In collaboration with the City Diplomacy Lab, we organized two webinar series addressing critical urban challenges and showcasing innovative leadership from cities worldwide, fostering a platform for knowledge exchange and collaborative action.
The "Cities and Social Solutions" series, consisting of four webinars, explored the multifaceted social challenges faced by urban environments and the strategies implemented to address them. Delving into issues of social justice, gender, inclusion, and age, each webinar featured representatives from three cities across different continents, moderated by experts from Columbia University, ensuring a diverse and comprehensive discussion.
The first webinar on social justice brought together representatives from Leeds (United Kingdom), Durban (South Africa), and New Orleans (United States). They discussed inclusive growth, housing, employment, education, access to amenities, and support for families and young people. Following, a webinar on gender as part of our Women’s Month series featured city representatives from Buenos Aires (Argentina), Freetown (Sierra Leone), and Louisville (United States). The discussion centered on gender-based discrimination, feminist leadership, and care and well-being, emphasizing the need for gender equity in urban planning and governance.
On inclusion, representatives from Montevideo (Uruguay), Barcelona (Spain), and Gwangju (South Korea) addressed migrant and refugee integration, accessibility of municipal service creating inclusive cities, countering fake news, and promoting diversity. It underscored the role of cities in fostering inclusive communities and countering xenophobia. The final webinar on the theme of age featured Cardiff (United Kingdom), Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), and Cockburn (Australia). The discussion focused on child rights, participation of older adults in community life, healthy aging, and integrating age-related equity goals into urban planning. This webinar contributed to the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030), highlighting the need for age-friendly cities.
These webinars were organized in collaboration with the Leeds City Council and Global Leeds, the City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE), UNESCO’s International Coalition of Inclusive and Sustainable Cities (ICCAR), the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities, and The Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center.
The "Cities and Climate Solutions" series, launched in Spring 2023, focused on the urgent need for cities to address climate change. This second season, starting in November 2023, comprised three webinars on air, energy, and waste, and collaborations with the Columbia Global Centers in Nairobi, Santiago, and Mumbai.
The air webinar included representatives from Lagos (Nigeria), Leeds (United Kingdom), Mumbai (India), and Stockholm (Sweden), discussing air pollution monitoring, public health impacts, carbon neutrality, climate budgets, and equity. The energy webinar brought together Santiago (Chile), Braga (Portugal), and Nairobi (Kenya), focusing on just transition, energy poverty, urban renewable energy, building energy regulations, and energy retrofits. Lastly, the waste webinar featured Quelimane (Mozambique) and Montpellier (France), addressing waste management, reduction, valorization, public health, and the circular economy.
Both series celebrated the leadership of cities in addressing social and environmental challenges, providing inspiration for local governments worldwide committed to shaping a sustainable and equitable future. Through these webinars, we aimed to foster a global dialogue, encouraging cities to learn from each other's experiences and collaboratively develop innovative solutions to urban challenges.
Keep reading about this year’s events:
