UNESCO contributes to an increase in knowledge of urban development in large cities through the analysis and dissemination of research findings on the social, cultural and economic development of depressed urban areas.
UNCHS (Habitat) has made the Global Urban Indicators Database available to all research institutions and qualified individuals around the world and invited them, in exchange, to provide their analyses of the results. A summary of all analyses will be published in a State of the World's Cities Report at the end of 1998. This open process of sharing information and analysis should lead to the production of an objective and critical report on urban conditions and on the use of quantitative information for urban policy involving peer and partners at all levels in the research community.