The African regional section of UCLG (UCLG Africa) released a call for cities and local or regional governments to express their interest in becoming the next African Capital of Culture in 2024-2025.

If your city is interested, please read about the process and write to the email indicated above. The deadline to submit a candidacy is 30 July 2023.

More information here.

The Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments facilitated by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) has just released its annual report to the UN High-Level Political Level 2023.

The report, available here, includes a paper entitled "Cultural Boost in the Achievement of the SDGs: How local and regional governments are promoting cultural heritage and sustainable cities and territories". 

It explores the cru­cial role of culture in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG11 on cities and human settlements, and it examines projects, pro­grammes and policies developed by local and regional governments (LRGs), civil society organisations, heritage professionals. The paper includes an analysis of positive and negative interactions between cultural policies and actions and each one of the SDGs, and it specifically provides evidence on the interlinkage between cultural policies and heritage and the SDGs 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 13, 16 and 17, where the interlinkages are the strongest. 

Read the full paper here!

The City of Gdańsk and the European Committee of the Regions organise every year the Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Award for courage and excellence in the promotion of freedom, solidarity and equality.

The Award represents a strong signal of hope for all elected representatives, officials and ordinary citizens who, despite the risks, live to make democracy work at a local level by supporting better and more open communities.

​The new edition of the award was launched at the CIVEX commission meeting in the European Committee of the Regions on the 20 June 2023.

Nominations will be open until the 31 October 2023. For full Nominations Criteria please check here. Click here

More information here.

The European Commission has recently released a new report on "Culture and Democracy: the evidence. How citizens' participation in cultural activites enhances civic engagement, democracy and social cohesion: lessons from international research".

The report analyses the concrete link between democracy and culture, and maps out how citizens who participate in cultural activities are much more likely to engage in civic and democratic life. 

More information here.

The Committee on Culture of UCLG has a partership with IN SITU "Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas", a 4-year project that combines research and experimental actions to advance the innovation-related practices, capacities, and potential of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) based in non-urban areas of the EU countries.

IN SITU is currently exploring how cultural and creative practices can help tackle place-based issues in six non-urban areas representing the six IN SITU Labs: Azores, Portugal; Western coastal region, Ireland; Western region, Iceland; Rauma and Eurajoki municipalities, Finland; Valmiera County, Latvia; Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. As an outreach partner of this project, the Committee on Culture supports a survey on 'Mapping of cultural and creative projects & selection of case studies', which aims at mapping projects proposing cultural and creative responses to key place-based issues in the six IN SITU lab locations and at identifying the two most relevant, impactful and innovative projects in each Lab location. The survey is now closed. We will keep you updated about new developments soon.

At the beginning of June, the IN SITU researchers met in Finland to present their findings and reports -- D1.1. and D2.1. -- that can be accessed through this website link.

This fall, the In Situ initiative just launched a series of three webinars on Creative Viability in Non-urban Areas, which will address key themes that support the work of cultural and creative ecosystems in non-urban areas in Europe. The first webinar, entitled "What contributes to the viability of creative small-scale entreprises (CCIs) in non-urban areas?" took place online on 28 September 2023, and the second one, entitled "How can CCI innovation ecosystems be fostered in non-urban areas?" was organised on 30 November 2023. 

The last webinar took place on 5 December 2023 under the title "How does cultural and creative work contribute to place-based sustainability and resiliency?". The video recording is available here.

More info here!

On 23-24 May 2023, the City of Rabat, 2023 African Capital for Culture, hosted the Forum of Mayors and Leaders of Territorial Authorities of Africa on Culture.

The Forum gathered African local elected officials members, experts and partners from across the world to discuss on culture and sustainable development, including the cities of: Bilbao, Bologna, Brazzaville, Bulawayo, Cape Town, Dakar, Izmir, Kampala, Lilongwe, Matera, Nouakchott, Saint-Louis, Sibiu, Yoff (Dakar) and Yopougon.

On the second day of the event, the Manifesto for the Renewal of African and Afro-descendant Culture was adopted by the Forum.

The programme os the meeting is still available in French and English. See also the press-release.

More information here.

In the framework of the 9^th “CULTURE NEXT” Meeting, which will be held in Elefsina on next 9-11 June 2023, the UCLG Committee on Culture will organise a workshop devoted to “Culture and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. 

This workshop will present the interlinkages between culture and the SDGs, deepening the role of culture as an enabler of sustainable people-centred development. An innovative analysis on the positive and negative interaction of cultural elements in the SDGs will be presented as an approach for the design and implementation of rights-based sustainable cultural policies, but also to show, synthetically, how strongly cultural actions, programmes and policies influence the achievement of the SDGs. During the workshop, the UCLG Culture Committee will present an interactive exercise on the relationship between culture and the SDGs, and cities will be able to exchange their initiatives related to the topic.

The workshop will take place on 10 June from 15h00 to 17h00 (local time).

More information coming soon.

On next 9 June 2023, from 15h00 to 16h15 CEST, the UCLG Committee on Culture will organise a workshop with European Pilot Cities in the framework of the Beyond the Obvious Conference "Handle with Care | Culture for Social Well-being" (7-9 June 2023, Elefsina), the annual conference of Culture Action Europe (CAE) which is UCLG's partner for the Pilot Cities programme - Europe. 

The workshop will be devoted to learning from policies, programmes and activities on “Care-cities: Strategies for Enhancing Urban Well-being through Culture" (see draft programme of BtO here).

This will be part of a series of workshops related to the CultureForHealth project and the presentation of the “CultureForHealth Report. Culture’s contribution to health and well-being. A report on evidence and policy recommendations for Europe”. 

More information will be available very soon.

On next 25 and 26 May 2023, UNESCO will call a wide range of stakeholders across the cultural and education ecosystems to join a multistakeholder dialogue on Culture and Arts Education on the occasion of the International Arts Education week to be celebrated at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

The meeting will aim at harnessing the powerful relationship that exists between culture and education to advance sustainable development and achieve more inclusive and resilient societies. 

More information on the meeting here, and on UNESCO global framework for culture and arts education here.

The International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (IOPD) launches the 17th edition of the award “Best Practice in Citizen Participation”.

The award is delivered annually to recognize successful experiences and public policies on citizen participation, community engagement, democratic innovation, public deliberation, and open government. This year's edition presents as a novelty the inclusion of categories to classify and evaluate the practices. Therefore, you must choose the category to nominate your practice: citizenship, decision, or deliberation.

If your city or local government has implemented a practice to promote participatory democracy in your city, region, or territory between January 2020 and March 2023, we invite you to submit an application to Award before May 31, 2023. 

The local government winner of the best practice will receive the award, a diploma, a special dissemination of the experience and a paid trip with accommodation for one person to the 22nd Conference in Rio de Janeiro, which will take place from November 6 to 8, 2023.

More information here.