On 09 September 2020 the Founder and Executive Director, Vasu Gounden, was a resource person in the virtual United Cities and Local Government’s (UCLG’s ) CitiesAreListening Experience: Consolidating the virtual and living community. The webinar was a follow up of the Live Learning Experiences that, over the past few months UCLG, Metropolis and UN-Habitat have hosted in a series of online sessions, adding up to more than 40 hours of idea sharing and featuring case studies from over 130 cities and regions. These online thematic sessions have brought together mayors and experts from all over the world to discuss mobility, technology, gender equality, housing, culture, peace, local democracy, public services, accessibility, and much more. Local and regional governments around the world are at the forefront of the current health, economic, and social crisis. Local governments need to share knowledge, experience, tools, and solutions.
This brainstorming session explored priorities in the post-COVID era, and what the local and regional governments constituency needed in order to move forward. It joined the virtual and living community and policy recommendations that the network had been promoting through its Live Learning Experience, with a strong focus on public service delivery and protecting the commons, aimed at leaving no one, and no place behind. Beyond the experiences, UCLG wanted to build a space for dialogue and interaction between different internationally organized civil society constituencies and the political leadership of the local and regional governments constituency, to jointly define their international advocacy, and shape their thinking for the future of humanity.
The webinar was divided into 2 parts: One, to hear the priorities that are important and the second on how to make the #CitiesAreListening experience relevant.
In 2020 ACCORD signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UCLG Africa to support it in its mission to unify and develop Africa and in particular to work on issues related to urban violence and conflict.
