Bloomberg Philantropies has recently launched the 2025 Global Mayors Challenge, an initiative that invites cities from anywhere in the world with populations of 100,000+ residents to reimagine the most essential service they deliver to residents. 

The 2025 Global Mayors Challenge calls on mayors to work with residents and entrepreneurs to radically reimagine their most essential municipal services, from public transportation to waste management, housing and shelter, emergency response, culture and more. Each winning city will receive $1 million, dedicated project staff, and multiyear support from Bloomberg Philanthropies to help bring their ideas to life.

Applications are due to 20th December 2024. More information here.

The Fair Culture Charter is an initiative by the German Commission for UNESCO and supports the creation and strengthening of a movement for Fair Culture that wants to achieve decent working conditions for all artists, creatives, and other cultural workers.

The Fair Culture Charter is available in English, French, Spanish and German.

Check out the website for more information.

The UN Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights, Ms Alexandra Xanthaki, has released a new report on The Right to participate in Sports.

The report is available here.

The FNADAC has organised its Autumn University on last 16-17 October 2024 in Paris, with the support of Culture Réseau 21, under the title "Freedoms, otherness, humanities: what cultural policies for a lasting bond?".

The programme of the 2-days meeting is available here.

The 13th Culture Next Conference took place in Cluj, Romania on last 16-18 October 2024. It gathered representatives from 50 European cities and the most important cultural networks, together with representatives of the European Commission, local artists, and cultural organisations from Cluj.

The agenda and results of the meeting are available here.

The Seminar “Thailand Culture 21 Best Practice” aims at positioning Thailand and its cultural actors as leaders in the global Culture 21 movement. 

The seminar will explain the relation between Culture and Sustainable Development, as per the experience of UCLG, and exchange experiences on sustainable cultural development in Thailand. 

The seminar is organised by UCLG Culture Committee and Perfect Link, with the support of the Department of Cultural Promotion of the Ministry of Culture of Thailand, and partners in Thailand and online, on Friday, 30th August 2024, 13:30 – 16:30 hours (Thailand time GMT+7). 

The Agenda of the Seminar is available here.

On 26 August at 18.00 (GMT-4), the city of Concepción will launch the Conception's Charter on Cultural Rights. The launch will be opened by the UN Special Rapporteur in the field od Cultural Rights, Alexandra Xanthaki. 

The Charter of Cultural Rights of Concepción contributes to the realisation of the rights of all. The charter is based on interculturality and cultural diversity, and proposes a local cultural plan that guarantees its effective application in the territory, with programmes, actions, infrastructures and concrete spaces.

On Thursday 25 July 2024, Mexico City celebrated the winners of the UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 International Award at an Award Ceremony held at the City Theatre Esperanza Iris.

The International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 recognises cities, local and regional governments, and personalities that have excelled in their contribution to culture as a key dimension of sustainable cities through the promotion of cultural rights for local sustainable development.

On the occasion of the 6^th edition of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21, Mexico City hosted the official Award Ceremony, which this year awarded Gwanak-Gu (Republic of Korea) with the programme ‘Capital of Youth Culture’ and La Paz (Plurinational State of Bolivia) with the initiative ‘Traditional Medicine Information and Guidance Centres – Qullañ Uta’ in the category ‘City, Local or Regional Government’. Alfons Martinell Sempere and Milena Dragićević Šešić were also awarded in the ‘Individual’ category.

The Award Ceremony began with the welcome remarks of Argel Gómez Concheiro, General Director for Great Community Festival, Secretary of Culture of the Government of Mexico City, who stressed that ‘it is a privilege to organise for the sixth time this Award which recognises the great contributions of cities and personalities from all over the world, who contribute every day to sustainability and human development’. In turn, Jordi Pascual, Coordinator of the Committee on Culture of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) emphasised the pioneering role and global leadership of Mexico City in the field of cultural rights.

The winning cities of the Award 2024 were invited to take the floor. Lee Yungki, Vice-Mayor of Gwanak-Gu, thanked the organisers and jury of the Award, and mentioned the innovative character of their winning initiative, as a project that aims to 'actively involve young people in the local community and in public policy-making processes'. On behalf of La Paz, Eusebio Clares Cutili, Head of the Interculturality Area, expressed his gratitude for the recognition given to his city and presented the winning project, which 'intertwines cultures with the care of life, bringing more humanity and greater quality to the health system'.

