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World Cities Day will mark the culmination of the month – long celebration of Urban October, which this year promotes ambitious climate action in cities. Create your own event!

By its resolution 68/239, the United Nations General Assembly established 31 October as World Cities Day. It is expected that today will significantly enhance the international community’s interest in global urbanization and advance cooperation among countries in addressing opportunities to meet the challenges of urbanization and contribute to sustainable urban development throughout the world.

Urbanization offers the possibility of new forms of social inclusion, including greater equality, and access to new services, opportunities, participation and mobilization that reflect the diversity of cities, countries and the world. However, this is often not the form of urban development.

Inequality and exclusion are widespread, often at rates above the national average, at the expense of sustainable development for all.

World Urban Challenges on World City Day
UN-Habitat launched the Urban October Initiative in 2014 to emphasize global urban challenges and engage the international community in the implementation of the new urban agenda.

Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals. What is it?
It is the goal that formulates the ambition to make cities and human settlements inclusive, secure, flexible and sustainable, which lies behind the importance of the mission of UN-Habitat. Inequalities in cities have grown since 1980.

Sustainable urban development on World City Day
In October 2016, the HABITAT IIII conference, held in Quito, adopted a new framework that will set the world on a path towards sustainable urban development by rethinking how cities are planned, managed, and inhabited. The new urban agenda will set the pace for addressing the challenges of urbanization in the next two decades and is seen as an extension of the 2030 Sustainable Development Plan, which was approved by the 193 Member States of the United Nations in September 2015.

2021 World City Day theme
On 27 December 2013, the United Nations General Assembly adopted its resolution 239/68, by which it endorsed the designation of 31 October each year as World City Day. The Day is intended to strengthen the desire of the international community to spread urbanization worldwide, to advance cooperation among countries to exploit opportunities, to address urban challenges and to contribute to urban development throughout the world.

Celebration 2021 – City adaptation for climate resilience
Cities around the world are increasingly experiencing the effects of climate-related and other challenges and risks, such as floods, droughts and the high level of a port city with a population of more than 130 sea levels, heatwaves, landslides and storms.

At least 1 million people are expected to be affected by coastal flooding. In an increasingly hot world, the direct and indirect effects of repeated droughts and heatwaves must be addressed.

One billion of the world’s people living in informal urban settlements are particularly vulnerable. To varying degrees, they are deprived of adequate housing and access to basic services such as adequate sanitation, fresh and potable water, rainwater disposal systems, reliable and efficient electricity supplies and affordable mobility.

They are particularly vulnerable to many risks, including climate change, as informal settlements are located in exposed and unstable places.

Opportunities and Innovation on World City Day
Despite the enormous challenges that cities face, they are also places of opportunity and innovation in developing sustainable solutions to rise forward after disruption.

Building resilience and social capital in cities can reduce disaster risks and enhance urban resilience to often unpredictable future challenges and vulnerabilities. Adapting cities to climate resilience helps cities and populations prepare for, mitigate and respond to the risks posed by predictable and unpredictable shocks and pressures. Therefore, climate adaptation is a key priority for future urban resilience, health and well-being of people and the environment.
Activities for more resources
For the occasion, please review the page on the UN-Habitat website

On the occasion of World City Day 2021 and the focus on communities, the UNESCO Cities Platform organizes an online dialogue bringing together speakers from academia, the public and private sectors and civil society to discuss and promote the essential components of community participation as well as how UNESCO’s work with cities can support sustainable urban development through community-based approaches. This dialogue will be accompanied by video messages from representatives of cities, communities and stakeholders to present key ideas and expectations to communities and how we can, by supporting them, develop better cities, which in turn will provide a better life for their people.