Claudio Acioly

Background

About Claudio Acioly

Acioly is an architect and urban planner with over 40 years of experience in more than 45 countries. He specializes in housing, slum upgrading, project development, implementation, and capacity building. Throughout his career, he has served as a practicing expert, program manager, team leader, resident technical and policy advisor, and short-term consultant to governments, academic institutions, civil society organizations, community-based organizations, and bilateral and multilateral institutions such as UNDP, World Bank, UNECE, UN-Habitat, GIZ, EU, Cordaid, DGIS, UNEP, and GEF. He is a freelance consultant and currently an associated fellow and visiting lecturer at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS). He is a member of the Council of the City of Rio de Janeiro, the board of directors of the Center for Affordable Housing Finance (CAHF), Global Urban Development (GUD) of New York, the Max Foundation in The Netherlands, and the council of the International Federation of Housing and Planning (IFHP). As independent consultant, Acioly has recently conducted mid-term evaluations for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) sponsored Sustainable Cities Programme in Brazil, as well as the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme for the European Commission. He served as Team Leader at Acciona Ingenieria, Spain, on the European Union’s secondary city project in Africa (2023). As Programme Manager at GIZ, he directed the European Union’s International Urban Cooperation Programme for Latin America and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Energy and Climate in Latin America (2020), focusing on the carbon footprint of cities and climate action planning. From 2008 to 2019, Acioly was Head of Housing Policy and Capacity Building at UN-Habitat, coordinating the UN Housing Rights Programme and the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions to the Executive Director of UN-Habitat (AGFE). He authored several policy and strategy documents, including the Practical Guide for Conducting Housing Profiles, the Housing Barometer, the Housing Rights Index, the Street-led Citywide Slum Upgrading for Urban Transformation in Slums, the Strategy for Land and Housing of UN-Habitat Strategic Plans, and the UN-Habitat Capacity Building Strategy 2020-2030. He led projects in countries such as Egypt, Bulgaria, Guinea-Bissau, Korea, Namibia, Cuba, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, Malawi, Tanzania, Belarus, Bolivia, Ethiopia, Peru, Moldova, and frequently served as a keynote speaker at international events.