New York, 18 May 2016 – The World Cities Report 2016, Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures, was launched in New York to an audience of partners, government representatives, stakeholders and the media. During the launch, which took place at the Ford Foundation and was directly supported by International City Leaders, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat, Dr Joan Clos, said: “Cities have a transformative power. A New Urban Agenda is required to effectively address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities offered by urbanization.”

Report coordinator, UN-Habitat’s Eduardo Moreno gave a brief summary of the key findings of the report, highlighting the importance that changes noted since the Habitat II conference in 1996 would play in developing the New Urban Agenda and the approach to urbanization beyond the Habitat III conference later this year. Reza Pourvaziry, President of International City Leaders, who worked as one of the main partners in the production of the World Cities Report 2016, said that the New Urban Agenda should advance the human rights agenda and the global movement to promote cities.

Norway is a key donor of both the report and UN-Habitat and Elin-May Stener, Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN highlighted in her remarks some of the impacts of ill-planned cities being felt around the world with poor air quality now the world’s second biggest cause of death.Josep Roig, Secretary-General of Cities and Local Government (UCLG) also spoke.

For the first time, the report is available for electronic download through a dedicated App and can be accessed through http://appstore.unhabitat.org/# while the report can be downloaded by chapter along with accompanying press kit and visual media through http://wcr.unhabitat.org