The tenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10)

The World Urban Forum (WUF) was established by the United Nations in 2001 to address one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies. Convened by UN-Habitat, the Forum is a high level, open and inclusive platform for addressing the challenges of sustainable urbanization.

Since 2002, UN-Habitat has been organizing a World Urban Forum every two years. Likewise, every two decades, UN-Habitat convenes a conference on human settlements (Habitat I, 1976; Habitat II, 1996; and Habitat III, 2016). As a result of the Habitat III Conference, the New Urban Agenda (NUA) was adopted, which will serve as the guide for cities ’ and territories’ sustainable development over the next 20 years.

Habitat III was the first UN-Habitat global conference that took place since the approval of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Indeed, the NUA is being implemented in accordance with the SDGs, especially SDG 11 (“Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”).

In its tenth edition, the World Urban Forum has become the foremost international gathering for exchanging views and experiences on sustainable urbanization in all its ramifications. 

The objectives of the World Urban Forum are:

In line with the objectives of the World Urban Forum, the Government of Catalonia, the Diputació de Barcelona, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and the Barcelona City Council are present at the tenth session of the WUF, which is taking place in Abu Dhabi from 8 to 13 February at the National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC, no. 106, hall 7). Under the slogan ‘Catalonia, when ideas become actions’, the key projects underway in Catalonia in the fields of healthy cities, urban well-being, urban quality and housing, prosperity and innovation, climate change and good governance will be presented.