World Habitat Day
23 September 2009
October 5, 2009 Since 1986, the first Monday of October every year has been designated by the United Nations as World Habitat Day.
The idea is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all people to adequate shelter, and to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

For the year 2009 the United Nations chose the theme Planning our urban future to raise awareness on the need to improve urban planning in order to deal with new major challenges of the 21st century.
In both developed and developing countries in fact, cities and towns are increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, resource depletion, food insecurity, population growth and economic instability. Many developing countries will, in addition, continue to experience rapid rates of urbanization, along with its most serious negative consequences - overcrowding, poverty, slums with many poorly equipped to meet the service demands of ever growing urban populations. With over half of the world’s population currently living in urban areas, and this number set to rise to two-thirds in another generation, there is no doubt that the ‘urban agenda’ will increasingly become a priority for governments, local authorities and their non-governmental partners everywhere.
This is why urban planning needs to be given a fresh focus starting on World Habitat Day 2009. We already know the problems, but we need to share the best solutions as efficiently and widely as possible by planning better and more sensitively for ourselves and our environment."
 

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