Inspiring, Inclusive & Incremental – Successful, Affordable, and Beautiful Housing was the theme of this year’s World Urban Forum in Cairo, Egypt. I was invited to share a short recorded contribution. For this, I shared some key questions and approaches to developing more sustainable neighborhoods and housing in Africa. This included the following:

• Shaping neighbourhoods: Are our neighbourhoods sustainable? How can they be improved? Who will plan and implement these improvements? What tools and processes can be utilized? How can we ensure that these processes are inclusive and responsive to local and diverse needs? Over the next 5 to 10 years, how can we achieve neighbourhoods that enable everyone to live and work more sustainably through partnerships and the implementation of an incremental long-term plan?
• Setting targets: What do you aim to achieve in your housing development? What targets can you establish and agree upon with occupants, stakeholders and collaborators? Do these targets comprehensively address sustainability by improving social and economic performance while also tackling environmental issues? Once established, how can challenging targets be integrated into and achieved through the focused planning, design, construction, operation, and deconstruction processes?
• Culture and innovation: Are you exploring the full potential of existing local experience, skills and materials in development proposals? Has the transformative power of alternative approaches, organizational structures, new business models and innovative technologies been investigated to achieve radically improved sustainability performance?
• Embedding practices: How can we embed improved sustainability practices so this becomes normal? Are there ways of making more sustainable practices easier and more rewarding that less sustainable practices? How can designs, tools and processes that be used to enable, and encourage, more sustainable living and working patterns?