Roundtable 1: “Achieving adequate housing through people-centred smart cities”.
In the context of rapid urbanization and accelerated technological change, cities around the world face
increasingly complex challenges at the intersection of inclusion, sustainability, and digital transformation. While
digital technologies offer powerful tools for enhancing urban governance, public service delivery and civicparticipation, their potential in tackling the global housing crisis is yet to be explored fully. Adequate housing
and access to urban basic services are fundamental human rights and key components of sustainable urbandevelopment. Yet, the global housing crisis remains one of the most pressing challenges of our time: over 2.8
billion people worldwide lack access to adequate housing, while millions more live in informal settlements or
face barriers in accessing housing and other essential services such as water, sanitation, energy, and mobility.
Rapid urbanization, climate pressures, and economic inequality continue to deepen these gaps, particularly in
low- and middle-income countries.
In this context, smart cities development, empowered with urban data strategies and human-rights-based technologies and if guided by inclusive and people-centred approaches, can offer significant opportunities to
address these deficits. From enhancing housing systems and infrastructure to improving service delivery and
spatial planning, digital technologies and data-driven innovations can be powerful enablers of sustainable andequitable urban transformation.
To ensure that such technologies address the need and protect the rights of the city’s inhabitants, UN-Habitat,
under the People-Centred Smart Cities Flagship Programme and its normative work, provides guidance to help
national and local governments harness digital transformation in a way that upholds human rights, supports
local inclusion, and advances sustainability goals. By focusing on equity, participation, resilience, and
sustainability, these guidelines are particularly relevant for scaling innovations that address housing and
service delivery for people in vulnerable situations.
UN-Habitat has been working directly with cities and communities to improve housing affordability and access
through digital tools like BEAM (Building and Establishment Automated Mapper), an AI-powered platformdeveloped by UNITAC Hamburg. BEAM uses satellite imagery and machine learning to map informal
settlements and identify unplanned structures. This enables municipalities not only to maintain up-to-date
spatial data on informal areas, but also to prioritize upgrading interventions and, in turn, improve planning for
basic services such as water and sanitation in informal settlements.
BEAM is already being used by cities such as eThekwini and Cape Town in South Africa, and Guatemala City
and seven others in Central America. Such useful cases demonstrate how digital innovation, if thoughtfully
deployed, can support inclusive planning, accurate enumeration of informal dwellings, and ultimately more
equitable service provision and housing policy.
Building on past achievements, UN-Habitat’s new Strategic Plan 2026-2029 places adequate housing, land,
basic services, and the transformation of informal settlements and slums at the heart of the Agency’s global
efforts to build inclusive, climate-resilient, and sustainable cities.
Roundtable Objectives
This roundtable will explore how digital solutions and tools, guided by people-centred principles, can accelerate
progress toward adequate housing and improved service delivery. The panel will:
- Discuss the potential of smart cities to support access to adequate housing, especially for populations living in informal settlements and below the poverty line.
- Share use cases and innovations that demonstrate how digital tools can support local governments in planning, upgrading, and delivering services.
- Foster discussion on key enablers and barriers in implementing people-centred digital strategies for housing at scale.
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