UCLG Committees on Urban Strategic Planning / Digital and Knowledge-Based Cities 19.08.2013

UCLG COMMITTEES AND WORKING GROUPS

COMMITTEE ON URBAN STRATEGIC pLANNING

COMMITTEE ON DIGITAL AND KNOWLEDGE BASED CITIES

Announcement of next meeting in Rabat, 1^st October 2013, Sofitel Hotel, 14.15-17.45

JOINT CIRCULAR

Dear colleagues, members and partners,

We hope you are all well and looking forward to the World Congress 2013 in October. Here we present some of the issues which need to be thought through before the event. Please take a close look. We would like to have your opinion in advance to be able to address all the topics you find important.

We invite you to join the meeting that will be held on the occasion of the UCLG World Congress in Rabat jointly organized by the Committees on Urban Strategic Planning and Digital and Knowledge Based Cities on the 1^st of October at 14:15.

The objective of the agenda is to decide on statutory issues, which are:

Define Presidency of the Committee on Urban Strategic Planning
Formalize the interest of Porto Alegre in co-chairing the Committee
Intermediary cities agenda
Define the agendas for the next period

Please see the agenda for details.

And to explore the key topics, which are the challenges for next year:

Strategic innovation and Smart Governance
South-South partnerships and cooperation
Involvement in the UN HABITAT discussion on guidelines on planning

Since the last meeting, the Committee had focused on Intermediary cities. We are pleased to inform you about an enthusiastic response obtained from the participants of the Lleida International Forum 2013, which took place at the end of June in Lleida, Spain. This event gathered Mayors, practitioners, experts, development partners and network representatives to discuss the priorities for intermediary cities. The Forum closed with a summary of the proposals for guidelines and recommendations to I-cities planning and policy recommendations. A final debate between partners on the best course of action for the agenda of intermediary cities demonstrated the interest on the next steps in terms of the roles and capacities of the actors involved.

This is a good follow up of the findings of I-cities event in Kwadukuza last March.

The updates and advances from the Forum will be discussed in the Parallel session on Intermediary cities in the Rabat Congress which will take place on the 3rd of October at 11.00 in the ISESCO (salle Hassan II), under the Plenary Session Strengthening Solidarity Among Territories. It will be an occasion to formulate long-term plans and coalitions with partners.

On the other hand, the working meeting organized by the City of Bordeaux, Vice-President of the Committee of Digital and Knowledge Based Cities for Europe in collaboration with the City of Bilbao, President of the Committee, was attended by 7 European cities: Bilbao (Spain), Bordeaux, Pau, Poitiers, Toulouse, Suresnes (France), Milano (Italy) and Lappeenranta (Finland) and a representative of UCLG´s World Secretariat.

From the Committees, we consider that these kinds of meetings are very important because they allow members to meet and discuss in small operative groups diverse issues that are of interest in the cities, share knowledge but most of all, to create a space to facilitate future collaboration between cities.

The meeting in Rabat will represent an opportunity to present the collaboration projects identified during the meeting in Bordeaux but also to discuss new interesting topics for cities such as the “Smart Governance”.

Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the Secretariat of the Committees at:

For the World Secretariat: s.hoeflich@uclg.org
For the Committee on Urban Strategic Planning: kerrc@durban.gov.za
For the Committee on Digital and Knowledge Based Cities: promotion@bilbaointernational.bilbao.net

Kind regards,

The UCLG World Secretariat,

on behalf of the Committee of Urban Strategic Planning and the Committee of Digital and Knowledge based cities

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