WOBO, as a partner, is pleased to present you with an update from UN-Habitat on Urban October 2021 and provide information on joining the Global Observance of World Cities Day on Sunday.

Throughout the month of October, national, local, and regional governments and other urban stakeholders organised a wide array of activities to advocate and mobilize action towards a better urban future. Partners have already posted over 260 Urban October events here.

Urban October started with World Habitat Day (WHD) celebrated on Monday, 4 October 2021 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. During the Opening Ceremony alone we had over 750 participants in person and online with over 500 following the livestream. Videos from the day are on UN-Habitat’s YouTube and photos can be found here.

The day really contributed to focusing worldwide attention on the theme of WHD this year which was Accelerating urban action for a carbon-free world. This clearly demonstrates the high interest in enhancing the role of cities in the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Urban October will conclude with the Global Observance of the World Cities Day (WCD) in Luxor, Egypt on 31 October 2021 with discussions on the theme Adapting Cities for Climate Resilience. We would welcome your attendance at the high-level opening in the morning and to actively join the online discussion during the four roundtables in the afternoon while asking questions. Here is the WCD programme, the registration link which we would request you to also share with your network to help make World Cities Day a success. For more information about Urban October please visit https://urbanoctober.unhabitat.org.

We would very much appreciate support from all stakeholders to organize events which highlight urban opportunities, challenges, and solutions during Urban October. Advocacy activities may range from awarding best practices, discussion forums on urban themes, media events, site visits, to e-campaigns and launches of new urban programmes or policy, with more ideas available in this toolkit.  UN-Habitat has developed concept notes, climate crisis key messages and branding resource to support events. You are welcome to post your Urban October event and thereafter share your report about the event in order to have your event reflect in the official UN-Habitat 2021 Urban October report.