This Saturday, 31 October, local and regional governments will celebrate World Cities Day, jointly with UN-Habitat. In the framework of the Global Taskforce, Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat and Secretary-General of Habitat III and Kadir Topbaş, Mayor of Istanbul, President of UCLG and Chair of United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA), call all local and regional governments of the world to join the celebration.
It is the second global celebration since December 2013, when the General Assembly of the United Nations designated the last day of October World Cities Day. The aim of the day is to attract the international community’s attention to urbanization as a central issue for development, and to encourage cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing urban challenges towards sustainable development.
The theme for this year is Designed to live together. The United Nations has selected this theme to remind us about the critical role that urbanization plays in our everyday lives and to celebrate the positive impact that well-managed urbanization can have on economic, social and environmental development.
This year’s World Cities Day is of great significance to the United Nations and its local and regional government partners, as it takes place a month after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, where the urban agenda is highlighted through Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. World Cities Day 2015 will also mark one year until the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders and the Habitat III Conference, to be held in Bogotá.
Are you ready to join this worldwide celebration?
If you are a city/local government: Promote the global message on “Local Governments Moving towards the New Urban Agenda” from now until 31 October through social media and post it on your official website and share the joint invitation from UN-Habitat and UCLG aiming to get local governments to join the celebration.
If you belong to the “urban community”: Spread the message from local and regional governments and promote it through social media with the hashtag #CitiesDay.
If you belong to the media: You can also share this joint initiative of UCLG and UN-Habitat: “Local Governments Moving towards the New Urban Agenda” with the wider public
We invite you all to share the message with all citizens and make it yours!
- Download the joint invitation from UN-Habitat and UCLG calling local governments to join the celebrations for World Cities Day
- Download the message of local governments for World Cities Day or click on the image:
Check out other initiatives for World Cities Day: