World Marks Habitat Day

By Peter Omondi

Shanghai, China---The UN is celebrating World Habitat Day today. This year's theme Better City, Better Life, echoes that of the Shanghai World Expo and UN-HABITAT invites journalists and other professionals to raise awareness about the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all to adequate shelter.

 The Global Observance of World Habitat Day is being held in Shanghai, China.  Hosted by China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Urban and Rural Construction and Transport, the day’s events will be held at the prestigious Hua Ting Hotel.

The morning’s programme will include presentation of the Scroll of Honour Award by UN-HABITAT, World Habitat Awards by the Building and Social Housing Foundation and national awards by the Chinese authorities.

The celebrations will also see the launch of the State of Asian Cities and State of Chinese Cities reports and the unveiling of UN-HABITAT’s Chinese website, recognition of the country’s growing importance on the world stage.

After the celebrations, participants will have the opportunity to experience the UN Pavilion at the World Expo, themed One World, One UN where UN-HABITAT is planning a week-long programme of events ranging from concerts to photo exhibitions, films and discussions on a wide range of urban topics.  The agency will also launch the UrbanGateway, a new global on-line urban portal to facilitate knowledge exchange, collaboration and networking among Habitat Agenda partners

There are also many local events being organized in cities across the world, for example celebrations will take place in cities such as Nakuru, Kenya; Barcelona, Spain; Kolkata, India, among others.