8-13 February 2020 | ABU DHABI – CityNet Senior Advisor Mary Jane Ortega facilitated a session entitled “Smart and Inclusive Cities” at the “Future of Asian & Pacific Cities Report 2019” event on February 10th, 2020, and was invited to the UN-Habitat session to present on safer cities cases in the Philippines during the “Safer Cities Contributing to Social Cohesion and Livability” on February 12th, 2020. Both Ms. Ortega and Chanrhan Hwang, program officer at CityNet, made an active participation in the Tenth Session of the World Urban Forum (WUF-10) and committed to support raising awareness on sustainable urbanization among stakeholders and local authorities, especially to city leaders.
The World Urban Forum has become the premier international gathering for exchanging views and experiences on urban challenges. The inclusive nature of the Forum, combined with high-level participation, makes it a unique United Nations conference and the premier international gathering on urban issues.
Throughout the six days event, CityNet involvement was considerable, starting with the faciliatation of the session on “Smart and Inclusive Cities” in the Side Event #PRNPEBC-1. The session provided an opportunity for dialogue among experts about the the challenges and policy pathways within the four identified priorities and approaches to realize a sustainable urban future in Asia and the Pacific: urban and territorial planning, urban resilience, smart and inclusive cities and urban finance.
CityNet also participated in a series of meetings including:
- The Penang Platform for Sustainable Urbanization as a Steering Committee;
- The Asia Pacific Local Government Coordinating Body Preparatory Meeting as a partner organization to ESCAP in conjunction with the 7th Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD);
- Meetings with various CityNet member organizations and partners.
Additional photos of the event can be found on the CityNet Flickr account at the following link https://www.flickr.com/photos/
