Public space: Integrating urban ‘living rooms’ into global development
- 2015-10-21
- Citiscope
NEW YORK — Outdoor film screenings in Nairobi, geotagged photos of Philippine public spaces in need of some care, debates about sustainable cities in Lima, paeans to the city from a Nobel laureate in New York. These are just some of the activities that have taken place thus far during Urban October, the month designated by UN-Habitat to celebrate all matters urban.
Kicked off by World Habitat Day on 5 October and closed out by World Cities Day on 31 October, the month of events also marks one year until the Habitat III conference on urbanization, which will take place 17-20 October 2016 in Quito. That event will see world leaders, local authorities and civil society convene in the Ecuadorean capital to hash out the final details of the New Urban Agenda, the 20-year global strategy that will come out of Habitat III.
The one-year mark has also seen preparations for the conference ramp up in earnest. Earlier this month, metropolitan areas were on the agenda at a two-day thematic meeting in Montréal. This week, the Asia-Pacific region, which comprises over half of the world’s population and many of its largest urban areas, will discuss how the unique urbanization needs of that part of the world will find their way into the New Urban Agenda.