The theme of this year’s World Habitat Day on Monday 2 October 2006 is Cities, magnets of hope.

This theme, chosen by the United Nations, is to remind all of us that the world is witnessing the greatest migration in its history of people into towns and cities. In 1950, one-third of the world’s people lived in cities. Just 50 years later, this rose to one-half and will continue to grow to two-thirds, or 6 billion people, by 2050. Cities are now home to half of humankind.

The Global Observance of this year’s World Habitat Day will take place in Naples, Italy on 2 October 2006. Please see the programme.  Major celebrations will also take place in Kazan in the Russian Federation on 4 October 2006.   In Kenya, World Habitat Day celebrations will be held in Eldoret by the host Government. These are but a few examples of some of the celebrations around the world.