United Nations Human Settlements Programme P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi 00100, KENYA Tel: +254-20 7625311, Fax: +254-20 7624266/7 advocacy@unhabitat.org, www.unhabitat.org
Nairobi, September 30, 2014 Dear Partner, I have the pleasure to inform you that UN-‐Habitat has designated the entire month of October as Urban October, where we will reflect on a wide range of urban issues with our partners and share knowledge and experiences in making our cities better. Urban October will consist of three main events organized by UN-‐Habitat: the World Habitat Day, the Urban Thinkers Campus and the World Cities Day, as well as several city, national and regional level events organized by our partners around the world. Urban October is the overarching platform where partners can converge and debate on urban issues, building up to the Post 2015 Development Agenda and the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development (Habitat III). This year, World Habitat Day will be commemorated on Monday 6 October 2014 under the theme Voices from Slums. This theme was selected to reflect on life in slums and give a voice to people living in slums, in order to share experiences in improving quality of life in deprived urban areas. The Urban Thinkers Campus will take place from 15 to 18 October 2014 in Caserta, Italy. The Campus is built on the outcomes of the deliberations of the Sixth and Seventh sessions of the World Urban Forum organized by UN-‐Habitat in Naples, Italy in 2012, and in Medellin, Colombia in April 2014. One month after the first Preparatory Committee for the Habitat III Conference, the Campus aims to gather urban thinkers and stakeholders to debate The City We Need, initiated by the World Urban Campaign. The World Cities Day will be celebrated for the first time on 31 October. This new day in the UN calendar was approved by the United Nations General Assembly during its Sixty-‐eighth session in 2013. The aim of this 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. We are pleased to inform you that the first celebration of World Cities Day will be held in Shanghai, China, under the theme Leading Urban Transformations. This day will focus on redefining the urban paradigm for future generations and empowering people to contribute to creative solutions that can improve our shared urban future. The first World Cities Day will give particular attention to innovations and new ideas to bring about the cities we need and the future we want. Through your partnership and support in raising awareness of events held over the years, we have kept the discussion on sustainable urbanization alive. We would like to invite you to join us in making Urban October a month where issues of sustainable urban development will be at the forefront of the global agenda, by organizing events and activities in your cities and raise awareness on the challenges that we need to address to improve human settlements worldwide. We encourage you to visit our website www.unhabitat.org where we have dedicated pages for the three main events and for more information and ideas on how you can engage your networks in this
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special month of celebrations. We also encourage you to follow the World Habitat Day on our social media channels under the hashtag #habitatday, as well as the Urban Thinkers Campus under the hashtag #urbanthinkers and the World Cities Day under the hashtag #citiesday. Special email addresses have been set up so that we can quickly respond to your queries. For World Habitat Day please contact whd@unhabitat.org, Urban Thinkers Campus advocacy@unhabitat.org and World Cities Day wcd@unhabitat.org. We look forward to you celebrating Urban October with us. Yours sincerely,
Dr. Joan Clos UN Under-‐Secretary-‐General and Executive Director, UN-‐Habitat