The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history: half of the world¿s people ¿ and half of the world¿s children ¿ live in cities today. Urbanization is linked with economic development: cities provide a critical concentration of people, investment and ideas, opportunities for exchange and economies of scale, which promote connections, growth and creativity, helping countries out of poverty. But while urban growth continues at great pace, adequate services and infrastructure do not automatically follow, with urgent implications for children. The State of the World¿s Children 2012 will shed light on the specific situation and challenges faced by children growing up in urban environments. It will demonstrate how cities, growing in number and scale around the world, can be seen as a microcosm for the equity-based approach. While urban outcomes for children¿s health, education and protection most often exceed those of rural settings within countries, such averages conceal the profound intra-urban disparities that hamper the life chances of millions of children. An analysis of deprivation within cities reveals wide gaps ¿ while cities provide the necessary services for some children to fulfil most of their rights, other children suffer major deprivations. Indeed, the report is expected to argue, some of the `hardest to reach¿ may in fact be the swelling numbers of the urban poor. The State of the World¿s Children 2012 will explore the challenges to child rights in a rapidly urbanized world marked by economic uncertainty, unemployment, increased prevalence of conflict, humanitarian emergencies and climate change. It will document and examine existing knowledge and programmatic approaches to the multiple and complex realities of urban poverty and deprivation. It will make a call for area-specific approaches, grounded in communities and in partnership with municipal authorities; and it will state the case for investment in decent living environments that will lead to better outcomes for children.