Global Civil Society & the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Sustainable Cities & Communities


Goal 11 is about making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Cities represent the future of global living. The world’s population reached 8 billion on 2022 over half living in urban areas. This figure is only expected to rise, with 70 per cent of people expected to live in cities by 2050. Approximately 1.1 billion people currently live in slums or slum-like conditions in cities, with 2 billion more expected in the next 30 years.

However many of these cities are not ready for this rapid urbanisation, and it outpaces the development of housing, infrastructure and services, which led to a rise in slums or slum-like conditions.

Urban sprawl, air pollution and limited open public spaces persist in cities.

Good progress has been made since the implementation of the SDGs began in 2015, and now the number of countries with national and local disaster risk reduction strategies has doubled. But issues still remain and in 2022, only half of the urban population had convenient access to public transport.

Sustainable development cannot be achieved without significantly transforming the way urban spaces are built and managed.

Name Acronym Founded City HQ Country/Territory HQ Type I Type II

World Organization of the Scout Movement

WOSM 1907 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia B

World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments

UCLG 2004 Barcelona Spain B

World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies

WOCAT 1992 Bern Switzerland K

World Packaging Organisation

WPO 1968 Vienna Austria C y

World PCO Alliance

2009 Tokyo Japan D

World Pharmacists

1997 Athens Greece G v

World Pheasant Association

WPA 1975 Hexham UK E v

World Rainforest Movement

WRM 1986 Montevideo Uruguay F

World Rescue Organisation

WRO 1999 Glasgow UK C

World Resources Forum Association

WRFA 2012 St Gallen Switzerland E y

World Safety and Accidents Prevention Congress

Manila Philippines S c

World Safety Organization

WSO 1975 Warrensburg MO USA F

World Seabird Union

WSU 2010 Clemson SC USA C y

World Seismic Safety Initiative

WSSI 1993 Singapore Singapore K

World Shiology Forum

WSF 2017 Beijing China J

World Sindhi Institute

WSI 1997 Washington DC USA G j

World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization

WeGO Seoul Korea Rep B

World Society for Ekistics

WSE 1963 Pune India C v

World Society for Transport and Land Use Research

WSTLUR Montréal QC Canada C

World Society of Victimology

WSV 1979 Holden Hill SA Australia C

world stainless association

worldstainless 1995 Brussels Belgium F y

World Student Community for Sustainable Development

WSC-SD 2002 Cambridge MA USA F

World Sturgeon Conservation Society

WSCS 2003 Neu Wulmstorf Germany D

World Summit on Accessible Tourism

S c

World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance

1992 London UK F

World Toilet Association

WTA 2007 Suwon Korea Rep D

World Toilet Organization

WTO 2001 Singapore Singapore D

World Tourism Alliance

WTA 2017 Beijing China C

World Tourism Association

WTA 2014 Gwangju Korea Rep C

World Tourism Cities Federation

WTCF 2012 Beijing China C

World Tourism Education and Research Centre

WTERC 1989 Calgary AB Canada G

World Tourism Forum

Salvador Brazil F

World Tourism Forum Lucerne

Lucerne Switzerland G

World Tourism Network

WTN 2020 Honolulu HI USA B y

World Transporter Bridges Association

2003 D

World Travel & Tourism Council

WTTC 1990 London UK F v

World Union for Progressive Judaism

WUPJ 1926 Jerusalem Israel C v

World Union of Olympic Cities

2002 Lausanne Switzerland E

World Urban Campaign

WUC Nairobi Kenya E

World Urban Parks

2015 Edmonton AB Canada C

World Villages for Children

1964 London UK N

World Waterpark Association

WWA 1980 Overland Park KS USA G

World Wide Hearing

WWHearing 2003 Montréal QC Canada E

World Winter Cities Association for Mayors

WWCAM 1982 Sapporo Japan D

World Women's Security Council

WWSC J p

World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls

WWGBP 1970 E

World Young Women's Christian Association

World YWCA 1855 Le Grand-Saconnex Switzerland B

World's Children

1965 Corvallis OR USA N

WorldFish

1975 Bayan Lepas Malaysia E

Worldwide Collaborations on Autism Needs

WeCAN Singapore Singapore N

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