UN World Cities Day is an international day of celebration when we mark the importance and potential of the globe's urban areas. 

This year’s global observance is planned in Shanghai, China under the theme "Act Local to Go Global." The United Nations want to bring different partners and diverse stakeholders together to share their experiences and approaches to local action, what local action worked and what is needed to empower local and regional governments to create greener, more equitable and sustainable cities.

Local action is critical to achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030. UN-Habitat has been at the forefront of SDG localization since the very endorsement of the 2030 Agenda. Since then, UN-Habitat has been working to advance SDG localization by providing technical expertise to partners across the globe, by leading the development of cutting-edge research, by capacitating local and regional governments on SDG localization, and by strengthening the voice of local governments and local actors within the main international and UN-led fora on SDGs.