World to converge on Abu Dhabi
It will be the host when the
world’s largest conference on urbanization, the World Urban Forum, meets for
the first time ever in the Arab region.
Convened by the UN agency focused
on sustainable urbanization, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme
(UN-Habitat), thousands of participants that include policy makers, academics,
artists and urban planners are expected at this WUF session which will be tenth
and will run from February 8 – 13.
Speaking, Executive Director, UN-Habitat,
Maimunah Mohd Sharif, said, “The world has really changed since the first World
Urban Forum back in 2002. Urbanization is now recognized as one of the defining
trends of the times. But ultimately the aim has remained constant – to promote
transformative change to improve living conditions for everyone.”
The theme of the session this
year is Cities of Opportunities: Connecting Culture and Innovation, as culture,
which brings together knowledge, art, belief, capabilities, habits, morals and
behaviours is widely recognized as playing a key role in the growth and
development of cities.
Alongside high level dialogues
and roundtables, there are assemblies for young people, women, local and
regional governments, grassroots communities and businesses as well as 400
events hosted by partners.
It also features an urban expo
with over 170 exhibitors from 66 countries, a Sustainable Development Goals
(SDG) Zone, an urban library and the UN-Habitat Better Cities Film Festival.
A special session on voluntary
local reviews, hosted by UN-Habitat and the City of New York will also discuss
how cities can report their progress towards the SDGs, share best practices and
encourage new cities to join the movement.
There are only ten years left to
achieve the SDGs by the target date of 2030. WUF10 will be the first major UN
event of the Decade of Action which starts this month and calls for
accelerating sustainable solutions to the world’s biggest challenges.
Registration for WUF10 is open to
everyone, free of charge and is open online until 31 January 2020.
For more information, go to
wuf.unhabitat.org
Join the online conversation on
Twitter using the hashtag #WUF10, follow @WUF_10 and Facebook @worldurbanforum.
Follow the event live on
http://webtv.un.org/live/
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