World Cities Day: October 31

The World Cities Day is observed every year across the world on 31st October to work together for planned and sustainable urban life in the wake of rapid growth of population and problems.

Key Facts

The observance of this day aims to promote international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world. The global observation of 2018 World Cities Day was celebrated in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
2018 Sub-theme: ‘Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities’. It aims to highlight importance to support cities  to become resilient and develop their capacity to absorb impact of hazards, protect and preserve human life and limit damage to and destruction of public and private assets while continuing to provide infrastructure and services after crisis.

Background

The World Cities Day was established by United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) by passing resolution 68/239 in December 2013. This day was constituted in recognition of significance of urban basic services as foundation for overall social and economic development. The general theme of World Cities Day is “Better City, Better Life”, to promote successes of urbanization and address specific challenges resulting from urbanization, while each year  different sub-theme is selected to either promote successes of urbanization or to address specific challenges resulting from urbanization. The first World Cities Day is celebrated in Shanghai, China on 31 October 2014 under sub-theme “Leading Urban Transformations”.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2018