What does your faith tradition have to say about housing, homelessness, and the future of our cities? More than you might think — and there is now a global stage to say it.
This May, I’ll be heading to Baku, Azerbaijan for the 13th World Urban Forum (WUF13), and I’d love for you to come too. Better yet, I want to invite you to register specifically through the Faith for Cities multifaith Faith Pavilion, so we can be part of something genuinely historic at this gathering.
What is WUF13?
Held every two years and convened by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the World Urban Forum is the premier global conference on urbanization. WUF13 takes place May 17–22, 2026, in Baku, Azerbaijan, under the theme Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities.
The urgency behind this theme is hard to overstate. Today, nearly 3 billion people face some form of housing inadequacy, with more than 1.1 billion living in informal settlements or slums, and over 300 million experiencing homelessness — pressures being intensified by climate change and widening inequalities.
WUF13 is also taking place at the midpoint of the New Urban Agenda, giving it a pivotal role in shaping global discussions and contributing to the 2026 UN Secretary-General’s report on its implementation. This is not a peripheral gathering — it’s where global urban policy gets shaped.
Why Faith Communities Belong Here
Here’s what I keep coming back to: faith communities have been doing this work — caring for the unhoused, building affordable housing, anchoring neighborhoods — for a very long time. And yet, as Faith for Cities puts it, faith-based organizations are often an unseen backbone of urban communities. They own land, provide essential services, and offer moral vision and social cohesion. Yet global conversations about cities often overlook them.
WUF13 is an opportunity to change that.
With approximately 84% of the global population identifying with a faith or spiritual belief, there is growing recognition that UN-Habitat’s urgent call for a “whole-of-society” approach to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals must include religious communities and faith-based organizations.
The Faith Pavilion: A Space Built for Us
At WUF12 in Cairo in 2024, the Faith Pavilion made its historic debut — a multi-faith initiative by Faith for Cities and its partners, built on a decade of collaboration and trust-building with diverse faith communities and UN-Habitat. Now, the Faith for Cities network is bringing the Faith Pavilion back for WUF13, and it promises to be even more impactful.
The Faith Pavilion is a platform for research exchange, dialogue, and collaboration on how religious communities can contribute to co-creating more just, sustainable, and resilient cities for all.
The approach is deeply ecumenical and grounded. The Faith Pavilion’s approach to multi-faith collaboration is founded on covenantal pluralism — supporting diverse faith communities in maintaining their unique identities while working together to build sustainable, inclusive cities. The vision is to be “rooted and linked”: firmly rooted in one’s own faith tradition yet deeply respectful of other traditions, and open and eager to connect with others for collective action.
This is the kind of collaboration I believe in, and it’s why I want us to show up together.
How to Register
Registration for WUF13 is open now. To be part of the Faith Pavilion community, register through the Faith for Cities network at faithforcities.org. After registering through UN-Habitat’s portal, participants can apply for a free WUF13 special visa through a dedicated link included in the confirmation email WUF — so the logistics are more manageable than you might expect.
The Forum will be hosted at the Baku Olympic Stadium, a fully accessible venue, and early accommodation bookings are strongly encouraged due to high demand.
Come to Baku.
Cities are where the great questions of our time — housing, belonging, climate, equity — are being lived out in flesh and blood, street by street. Faith communities have wisdom, resources, and presence that the global urban conversation desperately needs.
Let’s not leave that seat empty. Come register through the Faith Pavilion, and let’s go to Baku together.
Peace, dwight
