Participatory Forum on Affordable Housing and Indoor Air Quality: Essential Elements for the New Urban Agenda

Participants will use a replicable and inclusive process to elicit ideas from everyone involved. The session will provide strategies that participants can take back to their home organizations for implementation.

Indoor air quality has a significant impact on residents' health and is a factor that can be addressed both through construction techniques and by residents' lifestyle choices within their buildings. Availability of, and access to, healthy affordable housing is challenging in the north and south. Levels of urban air pollution are increasing, and indoor air quality is becoming more important as people spend more time inside the building envelope. Affordable housing should be healthy housing. The building materials used must have comparable safety standards to materials used in other residential construction, both to improve health outcomes and to reduce inequality. Choosing less toxic building materials also promotes responsible consumption. Recognizing that a wide range of construction techniques are used in different jurisdictions and countries, we will encourage a broad range of information rather than a perspective from any single country or region.

This session will capture key contributions by learning from each other and gleaning the best practices around sustainability. We recognize that there will be a diverse group in the room that can contribute many excellent ideas rooted in their own experiences, cultures and economies.

The event will develop consensus on three priorities to achieve improved indoor air quality for affordable housing using a democratic process. We will share a model for participatory community engagement and we hope to create a network of potential ambassadors who will use the process to focus on environmentally sustainable and healthy urban development.