A city must provide housing to all its residents if it is to be called livable. Are cities in Asia and the Pacific livable from this perspective? Most cities in the lower- and middle-income countries in Asia and the Pacific face severe housing challenges. The urban poor and informal settlers suffer the most as they have no choice but to live substandard houses. The conventional channels of housing delivery are failing to address the surging demand. The scale and pace of urbanization and population growth pose additional stress on the already scarce urban housing supply.

In its Strategy 2030, ADB has committed to responding effectively to the needs of its developing member countries to achieve a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific. Among its operational priorities, Operational Priority 4: Making Cities More Livable (OP4) focuses on, among others, affordable housing as a key area to support its developing member countries on project financing, knowledge generation, and capacity building in the housing sector. This aligns very well with ADB’s goal of making cities more livable.

ADB hosted the 1st Asia-Pacific Housing Conference (AHC) 2022 on "Making Housing Affordable, Inclusive, and Resilient" last 8-9 November 2022.

Objectives

The AHC 2022 aimed to:

• facilitate peer-to-peer learning from successful models and practices in the housing sector;
• discuss innovations and best practices to adopt as well as lessons and pitfalls to avoid for an affordable, inclusive, and resilient housing sector, especially for the vulnerable groups; and
• bring in regional and international best practices to support this agenda.