WUF 2024

November 2024 is time for the biennial World Urban Forum, organised by UN-Habitat and intended to check in on worldwide urban development, guided by the 2030 Agenda and the New Urban Agenda. This year, the 12th World Urban Forum (WUF12) will take place in Cairo with the theme “It All Starts at Home: Local Actions for Sustainable Cities and Communities.” With a focus on localising the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 11, the conference will shed light on local actions and initiatives. 

The World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments traditionally occurs within the World Urban Forum. The United Nations General Assembly has officially recognised it for the role local and regional governments play in sustainable urban development and the implementation of the New Urban Agenda. It offers a mechanism through which local and regional governments provide inputs to the global agendas, building on the expertise of communities. This event will follow up on the commitments set forward during the high-level meeting on the review of the New Urban Agenda in New York in April 2022 and in WUF11 in Katowice 2022.

WUF12 will occur shortly after the UN Summit of the Future in 2024, marking the five-year line to deliver on the SDGs. Countless calls to collectively address global challenges like rising poverty and inequality, climate change, armed conflict, and the digital divide will be heard. While everyone agrees that sustainable cities and communities have a transformative role in implementing the 2030 Global Sustainable Agenda, the challenge is to scale up local solutions and ensure they are at the centre of global decisions. COP29, which will take place in Azerbaijan just days after the WUF, will influence ideas and decisions around climate adaptation and mitigation in cities – it is up to us to turn these impulses into action.