The Urban Thinkers Campus is an initiative of UN-Habitat conceived as an open space for critical exchange between urban researchers, professionals, and decision-makers who believe that urbanization is an opportunity and can lead to a positive transformation. It is also intended as a platform to build consensus between partners engaged in addressing urbanization challenges and proposing solutions for the urban future.

Based on the theme “The City We Need,” the Campus was meant to bring together urban thinkers and established UN-Habitat partner organizations and constituencies to reflect on current urban challenges and trends and to propose a new paradigm as a contribution to the New Urban Agenda to be delivered at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III, 2016).