The lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers will radically improve by 2020 if the promise of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7-to ensure environmental sustainability-is kept. The mere thought of it is very encouraging, but the work that remains is daunting.

In a massive show of solidarity, over 10,000 academics, non-governmental agencies, urban planners, local authorities and community organizations met in Vancouver, Canada to take part in the third session of the World Urban Forum (WUF III). Their focus-"Our Future: Sustainable Cities: Turning Ideas into Action"-is a rallying call for the international community to swiftly invest in sustainable urban development.

Slum populations continue to grow in the developing world

From 19 to 23 June 2006, participants debated, networked and strategized against the proliferation of urban slums. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and the Government of Canada hosted WUF III-a gathering that included over 150 events on the themes of urban growth and management, partnership, finance and social inclusion and cohesion, ranging from a Global Youth Forum that included a hip-hop concert designed to attract the youth and students, to exhibits of posters, paintings, films, publications and architectural models-all related, one way or another, to the need for urban development. In addition, a showcase presented state-of-the-art sustainable urbanization projects, case studies and cultural events from a number of countries.

A series of dialogues and round-table meetings was held throughout the week for dignitaries and key partners. The plenary session was opened with a keynote speech by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and ended with the tabling and presentation of a report on key areas. Open dialogue sessions and over 160 networking events touched on a variety of pertinent issues, such as city energy sources, sustainable transport, adequate housing and achieving the MDGs. Experts acknowledged that cities drive national economies, generate development, create markets and offer more facilities. As a result, the health of urban dwellers is better, educational attainment is higher and per capita income is greater than those living in rural settings. However, recent data show that this progress is undercut by pollution, habitat insecurity, disease, extreme poverty and social inequalities.

In the State of the World's Cities Report 2006/7, UN-HABITAT presented for the first time disaggregated data comparing slums to rural areas and higher-income city neighbourhoods. The report reveals that the slum poor die young, access to education remains a myth for the majority of slum dwellers, and in several low-income countries four out of ten slum children are malnourished. In response to its findings, government ministers, academics and city planning experts during the round-table meetings focused on "how to manage cities better" for the benefit of the urban populations and the environment.

Another topic that received considerable attention at the forum was the propagation of "megacities". UN-HABITAT reported that there were 19 cities with a population of over 10 million in 2000 and it is expected to increase to 23 cities by 2015. The disadvantages of urbanization are most pronounced within megacities in the developing world-Lagos, Dhaka, Buenos Aires, Calcutta and Jakarta have all made the list. This environmental strain has been well-documented. The problem of pollution also gained the attention of scientists at the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which has undertaken a field study called "Megacity Impact of Regional and Global Environments" (MIRAGE) that will investigate the impact of megacity air pollution on human health and the climate.

Urban outdoor air pollution kills 3 million people each year, while 1 million children die from indoor pollution, with the burning of biomass fuel-firewood, charcoal, crop residues and animal dung-as the primary cause. Still, the realities of polluted water, inadequate sanitation and improper disposal of waste are pervasive environmental concerns. According to a 2000 UN-HABITAT report, more than 830 million people in the Asia Pacific region did not have access to safe drinking water and more than 2 billion lacked sanitation facilities. For sub-Saharan Africa, the findings were even dimmer: in 2000, over 300 million people did not have access to safe drinking water and over 500 million were without adequate sanitation.

The plight of women and children, who constitute the vast majority of those living in urban slums, was also discussed at WUF III. Today, most big cities struggle to find long-term solutions to social disparities resulting from gender inequality. "Slum-upgrading is also about women's empowerment-giving land rights to women and recognizing their efforts, reversing inherited disadvantages and recognizing that the majority of those living in slums are women and the children they support-the single mothers struggling on their own", UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka told the UN Chronicle.

Women's rights and environmental degradation were also addressed in training sessions that brought together expert urban planners and community organizations, and included lessons on "how to localize the MDGs", "how to manage air quality in your city", "how to have inclusive governance in conflict cities" and "how to overcome barriers: housing and HIV/AIDS". According to Ms. Tibaijuka, "people living in cities around the world will largely outnumber those living in rural areas in the coming 30 years. If current trends continue, extreme urban poverty is set to double in that period to 2 billion people. It must be recognized that urbanization is an integral part of the structural changes that accompany economic development."

When asked about the progress and challenges of convening the World Urban Forum, Ms. Tibaijuka praised the UN-HABITAT success in raising the forum's profile, stating that her challenge would be to transform this awareness into financial investments. "Looking back on my tenure, over the last five years we've succeeded in bringing urban slum issues into the public domain, which was not the case. We have upgraded the organization, which was just a small centre that had no convening power or visibility, and we are now moving to the next stage, that is, to strengthen investment mechanisms, because improving housing and urban infrastructure is a resource-intensive task that must involve the financial sector." But for finances to flow in this direction, she explained, "we have to raise awareness of the problem", and in order to mobilize support, knowledge must be disseminated. "Without statistics-the disaggregated data-you will not be able to move policies and investment resources in the right direction. But without information you cannot administrate any agenda", she added.

Focused on a two-prong approach-integration and prevention-UN-HABITAT officials say they are looking to eliminate slums by upgrading existing ones and preventing the creation of new ones through better urban planning and better supervision. The World Urban Forum-a marketplace for sharing best practices-has grown at an overwhelming speed, from 1,200 in the first meeting, to 4,000 in Barcelona and now over 10,000 in Vancouver; and the location for WUF IV has already been confirmed, in Nanjing, China in 2008. "Here, at the Vancouver forum, we are making an audit-an inventory of where we were in 1976 and where we are now. Definitely, we didn't have one billion slum dwellers in 1976, but we have them now. This transition into the urban millennium has launched a new phrase, where we say 'it can't be business as usual, we must get our act together to change the conditions of those living in urban slums'," Ms. Taibajuka concluded.

In commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of UN-HABITAT, the Forum also included an exhibition that outlined the Programme's history, beginning with the 1976 Conference (Habitat I) in Vancouver, where world leaders' attention for the first time was focused on the human cost of rapid urbanization. The city has become a hub for those dedicated to sustainable urban development. "It was in Vancouver 30 years ago that the agency today, called UN-HABITAT, was born", said Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka, who was one of the noteworthy speakers at the forum that included the likes of Miloon Kothari, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Evelyn Herfkens, Millennium Campaign Executive Coordinator, and Frannie Léautier, Vice President of the World Bank Institute. "It is therefore auspicious that the third session of the World Urban Forum meets in Vancouver to examine the theme, turning new ideas into action for a sustainable urban environment. This session brings together many strands of global cooperation and bridge-building by providing a forum for dialogue that promotes universal values, such as tolerance, freedom, justice and equal rights", according to Ms. Tibaijuka. Since the Forum's start in 2002, it has flourished and today is the largest international gathering of minds assessing the topic of urbanization. And as the forum has grown-attendance in 2006 was at its highest-so has the amount of research on urbanization and sustainability.