leading UN-Habitat in a rapidly urbanized world.
With increasing pressure on international development funding, how is UN-Habitat adapting its financing model?
The pressure on international development funding is real, and we should name it plainly. In 2025, official development assistance from OECD Development Assistance Committee members and associates fell by a historic 23%, and a further decline is projected for 2026. At the same time, the Sevilla Commitment, adopted at the Fourth International Conference on Financing and Development, reaffirmed that official development assistance remains indispensable and called for this decline to be reversed. So we face a world where the need for development financing is growing while the traditional donor base is shrinking.
At UN-Habitat, we see it not only as a fundraising challenge but as a moment to rethink development cooperation in a rapidly urbanizing world. Our resource mobilization strategy for the next four years, 2026–2029, is built around two mutually reinforcing goals. The first is securing predictable, diversified and sustainable resources to deliver normative and operational work at scale. The second is enabling policy, partnerships and public and private investment flows to reach housing, land, and basic services to support sustainable urban development.
This distinction matters. A contribution to UN-Habitat allows us to deliver results in countries and cities. However, a national urban policy, a housing finance framework, a climate investment pipeline or an urban program designed with a development bank can shift resources at a larger scale.
We must do both: mobilize resources for UN-Habitat, and help mobilize resources for sustainable urbanization. We are moving in three directions. First, working with Member States and intergovernmental partners to move from fragmented, project-by-project cooperation towards more coherent portfolios and partnerships.
Second, we are diversifying our partnership base. Many actors we work with today do not define themselves simply as “donors.”
Third, we are strengthening our engagement with larger financing ecosystems, including climate vertical funds, UN pooled funds, international financial institutions and development finance institutions.
Our financing model must reflect the world we serve. Development finance can no longer be understood only as money transferred from one institution to another. It must be about trust, policy influence, partnerships, catalytic investment and local ownership, as well as about placing sustainable urbanization and adequate housing at the center.
How is UN-Habitat evolving to address today’s urban challenges?
UN-Habitat’s strategic plan 2026–2029 recognizes that today’s urban challenges, housing shortages, climate change, inequality, conflict, displacement and rapid urbanization, are deeply interconnected and require integrated solutions. The plan positions sustainable urbanization not as a standalone sector, but as a powerful enabler of sustainable development, helping countries and cities deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the New Urban Agenda. At its heart is a renewed focus on ensuring access to adequate housing, land and basic services. We want to show that urbanization and adequate housing are not the outcomes of development, but its foundation.
The strategic plan also reflects an evolution in how UN-Habitat delivers its mandate. We are strengthening the connection between our global normative role and our support to countries and cities, helping governments translate international commitments into practical policies, investment opportunities and measurable results. Whether supporting national urban policies, climate-resilient infrastructure, inclusive planning, land governance or local economic development, our objective is to help countries build urban systems that are more resilient, equitable and future-ready.
This evolution is also evident in our global leadership. This year, UN-Habitat led the United Nations system’s review of SDG 11 through the Global Synthesis Report and supported the General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting on the Midterm Review of the New Urban Agenda. Both reaffirmed that adequate housing and sustainable urbanization must be at the center of development if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Equally important is how we work. We place strong emphasis on partnerships, innovation and financing, recognizing that no single institution can address the scale of today’s urban challenges alone. UN-Habitat is increasingly bringing together governments, local authorities, international financial institutions, the private sector, academia and communities to develop integrated urban solutions, strengthen institutional capacity, and unlock investment for sustainable urban development.
Our key platform for bringing the stakeholders together is the World Urban Forum, the United Nations’ largest conference on housing and sustainable urban development. Held every two years since 2002, it serves as a global platform for sharing knowledge, building partnerships and advancing action. The thirteenth session, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, in May 2026, brought together more than 58,000 participants from 176 countries and concluded with the Baku Call to Action, which prioritizes adequate housing and the transformation of informal settlements. The fourteenth session will take place in Mexico City in 2028.
How should governments balance economic growth with affordability and sustainability?
Economic growth, affordability and sustainability are not competing priorities. They can and should reinforce one another. Historically, economic growth came at the expense of sustainability. Today, however, countries are increasingly adopting development models that seek to achieve all three.
We see this transformation taking place across sectors and in countries across both the Global North and the Global South. At UN-Habitat, we are working with governments and partners to ensure that housing and urban development contribute to economic growth while making cities more affordable, inclusive and sustainable.
This starts with housing. We prioritize housing as the foundation of sustainable development and economic growth. We need to invest in affordable and sustainable housing models that go beyond traditional home ownership to include cooperatives, social housing and other approaches that guarantee security of tenure. This also means developing sustainable housing materials and sustainable construction methods. We are also supporting the transformation of informal settlements and slums through in-situ upgrading and incremental, step-by-step improvements that improve living conditions while allowing communities to remain where they live and engage in the decision-making and processes.
We are also talking about compact cities and communities, where housing, jobs and essential services are located closer together, reducing travel times, lowering emissions and improving quality of life. Digital technologies are helping cities plan more efficiently, while nature-based solutions, particularly for water and sanitation, are making urban areas more resilient. Energy-efficient housing and sustainable public transport are also essential parts of this transition.
The good news is that many of these solutions already exist. Cities around the world are innovating and finding practical ways to address these challenges. Our role at UN-Habitat is to identify what works, share these experiences globally and help governments and city leaders adapt them to their own local contexts.
As Executive Director of UN-Habitat, what do you feel is the greatest responsibility you have in driving change forward?
I think that, as UN leaders, our greatest responsibility is to serve people and ensure that no one is left behind. We must bring together different perspectives and make sure that our work delivers results for people on the ground, especially those who need them most.
I feel a personal responsibility to ensure that the voices of vulnerable communities are heard, especially the voices of more than 1.1 billion people who live in informal settlements and slums. As a UN leader and as a woman, I also want to ensure that the voices of women and girls are heard. Their experiences and priorities must be reflected in the decisions we make.
Listening to communities alone is not enough. We must take deliberate action to include those whose voices are too often overlooked and make sure that we truly leave no one behind.