World Cities Day 2023: History, significance and theme

Promoting sustainable urban development has necessitated due to the rapid urbanisation in today’s modern world across countries. Improving the living environment in cities and urban areas, while minimising the effects of urbanisation on the environment, has led to establishment of a special day to initiate various actions for sustainable development.

World Cities Day is observed on October 31 every year to highlight the urgency of international cooperation to address the challenges of urbanisation globally. The day was established by the United Nations in 2014.

The main event of World Cities Day takes place in a different city each year and the day focuses on a specific theme. The host city for World Cities Day 2023 event is the Municipality of Uskudar in Istanbul, Turkiye.

During its session dated December 27, 2013, the UNGA passed a resolution establishing World Cities Day. The first celebrations took place on October 31, 2014. This global day was created to implement the outcome of the UN Conference on Human Settlements held in 1976.

The next year marked the introduction of the UN-Habitat programme for the sustainable development of the cities aligned to the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11). Urban October is an annual programme that begins on the first Monday of October and ends on October 31, which coincides with World Cities Day.

Urbanisation, being the indicator of national economic growth, is also accompanied by some social, economic, demographic and environmental challenges. These include displacement of original inhabitants, deforestation, loss of wildlife habitats, health problems, food problems, and pollution, among others. World Cities Day acts as a place for all the actors concerned with local and international township development to meet.

The World Cities Day 2023 theme is ‘Financing a Sustainable Urban Future for all’ which looks into the ways of implementing the transformative ways in urban planning and the required fiscal decentralisation. As part of the World Cities Day activities, the UN bodies and several international organisations host various events to raise awareness about the challenges of urbanisation.