HLP III: Sustainable Cities and Communities

The session will focus on the main drivers of sustainable urbanization, including the need for integrated
solutions across key sectors such as water and infrastructure and socio-economic areas responsible for
delivering key services in water, health, gender equality, and well-being.

More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban settings and urbanization is expected to
persist and intensify in years to come. As a result, cities will be either drivers of, or barriers to sustainable
development. The services and infrastructure created to respond to the needs and demands of urban
residents will be drivers of not only consumption, consumption patterns, and production, but also of the
demand for global resources. Decisions taken at the level of cities, will, to a great extent, influence the
development path for decades to come.

Participants will discuss the urgent need to find innovative financing mechanisms in a financial resource
constrained environment, and to prevent investments in non-sustainable infrastructure that can cause
lock-in for decades and thereby seriously compromise the overall success of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development.

docum: WHO Presentation, Session Summary