Report on the Second Session of the World Urban Forum

The World Urban Forum was organized and convened by the Executive Director
of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, pursuant to
paragraph 10 of resolution 18/5 of the Commission on Human Settlements in which the
Commission requested the Executive Director “to promote a merger of the Urban
Environment Forum and the International Forum on Urban Poverty into a new urban
forum, with a view to strengthening the co-ordination of international support to the
implementation of the Habitat Agenda.” Subsequently, the United Nations General
Assembly decided, in its resolution 56/206, that the Forum would be a “non-legislative
technical forum in which experts can exchange views in the years when the Governing
Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme does not meet.” At the
same session, the General Assembly, in paragraph 7 of its resolution 56/205, encouraged
local authorities and other Habitat Agenda partners to participate, as appropriate, in the
World Urban Forum in its role as an advisory body to the Executive Director of UNHABITAT.