Nairobi, 5 November 2019—The deadline for cities and towns interested in hosting the next editions of either World Habitat Day or World Cities Day is on 2 December 2019.

The new Expression of Interests issued by UN-Habitat note the new deadline for host cities, and give a detailed timeline on the process used to choose the respective cities to host the two prestigious events.

This year saw a colourful global observance of the World Habitat Day in Mexico City on 7 October while the historic Russian city of Ekaterinburg played host to the World Cities Day about three weeks later on 31 October.

After the deadline, the outcome of selection process will be communicated to the cities on 16 December 2019 and the winning city and the sub theme will be announced at the Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10) to held in Abu Dhabi in February 2020.

The same process will be followed in identifying the city to host the World Cities Day 2020, according to the Expression of Interest.

WORLD HABITAT DAY 2020

The United Nations has designated every first Monday of October as World Habitat Day (WHD). UN-Habitat is the coordinating agency in the United Nations system to organize the annual Global Observance of the World Habitat Day, together with the host city. UN-Habitat is inviting cities to express their interest in hosting the Global Observance of the 2020 World Habitat Day which will be held on 5 October. As an open public event, WHD aims to raising awareness about and promote media coverage of the host city and chosen theme of the WHD.The host for World Habitat Day is the selected city together with UN-Habitat.

The purpose of World Habitat Day is to remind the world that we all have the power and the responsibility to reflect on the state of our cities and towns and to shape the future. Each year, World Habitat Day takes on a new theme to bring attention to UN-Habitat’s mandate and vision to promote sustainable urban development policies that ensure a better quality of life for all in an urbanizing world. World Habitat Day focuses on inspiring all levels of governments and stakeholders to reflect on how to implement concrete initiatives which ensure adequate and affordable housing in the context of the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, as well as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the standalone urban goal – SDG11, to make cities and human settlements safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.

For more information and how your town or city can apply please see here.

WORLD CITIES DAY 2020

The United Nations has designated every 31st of October as World Cities Day (WCD). UN-Habitat is the coordinating agency in the United Nations system to organize the annual Global Observation of World Cities Day, together with the host city. UN-Habitat is inviting cities to express their interest in hosting the global observation of the 2020 World Cities Day.

The general theme of World Cities Day is Better City, Better Life, while each year a different sub-theme and a location for its global observance is selected, to either promote successes of urbanization, or address specific challenges resulting from urbanization.

The main objective of WCD is to raise international awareness of urbanization trends, challenges and visions for sustainable urban development, to promote international cooperation and make contributions to the global efforts in building equitable, prosperous and sustainable cities and improving people’s living environment and quality.

For more information and how your city can apply please see here.