World Habitat Day 2026; October 5th.

FORUM: "Adequate Housing for All" World Habitat Day 2026. The world is facing a global housing crisis. More than 3 billion people lack access to adequate housing today. Furthermore, more than 1.1 billion people, continue to live in an informal settlement, and hundreds of millions are experiencing homelessness. This crisis is exacerbated by conflicts, disasters, and climate change, with individuals living in informal settlements facing the harshest impacts and having the least ability to recover. Housing is acknowledged as a human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Other than it being well established as a right that the world is yet to deliver, people facing the challenge of inadequate housing are also deprived of dignity, safety, stability and opportunity. The Global Observance of World Habitat Day 2026 builds on a renewed wave of political commitment to Adequate Housing. At the second session of the UN-Habitat Assembly, 2023 Member States adopted resolution2/7, which focuses on ensuring adequate housing for all, and resolution 2/2, which aims to transform informal settlements and slums. In these resolutions, Member States have urged UN-Habitat to strengthen its efforts in these important areas and UN Habitat launched the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Working Groupon Adequate Housing for All, as an intergovernmental process to help contribute to solving for this challenge. Further through the Pact for the Future, Member States have also committed to ensuring that everyone has access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing. This year also marks the first Urban October under UN-Habitat’s new Strategic Plan 2026–2029, which places housing, land and basic services at the centre of the organization’s mandate. The Baku Call to Action from the thirteenth World Urban Forum held in May 2026, emphasises the importance of a human rights approach to housing and encourages a shift from diagnosis to action. Housing is essential for achieving the SustainableDevelopment Goals. Making progress on both the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda is closely tied to our ability to provide adequate housing for everyone. World Habitat Day will highlight the importance of adequate housing for thriving communities and the actions needed to make it a reality. This requires targeted efforts for lower-income groups, people experiencing disasters, crisis and homelessness, and those most at risk of displacement. Success depends on how we plan and manage our cities, recognizing the social, economic and ecological functions of land, promoting secure land tenure, preventing urban sprawl, and ensuring housing is located within well-serviced, liveable neighbourhoods. Achieving adequate housing also requires diversifying how housing is produced and delivered, through social, public, rental, cooperative and community-led models alongside market-based solutions. Housing must be environmentally sustainable, climate resilient and culturally appropriate, while prioritizing the upgrading andtransformation of informal settlements to improve conditions for those most in need. Above all, these efforts rely on effective multilevel governance, supported by enabling policies and legislation, robust data, and adequate financing. The Global Observance, hosted by the Sultanate of Oman in Muscat, will kick off the Home & Building Expo and Urban October. It will provide a global platform for exchanging experiences, showcasing innovative approaches, and strengthening partnerships that advance the right to adequate housing in practice.  In line with UN-Habitat’s Strategic Plan 2026–2029 and resolution 2/7 on adequate housing for all, the objectives of the World Habitat Day 2026 will: 1. Showcase innovative practices that advance adequate housing for all and recognise outstanding contributions through the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award, one of the world’s most prestigious human settlements awards. 2. Reaffirm adequate housing as a human right and a cornerstone for achieving the SustainableDevelopment Goals and the New Urban Agenda. 3. Raise awareness of the drivers contributing to the global housing crisis, including unaffordability,informality, insecure tenure, climate impacts, displacement and inadequate conditions and highlight the ongoing gap between commitment and actual progress. 4. Promote dialogue on inclusive, integrated and holistic housing strategies that reach all households and all forms of tenure, with targeted efforts for those in the most vulnerable situations. 5. Highlight the central role of all levels of governments, effective multilevel governance, national urbanpolicies, housing law, well-planned, well-located compact neighbourhoods, in realising adequatehousing. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #WorldHabitatDay, #UrbanOctober, #urbancrisisresponse, #Right2Housing, #MindtheGap, #LeaveNoOneBehind, #adequatehousing.

EVENTS: On 5 October 2026, the Global Observance of World Habitat Day will be related to "Adequate Housing for All". The global housing crisis whereby an estimated 2.8 billion people face various forms of housing inadequacy, in which close to 1.1 billion reside in slums and informal settlements, calls for urgent and concerted action. World Habitat Day will consider how to realize the ambition of ensuring access to adequate housing for all as a cornerstone for achieving the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda. Register to participate!

AGENDA PROGRAMME OF THE GLOBAL OBSERVANCE OF WORLD HABITAT DAY 2026.

10.30 -11:00 ARRIVAL OF ATTENDEES (All guests to be seated by 11:00)
11:00 - 11:45 NATIONAL OBSERVANCE HIGH-LEVEL OPENING
11:45 - 12:30 GLOBAL OBSERVANCE HIGH-LEVEL OPENING

UN-HABITAT SCROLL OF HONOUR AWARDS: The UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award, launched in 1989, recognizes individuals and institutions that have made outstanding contributions to urban development, including improving the quality of urban life for all and ensuring adequate, affordable, and accessible housing.

