The Eleventh Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF11) is scheduled to take place for the first time in Central and Eastern Europe in Katowice, Poland from the 26th to 30th June 2022. The first World Urban Forum was hosted in Nairobi, Kenya in 2002 and since convened biennially across the world by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat. Katowice is a city known for rapidly transitioning itself from a former coal mine to an innovator in the green economy and high-tech sector. The forum will be hosted by the Polish Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy and the Katowice City Office with the theme of “Transforming our cities for a better urban future”.
The expo will draw participants from around the world including, government officials, urban planners, private sector representatives, academics, civil society and more. Cities will host promotional pavilions and engage with participants through the numerous scheduled events and workshops on topics surrounding sustainable urbanisation. There will be several overlapping dialogues taking place at Katowice and online on Equitable Urban Futures, Greener Urban Futures, Innovation and Technology, Future Urban Economy and Finance, Urban Planning and Governance, and Building Urban Resilience. In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the topic of rebuilding post-war cities and urban crisis recovery is included in the programme for WUF11.
There have been over 11,000 registrations for WUF11 to date with more expected to attend by the end of this month. Marcin Krupa, the Mayor of Katowice says the city as part of the event “has prepared additional attractions - tourist routes for delegates in the city. Each resident will be able to become a guide for our guests.”