Nairobi, 4 February 2020 - Cabinet ministers, captains of industry, mayors, United Nations agencies, academics, students and urban planners are converging on Abu Dhabi on Saturday for Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF10).

More than 18,000 people from across the globe have registered to attend the meeting which runs from 8 – 13 February.

Those who have confirmed their participation so far include about 75 Ministers and Deputy Ministers, high-level representatives from 15 UN agencies, award-winning architects, and nearly 70 mayors and governors from across the globe.

There will be around 500 events with some 225 speakers with the majority (55 per cent) being women.

From business there are representatives from Urban Tech Partnerships Mastercard, Sidewalk Labs Standard Chartered, and HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd.

Award winning architects including Prof. Jason Pomeroy, Founding Principal Pomeroy Studio and Pomeroy Academy United Kingdom, and Sandra Piesik will attend.

Academics include Richard Sennett, Professor of Urban Studies Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London, Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies, London School of Economics, Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, Wendy Pullan, Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies, University of Cambridge, and Richard Sennet, Centennial Professor of Sociology, London School of Economics, Prof. Chris Webster, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at The University of Hong Kong.

Penny Abeywardena, Commissioner, New York City Mayor's Office for International Affairs will attend along with Fabrizio Hochschild, Special Adviser on 75th UN Anniversary Unit and Luis Monreal General Manager, Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Youth leaders are well represented including Leah Namugerwa who is the Team Leader Fridays Future from Uganda and Isaac Musasa community leader from Kenya.

From Africa Union is Hafsa Maalim. Hafsa currently serves as a Policy Analyst for International IDEA seconded to the African Union Peace and Security Department. She works on a number of thematic areas such as climate-security and women, youth in peace and security, with a special focus on the Horn of Africa.

From Malaysia we have Hamdan Bin Abdul Majeed, Managing Director Think City Sdn Bhd MALAYSIA. Majeed is the Managing Director of Think City, a social purpose organization with the mission of making cities more people-friendly, resilient and liveable. Also attending is Branding Shanghai President Jasmine Pang who used to work for the Information Office of Shanghai Municipal Government, Shanghai Publicity Department, Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and Expo Shanghai Group. Jasmine was also a key member of the successful bidding of UN World Cities Day, a spiritual legacy of the Shanghai World Expo, and is dedicated to promoting the WCD worldwide.