12:30 - 12:45 SIGNING CEREMONY FOR DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS, INCLUDING INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
12:45 - 13:30 INAUGURATION OF THE EXPO


Related Sites and Documents: World Habitat Day website; Concept note (pdf); Programme (pdf).

LIVESTREAM: Watch the World Habitat Day 2026 - "Adequate Housing for All" (Muscat, Oman) (Morning Session)

World Teachers’ Day 2026; October 5th.

 

FORUM: “Standing with teachers: 60 years of protecting the profession, advancing its status and shaping our futures”. World Teachers’ Day 2026. The year 2026 will mark the 60th anniversary of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. We will celebrate progress in recognizing teachers’ vital role, we will highlight the challenges the profession continues to face, and we will call on society and policymakers to protect, promote and elevate its status. Especially the case today, as the world needs 50 million more teachers to achieve SDG 4 by 2030. Sixty years after the adoption of the Recommendation, World Teachers’ Day 2026 provides an opportunity to ask how societies envision the purposes of education today, the role of teachers in achieving them, and the obstacles to realising these purposes and enabling teachers to fulfil their role. At a time when the Recommendation is being revised, World Teachers’ Day will examine how effective policies are in elevating the status of teachers; whether these policies are negotiated through social dialogue and collective bargaining with teachers and their representatives; and the quality and availability of data and evidence used to ascertain teachers’ “status” and determine policy actions. Building on the call of the first World Summit on Teachers and its outcome document, the Santiago Consensus, adopted in August 2025, World Teachers’ Day 2026 will also celebrate teachers’ work and the progress enabled by the Recommendation, while considering its limitations, including challenges in monitoring and implementation. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #Teachers, #WorldTeachersDay, #5October, #valuingteachervoices, #teaching, #teachingasacollaborativeprofession, #teachthem.

EVENTS: On October 5th at UNESCO HQ, from 8:00 to 06:30 pm GMT will be held the the World teacher's day 2026 and the UNESCO-Hamdan Prize. Co-convened by UNESCO, the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNICEF and Education International, the celebration will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and will be opened by UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany. It will bring together teachers, ministers of education, policymakers, academics, young people, teacher organizations, education partners and institutions from around the world. 

The 2026 event will have three main objectives: 

(i) celebrate World Teachers’ Day, drawing the attention of decision-makers and the international community to the chosen theme by sharing data, analyses and knowledge about the facts and challenges related to teacher status around the world, as well as promising strategies for addressing these challenges; 

(ii) advocate for changes in teacher status by calling on relevant actors to take action to address the challenges facing the profession; 

(iii) recognise innovations and promising practices in teacher professional development through theawarding of the UNESCO-Hamdan Prize for Teacher Development.

The programme will feature high-level discussions on protecting and advancing the teaching profession, opportunities for teachers and members of the public to interact and share their perspectives, and a performance by a teachers’ choir. The day will also include the award ceremony for the ninth edition of the UNESCO-Hamdan Prize for Teacher Development. Read the concept note, the agenda programme and  Register to participate!

Provisional programme 

Time (UTC+2)                                Session 

08:30 – 09:10 Welcome coffee World Teachers’ Day ceremony 

09:10 – 09:50 Welcome message and musical interlude Opening remarks by the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Khaled El-Enany Interactive activity with the audience Keynote by Prof Gert Biesta, Professor of Education, University of Melbourne, and Adjunct Professor, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, on the 60th anniversary of the ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers (1966)

09:50 – 10:45 Panel discussion with the co-conveners of World Teachers’ Day - Mr Qun Chen, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO - Ms Vera Paquete-Perdigão, Director of Labour Governance & Sectoral Policies Department, ILO - Ms Brenda Haiplik, Global Lead Teacher Development and Workforce, UNICEF - Mr David Edwards, General Secretary, Education International Musical interlude.

- UNESCO-Hamdan Prize for Teacher Development award ceremony-

10:45 – 12:30 Opening remarks by UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, Mr Qun Chen Presentation of the 10 finalists’ teacher development programmes - Recognition of the International Jury - Video celebrating the UNESCO-Hamdan Prize - Thematic discussions with the 10 Prize finalists Remarks by His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates Announcement of the three laureates.

13:00 – 14:30 High-level lunch (by invitation only) 

- Afternoon panel discussion -

15:00 – 17:00 Rethinking and elevating the status of teachers: Thematic conversation with Ministers of Education, teachers and international experts 

17:00 – 17:30 Visit to the exhibition of finalists’ projects 

17:30 – 19:00 Closing reception of World Teachers’ Day 2026

The international event will include two key moments: (1) a morning session featuring the official World Teachers’ Day commemoration and the award ceremony for the 9th edition of the UNESCO Hamdan Prize for Teacher Development, including a discussion with the 10 finalists on their innovative approaches and projects; and (2) an afternoon session featuring a high-level discussion with Ministers of Education and international experts on policy solutions to elevate the status of teachers and support the transformation of the teaching profession.