World Cities Day

The 31st of October is celebrated as World Cities Day. The aim is to promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, enhance cooperation among countries and cities in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contribute to sustainable urban development. The overall World Cities Day theme is Better City, Better Life.

As an outcome of the Shanghai International Expo 2010, the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 68/239 of 27 December 2013, designated every 31 October as World Cities Day.

World Cities Day 2023

The theme for 2023 is Financing a sustainable urban future for all.

When planned responsibly, and based on sound - but not necessarily exhaustive - cost/benefit analysis, and when supported by adequate regulations, the financing and development of infrastructure can be used as an engine for the development of institutions, policies, and capacities at all levels and across all sectors of governance.

To this end, the mandates of all levels and sectors of government should be clear and without gaps or overlaps. All relevant levels and sectors of government must be involved in making decisions on investment, instead of only those involved in collecting taxes and other revenues.

It is crucial to improve the effectiveness of managing urban development through better collaboration between different levels and sectors of government. Furthermore, the success of efforts to decentralize responsibilities to subnational levels is highly dependent on existing governance systems and traditions, even if they are supported by fiscal devolution and authority of sub-sovereign borrowing.

Urban planning is crucial to prepare for the orderly expansion of cities to guide investment, prepare subdivisions of land and install skeletal infrastructure before building. Retrofitting informally built areas is complex and much more expensive.

Responding to the surge in urban population seems to result in either the time-consuming process of building capabilities to harmonize goals and collaborate effectively, or a tendency to address the urgency by developing infrastructure without any consideration of the former. However, infrastructure development cannot be put on hold while perfect policies and institutions are put in place. These ends need not be mutually exclusive: investment in urban development does not have to be withheld until fully capable institutions are in place, nor do governments need to resort to "non-invasive" planning and building of urban infrastructure regardless of institutions and policies.

Key messages

• With nearly 70% of the world’s population living in cities by 2050, the future of humanity is urban. 
• In most countries, local and regional governments are responsible for coordinating and delivering basic services, which are critical for ensuring communities’ wellbeing and development.
• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 goals offer the best framework to address the world’s most pressing challenges. More than the 65% of the SDG targets are related to the work and mandate of local governments.
• Local action and local leadership are critical to addressing the current global crises and to foster sustainable recovery and development.
• The success to address the current and future challenges and to redirect our world towards more sustainable paths will depend on increased capacities of local and regional governments.

Urban resilience

With over half of the population living in urban areas and the numbers increasing daily, cities are facing unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, social and spatial challenges. Cities are centres of innovation and investment and are pivotal for economic growth and development. At the same time, cities are vulnerable to severe impacts from a range of challenges, shocks and stresses that can be both natural and human made

Urban Resilience is the measurable ability of any urban system, with its inhabitants, to maintain continuity through all shocks and stresses, while positively adapting and transforming toward sustainability. A Resilient City assesses, plans and acts to prepare and respond to hazards - natural and human-made, sudden and slow-onset, expected and unexpected - in order to protect and enhance people’s live, secure development gains, foster an environment for investment, and drive positive change.

Major challenges to resilience include economic, environmental, cultural, civic and disaster mitigation and recovery.

Characteristics of a Resilient City

1. Persistent : A persistent city anticipates impacts in order to prepare for current and future shocks and stresses. It builds robustness by incorporating coping mechanisms to withstand disturbances and protect people and assets. It encourages redundancy in its networks by generating spare capacity and back-ups to maintain and restore basic services, ensuring reliability during and after disruption.
2. Adaptable : An adaptable city considers not only foreseeable risks, but also accepts current and future uncertainty. It diversifies its services, functions and processes by establishing alternatives and is resourceful in its capacity to repurpose human, financial and physical capital. It is flexible and can absorb, adjust and evolve in the face of changing circumstances, dynamically responding by turning change into opportunity.
3. Inclusive : An inclusive city centres on people by understanding that being resilient entails protecting each person from any negative impact. Recognising that people in vulnerable situations are among the most affected by hazards, it actively strives towards social inclusion by promoting equality, equity and fulfilment of human rights. It fosters social cohesion and empowers comprehensive and meaningful participation in all governance processes in order to develop resilient city.

Source : UN