Welcome to the urban millennium.

• Position: Cities in the New Century - Brief Article

Whatever else this new century will bring us, one thing is certain--our future is linked to cities. Two hundred years ago, only 2 per cent of the world's population lived in urban areas. Five years from now, one half of the earth's 6 billion inhabitants will live in cities and towns. The environment for the majority of humanity will then be an urban one.

This new global reality presents a mixed blessing. For millennia, cities have been the booming centres of civilization. People have left the countryside for the city for as long as they have existed. And, still, it is the promise of a better life that drives the influx of villagers to towns and cities. Globalization has only intensified this trend. Today, the notion of a "global village" is giving way to the new concept of an emerging "urban archipelago" of competing cities, linked by an increasingly global economy. At the same time, rapid urbanization threatens to overwhelm cities, particularly in developing countries. Poverty will be an increasingly urban phenomenon. And the vast majority of the urban poor will be women and children. Especially in Africa and Asia, both still predominantly rural, the impending urban explosion poses a tremendous challenge to urban governance. These mega-cities will be urban nightmares for the poor seeking to find adequate shelter or access to the most basic services.

Recognizing the urgency of this urban challenge, the international community in 1996 convened the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul, where it adopted the Istanbul Declaration and the Habitat Agenda. With its complementary goals of adequate shelter for all and sustainable human settlements, the Habitat...