High Level Roundtable with Academia on Quality of Life Initiative

Representatives from over 20 world renowned universities will meet for the High Level Roundtable with Academia to discuss improving quality of life in towns and cities as part of UN-Habitat’s Quality of Life Initiative. The two day meeting opens on World Cities Day at the World Urban Pavilion in Toronto, Canada. The high level academics will discuss the concept of quality of life – its origin, evolution, constitutive elements, and recent changes – and how it can be measured, incorporated into public policies and used to advance local development and global agendas including the SDGs. The Academia Roundtable is part of continuing consultations held by the Quality of Life Initiative which includes Expert Group Meetings, side events at international conferences, a Call for Papers, publications and Policy Briefs. The Quality of Life Initiative aims to develop a comprehensive, human-centric concept of quality of life including objective and subjective aspects and to promote it as a primary urban development goal. A globally relevant, locally applicable index is being developed creating a new, global standard to enable local governments to monitor their policy and investment decisions which tangibly improve the urban quality of life over time.