The theme for Rio 2010, The right to the City– bridging the urban divide is in harmony with UN-HABITAT’s flagship report, State of the World’s Cities 2010-2011.
In the space of a few short years, the World Urban Forum has turned into the world’s premier conference on cities. The Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.
Since the first meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in 2002, the Forum has grown in size and stature as it travelled to Barcelona in 2004, Vancouver 2006, and Nanjing in 2008.
With half of humanity already living in towns and cities, it is projected that in the next 50 years, two-thirds of us will be living in towns and cities. A major challenge is to minimize burgeoning poverty in cities, improve access of the urban poor to basic facilities such as shelter, clean water and sanitation and to achieve environmentally friendly, sustainable urban growth and development. (UN-HABITAT web site)
I think we have to participate as rural youth in this forum because is not clear how MEGA cities will make it without the help of the country side. What do you thinK?