New York, July 17, AZERTACThe WUF13 in Baku, held under the theme “Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities,” reinforced a fundamental message: housing is not an isolated sector, but a foundation for dignity and an accelerator of sustainable development, said Anar Guliyev, Chairman of the State Committee on Urban Planning and Architecture of Azerbaijan, during the first multi-stakeholder panel held as part of the High-Level Meeting on the Midterm Review of the implementation of the New Urban Agenda of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, the United States.The Committee Chairman noted that The Baku Call to Action carried this message forward, emphasizing people-led and localized approaches and the need to move from global commitments to local impact.“First, accelerating access to affordable housing requires moving beyond a single-policy approach. Housing supply, land policy, accessible finance, regulation and territorial planning must work as an integrated system. Different groups face different barriers; scalable solutions therefore require mutually reinforcing policy and financing instruments.Azerbaijan's experience reflects this approach. In 2016, the State Housing Development Agency, MIDA, was established as a dedicated mechanism for affordable housing delivery, along with the Roadmap on Adequate Housing. Since then, 18 residential projects comprising around 14,000 apartments have been implemented. Approximately 70 per cent of homeowners are under the age of 35. Preferential mortgage programmes with much below the market rate and a rent-to-own mechanism provide different pathways to housing,” Anar Guliyev emphasized. Malahat Najafova Special correspondent