Spotlight Newsletter | World Cities Day

This year, the theme of the United Nation's World Cities Day is 'Better City, Better life', with the sub-theme focusing on adapting cities for climate resilience. 

Urban areas, with a high concentration of population and economic activities, have been the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has “revealed the limitations and challenges of our urban environments” (UN Habitat), and made it clear that the health and economic impacts of COVID are intrinsically linked to both climate change and inequality. UN Secretary General António Guterres said “COVID-19 recovery and our planet’s repair can be two sides of the same coin” - we have an opportunity to focus the post-pandemic recovery on transforming cities to become more equitable, healthy, environmentally friendly, and resilient. 

We have an opportunity to rethink urban planning and management to make structural changes and institutional reforms that protect the most vulnerable and create a resilient, sustainable, and inclusive urban future for all.