Metropolis News • General Secretariat
Number11••2014
2014
Number
Englishversion
version
English
Newsletter
Metropolis starts strategic
planning for the coming years
This week, between February 3rd and 5th, representatives of Metropolis member cities, partners and the Secretariat
General staff were gathered in the Province of Barcelona to discuss the next action plan of the association, which will be
implemented from 2015 to 2017.
The outcome of the three-day meeting was the definition of the main priorities of Metropolis in the coming years: strengthen and develop new Metropolis initiatives; establish an agenda with thematic areas of action; increase the number of
members and their engagement in the association; reinforce the exchange between cities so that experiences are transferable; foster the Metropolis Women network to prioritize gender equality; build the Metropolis Youth network; and link
Metropolis Training to all the activities of the association.
The final action plan for 2015-2017 shall be finalized by the end of July, and presented to the Board of Directors meeting
which will take place next October in Hyderabad, in the framework of the 11th Metropolis World Congress.
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Newsletter Metropolis • March 2014
Number 1 • 2014
English version
Countdown for the new opening of the Metropolis
International Training Institute in Seoul
The city of Seoul is getting ready to host the new opening of MITI, the Metropolis International Training Institute, in a
forum that will take place between next 12th and 14th of March. The Forum ‘Sharing Cities: Solutions for Better Cities’
will mark the official opening of MITI under the new coordination from Seoul and the strengthened collaboration of four
regional centers worldwide – Cairo, Mashhad, Mexico City and Paris Île-de-France.
Although the decision of transferring the headquarters of Metropolis training to Seoul dates back to 2012 (at the Metropolis Board of Directors meeting in Guangzhou), it is in the upcoming forum that stakeholders will celebrate this new
era. The program of the three-day event includes a strategic workshop, an opening ceremony with the presence of high
officials and Mr. Won Soon Park, mayor of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and also the first MITI Annual Meeting.
It will be a unique opportunity for Metropolis member cities to strengthen professional and institutional capacities, and
prepare new avenues of knowledge exchange and dissemination. Participation at the forum is by invitation-only and
registrations are already closed, but information about the program is disclosed at the forum’s microsite.
Click here for further information about MITI, and keep checking the Metropolis website for further updates about new
training programs coming soon!
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Number 1 • 2014
English version
Newsletter Metropolis • March 2014
Metropolis will debate on Equitable Metropolises
at the 7th edition of the World Urban Forum
The seventh session of the World Urban Forum (WUF-7), hosted by the city of Medellin in Colombia is taking
place from next April 5 to 11, with the general title of “Urban Equity in Development - Cities for Life”, and
Metropolis is actively participating in its discussions.
The theme “Cities for Life”, which is both aspirational and practical, nourishes the hope of a more equitable,
socially inclusive urban world that can devise comprehensive safeguards for all. “Urban equity in development” is not just an ideal. It is a concept framework that guides decision-making to enhance lives in cities for
all; a useful tool needed to redefine the urban policy agenda at local, national and regional levels. How these
notions apply to existing or emerging Metropolises?
Within the overall multi-faceted programme of WUF-7, networking events are an important aspect of the Forum as they provide a platform for major urban actors, institutions and cities’ leaders,to showcase or present
their latest innovations or best practices.
Metropolis, INTA and UN-Habitat invite these key actors to join our networking event session on “Equitable
Metropolises: fixing spatial, social and economic inequalities though integrated governance, planning and development”.
The purpose of the session is to explore the relevance of responses in different metropolitan contexts, exchanging practices and providing useful references for more equitable metropolises.
The networking event will be held on the 9th April at 4.30pm, Yellow Pavilion, Room 5 in Plaza Mayor
Convention and Exhibition Center of Medellin.
