WORLD URBAN FORUM III

Our Future: Sustainable Cities � Turning Ideas into Action.

The World Urban Forum, held every two years, was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization in a world where half of humanity lives in cities and where in the next 50 years that proportion is expected to reach two-thirds of the global population.

Most of this urban growth is taking place in developing countries where the major challenge is to combat poverty and provide better access to basic shelter and services, like clean water and sanitation. Cities in wealthier nations also face problems of urbanization-like crumbling infrastructure, smog and social exclusion. For cities North and South the challenge is to find solutions and size opportunities-that alleviate poverty in cities, reduce pollution and facilitate sustainable urban growth and development.

The Third Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF3) was hosted by the Government of Canada in partnership with UN-HABITAT and organized by the GLOBE Foundation. For five days, 10,000 participants from more than 100 nations discussed, debated and shared experiences about how to make our cities better places to live.

The Third Session of the World Urban Forum marked the 30th anniversary of the first United Nations conference on human settlements held in Vancouver in 1976, which led to the creation of UN-HABITAT.