The past few decades have seen a massive migration of the world's population from rural areas to cities. In places such as China and India, we're talking about hundreds of millions of people making the move. Every person has their own story and reasons for migrating to an urban area, but common themes are the search for better paid work, prosperity, and a desire to be more closely connected to the rest of the world. No doubt, cities are exciting places, but the volume of people moving to big cities, particularly in the developing world, is creating big challenges for governments and socities.

Today, we're right in the middle of this major change. In 2015, over half of the world's population lives in cities, and this is expected to rise to two thirds by 2050. For governments in developing countries, there often simply isn't enough money to plan ahead and install reliable infrastructure like water pipes, high capacity power lines, and broadband internet services. And many of the people coming in from rural areas bring little more than their hopes and dreams - they don't have the money to set themselves up in quality housing. This leads to the creation of slums; large urban areas where hundreds of thousands of people live in poverty, without access to basic services.

This is why we need to increasingly look to cities when thinking about the end of extreme poverty. Creating better conditions for the urban poor is going to be a key part of creating a future where everybody everywhere can survive and thrive. Partnerships between communities and government, affordable housing, future planning, and community services are all going to be needed to ensure that the world's cities remain engines of opportunities, and don't become a poverty trap.