Artigenda
World Cities Day
When: Annually, October 31.
World Cities Day takes place annually on 31 October and on this day, the world’s major cities take centre stage, along with their challenges and issues.
World Cities Day and World Habitat Day
World Cities Day is tangentially related to World Habitat Day. That day takes place on the last day of October. Yet there are differences. World Urban Day is about the major (world) cities, while World Habitat Day is about the total urbanised area.
It’s a bit confusing, though. The UN’s United Nations Human Settlements Programme, also known as UN-Habitat, is responsible for this day. Its aim is to promote social and sustainable urban planning. The impetus for this was the Vancouver Declaration On Human Settlements drafted in 1978. Today, this programme serves as the foundation, also called Habitat I.
Resolution A/56/206 and Urban October
For the first period, up to 1996, the organisation actually did little. It was only with the introduction of Habitat II, a new declaration – with a new agenda – that this came to an end. Now more countries participated and more agreements were made. All kinds of recommendations were also made when it came to sustainability. An important goal became combating slums in various parts of the world.
Through Resolution A/56/206, the need for the programme was once again clarified in 2002.
The day, together with World Habitat Day, is part of Urban October.