The session will be divided into two dialogues:
· the first one aims to explore how metropolitan mechanisms can deliver more equity eitherbetween the
municipalities composing the metropolitan system or between the inhabitants
· the second one focuses on the metropolisation process of fast growing medium-size cities and how to
articulate planning and development policies between different territorial scales
Find out more about the program and registration procedures at http://wuf7.unhabitat.org
Download here the Networking Events Program
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Newsletter Metropolis • March 2014
Number 1 • 2014
English version
“No Regrets”: agreement of basic principles to
face climate change in cities right now
Last Monday, the Metropolis Initiative on Integrated Urban
Governance, led by Berlin, organized in Brussels the second
dialogue of the series “No Regrets”, which seeks to mobilize
cities to adapt to climate change. Recommending actions that
must be taken now before it is too late, the initiative took a step
further on promoting measures for sustainable development in
European cities, which can be replicated further on at Metropolis member cities in other regions as well.
strategies being discussed by a group of European cities.
As climate change advances with extreme weather events
worlwide, the No regrets measures focus on adaptation strategies, which some European cities are already implementing,
rather than on mitigation measures, which rely on a consensus that has not yet been reached in international negotiations
– for instance, on how much carbon emissions or the temperature of the planet must be controlled.
During the afternoon session the conference participants divided into four working groups focusing on the topics of: Political Responsibilities for No Regret Measures, Disaster Management, Spatial Planning and Urban Climate, and Community
Engagement, to discuss suggestions to the No Regrets Charter.
Such adaptation strategies, however, do not mean only massive investments in changing infrastructures (e.g. the construction of dams against flooding), but also on simple tools
and significant changes promoted at the level of communities
and neighborhoods.
One of the basic principles is, “Cities are driving climate change, at the same time they are suffering from climate change”,
as Dr. Diego Rybski, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate
Research, made clear during his presentation. Therefore, the
No regrets measures are drafted by cities for cities, and are
deeply focused on the urban context. Its actions range from
retrofitting buildings for resource in efficiency to connecting
green areas to provide habitats for endemic species, as well
as from monitoring vulnerable areas with simple GIS tools to
generate local-based production and consumption of goods,
among many others.
The representatives of EU institutions expressed in their contributions to the discussion (see photo) that they very much welcomed Metropolis taking the initiative to a No Regrets Charter,
especially as it is a very good complement to the various activities the EU performs to strengthen the cities and city-regions’
active roles in sustainable development. The representatives
offered further cooperation with the development of the charter and its implementation. They also expressed the expectation that the charter would provide a contribution to the preparation of a European Urban Agenda as well as to adaption
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“With No regrets we are trying to set a basic principles agreement to formulate proposals on the cross-cutting spheres of
ecology, economics, politics and culture”, explained Paul James, Professor of the University of Western Sydney and Director of the United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme,
who moderated the dialogues.
Great insight was also provided by representatives of the Belgium Climate Youth, who reinforced the need to implement
such actions through bottom-up and participatory approaches, which embody the perspectives of different spheres of
society. Particularly important are the youngest populations,
who are going to suffer the drastic consequences of climate
change in the future.
“If we don’t act now, we will regret it”, concluded Barbara Berninger, Head of European and International Affairs at the Berlin
Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment, and also Regional Secretary of Metropolis for Europe.
After this second round of discussions in Brussels, the core
team of this Metropolis Initiative is now working on the final
version of the No Regrets Charter, which will be submitted to
a round of consultation with participants of the dialogues. The
definitive No Regrets Charter will be publicized by mid-April, at
the Metropolis website and other communication channels.
The charter is intended to be presented, also, at the next Metropolis World Congress in Hyderabad, and through this opportunity win the support of the charter’s goals and principles
from as many member-cities as possible to test, advance, and
mutually exchange experience of the No regrets measures included in the charter as well as similar concepts and detailed
activities of integrated urban governance approaches to climate change adaption.
The preliminary version of the document was drafted after the
first No Regrets dialogue and can be downloaded here.
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Number 1 • 2014
English version
Newsletter Metropolis • March 2014
Meeting in Brussels with the ad interim Treasurer
of Metropolis
The President of Metropolis, Jean-Paul Huchon, and the Secretary General Alain Le Saux, met today in Brussels for the
first time with the new treasurer of Metropolis, Jean-Luc Vanraes.