The winners of the Award in the 'Individual' category were then invited to take the floor. Alfons Martinell Sempere stressed that ‘the fact that this Award is being held in Mexico City makes great sense: a pioneering city in the field of international cooperation, and a city that is key regarding public cultural policies building’ and Milena Dragićević Šešić reflected on ‘the broad idea of culture as a public good that creates meaning, brings people together and opens new horizons towards more solidarity and more care’.

Also invited to take the floor, Eider Inunciaga, Councillor for the Basque Language, Citizen Services and Participation, Agenda 2030 and International Affairs, representing the City of Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain), designated as a special mention in the 2024 edition of the Award, who highlighted the ‘importance to think about the values that nurture city development’, and Anastasia Nyalita, Director of Public Participation, Inclusion and Public Services of the City of Nairobi (Kenya), representing the cities that have merited consideration as good practices, who underlined the ‘importance of having strong cultural systems able to lead local development’.

To conclude the Award Ceremony, Arturo Morell Barragén, Coordinator of Coordinator of Advisors and International Affairs of Mexico City, thanked all the attendees, as well as all those who participated in the Award, and acknowledged explicitly ‘all the people that work, every day, to defend the value of culture’.

In the morning of the same day, the International Seminar ‘Cultural Innovation and Prospective for Cities and Territories’, held at the ‘El Rule’ Cultural Centre in Mexico City, hosted by the Culture Department of the same city, comprised several roundtable discussions on the promotion of cultural rights in local and territorial sustainable development. Some ideas raised during the Seminar included (1) the need to move from state cultural policies to rights-based and people-based cultural policies; (2) citizen participation and cultural democracy; (3) the guarantee of minimum cultural services and (4) the urgent need to include a culture goal in the SDGs. 

The recording of the Award Ceremony of the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 is available online.

If you want to know more about the UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 Award and its winners and special mentions, please visit the website dedicated to the Award

On next 27 September 2024, the City of Bilbao will organise the Seminar "A Culture goal in the SDGs: context, actors and challenges" at Askuna Zentroa.

The aim of this conference is to present the international actions that the Culture 2030 Goal campaign is carrying out to include culture as a Goal in the SDGs, and, in particular, the document “A Culture Goal” that was presented at Mondiacult.

This conference is aimed at the cultural actors of the city of Bilbao and all those involved or concerned in the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

For more information, please see the draft agenda here. Registration is open.

Organised on a biennial bases, the International Award UCLG - Mexico City - Culture 21 has official winners fot its 6th edition 2023-2024!

The objective of the 6^th edition of the International Award UCLG – Mexico City – Culture 21 is to celebrate the work of cities, local or regional governments, and leading individuals who have excelled in the promotion of innovative practices linked to the exercise of cultural rights, citizenship and sustainable development. The Award reaffirms the leadership of Mexico City in the relationship between culture and sustainable development, and the commitment of UCLG to place culture as a fundamental dimension of sustainable cities. The Award has two categories: “City, Local or Regional Government” and “Individual”.

In the 6^th edition, in the category “City, Local or Regional Government”, the Award recognises the leadership of cities in the promotion of cultural rights as a transversal driver of local sustainable development, highlighting the diversity and excellence of policies and actions of local governments from all over the world. This shows that there is no single model of development, and that each project and policy is inscribed in specific and different local contexts, and constitute unique and original proposals. It is important to note that the action should have documented evidence of the impact and the successes achieved.

Between 29 November 2023 and 3 April 2024, the open call of the Award received 87 candidacies from cities, local and regional governments from across the globe. On 11 June 2024, the Jury of the Award held its final meeting, and decided that the Award would recognise in the category City / Local or Regional Governments: Gwanak-Gu, for the project "Youth Capital of Culture", and La Paz (Bolivia), for the project "Traditional Medicine Information and Guidance Centres - Qullañ Uta". The Jury also decided to recognise the following cities as special mentions of the Award: Bilbao, Brazzaville, Esch-sur-Alzette, Novi Sad, Ramallah and Xi'an.

In the category Individual, the Award recognises internationally renowned individuals who have made a fundamental contribution to cultural rights, and to the relationship between culture and sustainable development. The Individual award is designated by the Jury without an open competition process, based on confidential nominations. This year, the Jury decided to recognise the outstanding work of Milena Dragićević Šešić and Alfons Martinell Sempere.

The full Communiqué of the Jury, including the results of the 6th edition of the International Award UCLG – Mexico City – Culture 21, is available here.

The Award Ceremony will take place in Mexico City on 25 July 2024. It will be connected to the international seminar on Cultural Innovation and Prospective for Cities and Territories (see draft here). If you are interested in attending these events, please do not hesitate to write to us before 5 July 2024. The invitations are limited!