NEWS

         

On October 17, Metropolis held its networking event in Habitat III: “City managers implementing the New Urban Agenda”.  The encounter brought together a significant number of members and was the starting point for the creation of a community of practice and knowledge among the managers of our metropolises.

One of the objectives of the meeting was to identify the challenges large cities will address after Habitat III and which are the tools needed for the implementation of the New Urban Agenda from the point of view of management skills.

The session was opened by a keynote speech by Professor Edgard Pieterse, Director of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, advocating for the operational character of the New Urban Agenda to help our cities to face the unavoidable metropolisation process, and guide them towards a more sustainable and equal growth model.

Following the opening speech, Mr  José Antonio Toral Valdivieso, Academic Coordinator of the Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE) moderated two rounds of presentations from the following representatives of Metropolis members :

• Ms Yolanda Bichara, Coordinator of the Council of Mayors of the San Salvador Metropolitan Area
• Mr Jordi Martí, Manager at the Barcelona City Council
• Ms Rahmatouca Sow, Deputy Cabinet Director of the Dakar Mayor’s Office
• Ms Ching-Yu Yao, Mayor’s Advisory Officer at the Taipei City Government

• Ms. Zhou Dailin, Vice Chief Planner of Governmental Planning Division in Guangzhou Urban Planning & Design Survey Research Institute (GZPI)
• Mr Eduard Saurina, Deputy Manager at the Barcelona Metropolitan Area
• Mr Sebastian Ordóñez, Advisor to the Quito Mayor’s office
• Mr Bakary Traoré, Finance Director at the City Council of the District of Bamako

The event also counted on thought-provoking interventions from Ms Hélen Fernández, Mayor in charge of the Caracas Metropolitan Authority, Mr Thiago Teixeira de Andrade, Secretary of Housing and Planning of Brasília, and Roger Quiroga, Strategic advisor to the La Paz Mayor’s Office.

Over 2017, Metropolis looks forward to strenghtening this community of city managers, bringing together more experiences from these public employees who are in charge of day to day administrative and operative management of the world’s largest cities.