City Housing, Driver of Economic Revival

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the most urbanized developing region on the planet, housing and the city are drivers for economic revival, the reduction of social and environmental gaps and instruments for a transformative recovery, concluded authorities gathered at the 31st General Assembly of the Forum of Ministers and Highest Housing and Urban Planning Authorities of Latin America and the Caribbean (MINURVI), held on December 5–6 at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

The keynote speech was delivered by Carlos Montes, Minister of Housing and Urban Planning of Chile, the country that held the Presidency of the MINURVI Forum (2021–2022), and the event featured José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary; Elkin Velázquez, UN-Habitat Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean; Georgiana Braga-Orillard, Representative in Chile of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Reina Irene Mejía, Interim President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and Emil Rodríguez Garabot, Director of Habitat and Sustainable Mobility at CAF—development bank of Latin America.

In his opening remarks, Minister Carlos Montes stressed that the main value of spaces such as the MINURVI Forum “is to build the capacity to challenge the city into transformation, to rethink how we want to live it and to be able to allow other ways of making a city.”

“We want to invite all to work on a social pact in which cities are politically and culturally assumed as a substantial place of exercise of rights and construction of a high-quality democracy, of building a healthier and safer relationship with the environment and as a place where we rebuild our society and build a democracy, with better quality development,” he said.

José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, warned that the funds allocated by the Central Government to the Housing sector were slashed on average in the region down to 0.61% of GDP, lower than a decade ago. The head of the United Nations Regional Commission stressed that housing can trigger recovery and dynamism for economic activity and jobs, from a sustainability approach. He noted that ECLAC has estimated that a 1-percent growth of the construction sector leads to a 0.07-percent GDP per capita growth.

“Cities must become instruments of redistribution and inclusion, ensuring access to high-quality, safe public services and spaces. The location of housing and the role of sustainable mobility is fundamental,” concluded Salazar-Xirinachs.

Furthermore, Reina Irene Mejía, interim president of the IDB, noted that cities are the heart of our countries and contribute more than 70% of regional GDP; however, 2 out of 5 people live in precarious housing, and 1 in 5 live in informal settlements. “This is unacceptable and must change,” she said.

On CAF’s side, Emil Rodríguez Garabot, the bank’s Director of Habitat and Sustainable Mobility , stressed that supporting adequate funds for housing is a structural issue for our new administration, and we want to do so through programs that foster a sustainable economic recovery aligned with the values we want to promote. “MINURVI is the right place to work at scale and promote a new vision of proximity urbanism,” he said.

During the first day, intense debates were held about the future of housing and sustainable urban planning in Latin America, with the aim of analyzing the role of the state in the coordination of urban-housing policies that guarantee the right to the city for the entire population without exclusion.  

On the second day of the 31st General Assembly of MINURVI, the ministers of housing of the 17 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean attending the meeting held a working session that produced the final declaration of the Assembly, and elected the authorities of the Executive Committee of MINURVI for 2022–2023, with Argentina’s Minister of Territorial Development and Habitat Santiago Maggiotti assuming the presidency of the Forum.

Declaration of Santiago

After the election of the new board, the participating authorities signed the Declaration of Santiago 2022, entitled “Transforming and humanizing the city and the territory” that will govern as the guiding principle of MINURVI’s actions and agenda. In this Declaration, in addition to establishing new directors, the authorities pledged—among their main actions—to help meet the goals of the 2030 Agenda and the proposals of the New Urban Agenda, as well as to promote and improve the Urban and Cities Platform of Latin America and the Caribbean developed by ECLAC as a tool to exchange experiences and follow up on these goals.

Similarly, they agreed to giver member states an active role in the implementation of planning and regulation policies for housing and urban planning, while developing strategies and public policies for the adequate location of housing projects, duly provided with equipment and services in order to grant adequate access to the city.

Lastly, they pledged to promote the development of inclusive cities, introducing the gender and care approach in the urban-housing policies of each country in an effort to address existing inequities from a multidimensional approach.