This year the international community has a number of opportunities to try and get to grips with some of the most powerful demographic forces changing the face of poverty and development and to forge a new urban agenda.
Today, more people live in cities than in rural areas, and the migration of people from towns and villages to cities will only accelerate in the coming years.
In October, world leaders will convene at Habitat III, the first Habitat summit for two decades, to consider how investments in the global built environment can be more responsive and better aligned to the realities of where people live today — and where they will live tomorrow.