World Cities Day 2016 for More Inclusive Cities

This year, the World Cities Day was celebrated under the theme  of inclusive Cities, Shared Development in line with the implementation of the outcome document of the Habitat III Conference-the New Urban Agenda-that promotes the concept of “cities for all” and emphasizes the importance of social inclusion in cites to make urbanization a driving force of global development.

This October, WCD is identified as one of important existing initiatives related to the implementation of New Urban Agenda adopted by the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development （HabitatIII）。

In China, The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China （MOHURD）， in collaboration with UN-Habitat and Fujian Provincial Government, held an event with a special focus on global sustainable urbanization in Xiamen.

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, and dr. Joan Clos, UN-Habitat Executive Director, opened the World Cities Day Forum with video messages emphasizing that the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda, recently adopted in Quito, are very important to make better, sustainable, inclusive and peaceful cities.

ISOCARP Vice President UPATs Martin Dubbeling was invited to present how the activities and the motto of ISOCARP ‘Knowledge for better Cities’ contribute to the enhancement of Inclusive Cities and Shared Development. In his keynote speech he stated that there are no other disciplines than urban planning and urban design that have the capacity to implement most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. To illustrate this statement he presented the results of the UPAT workshops in China and Palestine.