Towns In A Rural World

Download or read book The State of the World's Cities, 2001 written by United Nations Centre for Human Settlements and published by UN-HABITAT. This book was released on 2001 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities are now home to nearly half of the world's population, and the issue of sustainable development is one of the most pressing challenges facing the international community in the 21st century. This publication is the first in-depth attempt to monitor and analyse the realities faced by urban populations around the world. It explores a range of issues, trends and policy responses in five major areas relating to: shelter, society, environment, economy and governance. It introduces the 'City Development Index', which has been developed by the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat). Over time, this should become a standard monitoring tool used to track regional, national and city level progress towards implementing the Habitat Agenda. The report concludes that local democracy is a key factor for the future of all cities.