MedCities had the opportunity, again, to take part in the World Urban Forum in the 11st edition in Katowice, after having participated in 2020 in the WUF in Abu Dhabi.

Mr. Josep Canals, the Secretary General, intervined in the dialogue 2 session about “Building resilience for sustainable urban futures“. The session focused on city examples of resilience strategies and innovative tools for succeeding in urban resilience and it opened a window to potential global partnerships and innovative platforms.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that urban areas must continually adapt to various challenges in an integrated and holistic manner and that this is the way for society to build a better future and better Urban resilience, changing the underlying conditions that created such adverse situations.

It was a reach session for MedCities that could listen to how municipalities- most of the time-constrained by limited resources- beyond the Mediterranean area work to be resilient, stronger, and adapt themselves to climate change with limited funds.

MedCities Secretary-General, Mr. Josep Canals, could take the floor to talk on behalf of the association members and give a view of Mediterranean cities and metropolitan areas:

Networks of local authorities are key to accelerating the changes we need to mitigate climate change and have more liveable cities. By working together we learn faster and we can act faster. We are running out of time in terms of the climate change which is heavily affecting cities, especially those that are in the coastal areas. That is why local authorities need to be at the tables where the decisions are taken.

Watch Mr. Josep Canals intervention here.

Also, the Mayor of Sousse (MedCities member), Mr. Mohamed Ikbel Khaled contributed to the ‘Dialogues’ sessions at the WUF to talk about the resilience of the city and its adaptability to climate change in terms of economic, social, and environmental aspects.

You can find the agenda of the session here to know more about the panelists.

This hybrid event was co-organized by UN-Habitat, Poland’s Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy and the Municipal Office of Katowice.