The meeting that took place at the headquarters of the General Directorate for External Relations of the Brussels Regional Public Service also served for the treasurer to revise the current financial status of Metropolis. Jean-Luc Vanraes has
taken charge of the Metropolis treasury temporarily, until next October. At the next Metropolis Congress in Hyderabad,
he will be responsible for presenting and submitting the balance sheet for the approval of the Metropolis members that
compose the General Assembly.
Mr. Jean-Luc Vanraes is the President of the Parliament of the Flemish Community Commission (VGC) and former
Minister responsible for finance, budget, and external relations of the Brussels-Capital Region. Download Mr. Vanraes’
CV here.
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Newsletter Metropolis • March 2014
Number 1 • 2014
English version
Madrid opens up the debate on Sustainable
Urban Development with a Gender Perspective
Invited by Professor Ana Falú, Coordinator of the UN-Habitat Gender Hub, the Metropolis Women International Network
took part in a reflection carried out by a group of 40 people from 20 different countries, representing academic bodies
and NGOs. The two-day event took place in Madrid and was concluded yesterday afternoon.
The purpose of the reflection was to establish a common strategy that can contribute to and influence the permanent
work performed by the UN-Habitat. In short, and in the words of Olga Segovia, Coordinator of the Women and Habitat
Network for Latin America, this involves “generating knowledge with a gender perspective” to use sound arguments to
bring about a change of mentality among our government leaders.
“In the community, by the community, for the community”
Public space, participation and citizenship are some of the matters that enable the expansion of democracy in cities,
and with it a richer, more decent, and solidarity-minded life.
The next meeting of the Gender Hub, in which Metropolis will participate, will take place in New York in the first week of
March, as part of the 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, where the challenges and achievements
with regard to the application of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls will be among the subjects
discussed.
Metropolis regularly collaborates with UN-Habitat on a number of different projects in the urban sphere. Metropolis and
UN-Habitat will shortly run a joint session at the World Urban Forum 7, about which more information will be available
shortly.
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Number 1 • 2014
English version
Newsletter Metropolis • March 2014
Calendar
Date
Venue
Event
Barcelona, Spain
Metropolis Initiative: “Transferring knowledge and coooperating in Culture,
march 2014
3
Education and City” Pre-WUF Meeting on “City, Gastronomy and Equity”
10-21
New York, USA
CSW58 - Commission on the Status of Women
12-13
Seoul, South Korea
Metropolis Initiative “Integrated Urban Governance – Successful Policy
Transfer” and Metropolis MITI: “Peer Review Process: Metropolis International Training Institute”
13
Seoul, South Korea
METROPOLIS MITI - Opening Ceremony of the Metropolis International
Training Institute
31
Rosario, Argentina
Metropolis Initiative “Comparative Study on Metropolitan Governance”
Buenos Aires,
Metropolis Initiative “Comparative Study on Metropolitan Governance”
april 2014
1
Argentina
5-11
Medellin, Colombia
World Forum VII “Urban Equity in Development – Cities for Life”
7-11
Hanover, Germany
ICLEI’s Global Town Hall @ Metropolitan Solutions
São Paulo, Brazil
Metropolis Initiative “Mentoring on Upgrading Informal Settlements” Pair
may 2014
To be confirmed
review by Durban and São Paulo
7-14
Barcelona, Spain
Metropolis International Women’s Network
Seoul, South Korea
Metropolis MITI – Course on hydraulic systems
1-4
Singapore
World Cities Summit
14-17
Liverpool, UK
UCLG Executive Council meeting
17-19
Dallas, USA
New Cities Summit New Cities Foundation
24-2 Julio
Seoul, South Korea
Metropolis MITI – Course on e-governance
To be determined
27 May -3 June
june 2014
General Secretariat
Avinyó 15 08002 Barcelona
Tel. (+34) 93 342 94 60 · Fax.(+34) 93 342 94 66
E-mail: metropolis@metropolis.org · www.metropolis.org
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Regional Secretaries
Abidjan Africa · Melbourne Asia Pacific ·
Paris Ile-de-France Europe · Montreal North America ·
São Paulo Latin America - Caribbean
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