Indeed, the World Urban Campaign is here. It is still in its infancy and will need many more nudges to keep it on track, but this week saw the birth of a campaign that hopes to soon be on par with other successful global campaigns.

The World Urban Campaign steering committee meeting brought together members of the United Nations, civil society, the private sector, government and others who, together, form the partnership-based foundation of the campaign. Their goal is to ensure that the campaign serves the better, wider good while addressing the more detailed issues that can get us there. Among the key concerns discussed was the need to collaborate on matters of policy. Civil society felt that it needed a table at the global agenda table. There was also an appeal for the need to develop and make better use of best practices. So much experience lies in wait ready to be shared.

Though the campaign is under way at the partner level, it has not yet made its grand entrance on the world stage. Many options were discussed but key among them was the probability of presenting the campaign to the media and the wider stakeholder community during the upcoming World Urban Forum in Nairobi next March 2010.

The meeting was expertly led by UN-Habitat's senior strategic advisor Nicholas You with the support of many key partners including mondofragilis group president Giray. As a point of order, the gathering was sensitised to the fact that Giray wrote the first major strategy document for the Campaign late last year. We wish the campaign well and hereby announce our own intention to continue supporting it as best we can. People need water, sanitation, transport infrastructures and more. But cities also need us all to realise that the city is not necessarily just the problem, it is also the solution.

One closing note, when it came to climate change, the gathering was unanimously supportive of the notion that the city was also the solution to climate change. A daring proposition, at first sight, but clearly an obvious statement when one realises that 75% of the world's energy is consumed in cities.