2017•10•16     Cork

During September 18-20, 2017, the city of Cork, Ireland hosted the third International Conference on Learning Cities (ICLC), devoted to the theme of “Global goals, local actions: Towards lifelong learning for all in 2030.” The conference drew together a wide field of stakeholders from different domains and experts in education to shape the future of learning cities. Focus areas during included:

• How lifelong learning supports the achievement of the SDGs at local levels;
• Promotion of integrated governance and multi-stakeholder partnerships for sustainable urban futures;
• Successful ways of implementing and measuring the impact of local actions for sustainable development.

Education, both traditional and as an element of lifelong learning, is a critical element in promoting sustainable development for health. UNU-IIGH research fellow Dr. José Siri participated in the ICLC, presenting on the role of systems thinking in helping learning cities overcome health challenges.

A critical output of the ICLC, adopted by all participants, was the Cork Call to Action for Learning Cities. This call and a corresponding Guide to Action will be finalized and published soon on the website of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC).

Other outputs launched at the conference include:

• The second volume of Unlocking the Potential of Urban Communities, presenting the achievements of the 16 winners of the 2017 Learning City Award;
• An online database of member cities compiling 120 online learning city case studies;
• A series of Video Tutorials for Building Learning Cities, including best-practice videos from member cities.