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From 6 to 8 June 2016, UNESCO – in cooperation with the People’s Government of the Beijing Municipality and with the support of the National Commission of China for UNESCO – organized the Second UNESCO Creative Cities Beijing Summit, on the theme of “UNESCO Creative Cities Network: a lever for sustainable urban development”, in Beijing, People’s Republic of China.
In the framework of the Culture and Sustainable Urban Development Initiative, launched by UNESCO to nourish the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Creative Cities Beijing Summit positioned the Network as a key programme to achieve the cities’ sustainable development. Justyna Jochym, responsible for international cooperation at the Krakow Festival Office, represented the City of Krakow and the UNESCO City of Literature programme at this conference.
Mayors and policy-makers of the UCCN, academics and experts from all over the world gathered at this event, which served as a dialogue and discussion platform for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. By focusing on research and policy-making, they explored innovative and effective ways of fully integrating culture and creativity into local development strategies and plans.
During the conference, Justyna presented on the topic of “Structuring a mid-term research agenda for the UNESCO Creative Cities on creativity and sustainable urban development” . Moderator of the panel was Mr Francesco Bandarin, Assistant Director-General for Culture, UNESCO and other panelists, included:
• Mr Dongliang Chen, Director of the International Center for Creativity and Sustainable Development under the auspices of UNESCO (Category 2 Centre)
• Mr Daniel Laven, Associate Professor and Head of Department, Mid Sweden University, Department of Tourism Studies and Geography, Sweden
• Mr Ian McShane, Senior Research Fellow, Deputy Director, Centre for Urban Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne (Australia)
• Mr Bryan Beattie, Representative of Dundee (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island), Creative City of Design
• Mr Rainer Kern, Representative of Mannheim (Germany), Creative City of Music
Justyna is also the representative of the UNESCO Cities of Literature in the UCCN Steering Committee, where she is delegated to the coordination of joint activities, communication, evaluation and research on behalf of the 20 Cities of Literature.
Lastly, this summit supported the UNESCO’s contribution to the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat-III), which will take place in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016.
Working and information documents:
Programme of the Second UNESCO Creative Cities Beijing Summit