(Durban, South Africa) The 6th UCLG Congress--the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders，was held from 11 to 15 November  in Durban. This event provided an opportunity for all UCLG members to engage with one another and with other stakeholders in many special and side events and to learn from each others’ experiences. One such event was the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award). On 14 November, a side event on the “ Local Implementation of the 2030 Agenda” was held as one of the special sessions by the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation at the UCLG Congress. In this event, five city representatives were invited to share their urban innovations in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. This event also allowed the Guangzhou Award Secretariat to launch of the 5th cycle of the Guangzhou Awards for 2020.  

The fifth cycle was officially announced by the Vice President of Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), Mr. SONG Jingwu. In his opening remarks he said: “At a new historical turning point, China and its local governments will all adopt an ever more open attitude. We will continue to pursue a mutually beneficial and win-win strategy to inject new energy into the world's economic development, participate more actively in global governance, address environmental issues such as climate change, and continue to focus on key areas such as poverty reduction, infrastructure construction, education, and health; and to deepen the cooperation and dialogue to help developing countries further solve development problems. China and its local governments will also combine the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative to achieve prosperity through joint efforts.” 

Mr. Song was followed by the Secretary General of UCLG - Ms. Emilia Saiz, and Mr. Octavi de la Varga, Secretary General of METROPOLIS. They mentioned the coming of age of the Guangzhou Award as a knowledge sharing platform, a learning tool and a tool for promoting Voluntary Local Reviews by local authorities in their efforts to implement the SDGs and the NUA.

Representatives from UCLG, METROPOLIS, CPAFFC and City of Guangzhou joined hands together, symbolizing the joint launching of the 5th cycle of Guangzhou Award.

During the second part of the event, a brief report for the 2019 -2020 work plan for the 2020 of Guangzhou Award was made by Mr. Liu Baochun, Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office, Guangzhou Municipal Government. Mr. Liu was followed by Mr. Nicholas You, Executive Director of Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, who introduced the latest revision of the Guangzhou Award to the audience and invited five city representatives to present their living practices on urban innovation.

These representatives included:

(i) The Mayor of Utrecht and President of Association of Netherlands Municipalities, Mr. Jan van Zanen who gave a presentation of city case “Localizing the SDGs through Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships” with a famous cartoon character Miffy; 

(ii) The Vice Mayor of Santa Ana, Ms. Laura Carmiol, who gave a presentation of city case “Santa Ana en Cleta”, introducing how bikes can empower women and improve ther lives;

(iii) Senior Manager of Planning from eThekwini, Mr. Faizal Seedat, who presented a the city’s “Incremental Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme”, providing an alternative strategies for upgrading informal settlement; 

(iv) Mr. Ruslan Galiakmetov, Head of Investment and Innovation Department from city of Kazan, who shared his city’s initiative called “Innovative Social and Economic Development of the City of Kazan” ; and

(v) The case of “Buenos Airess Voluntary Local Review” was made by Mr. Francisco Resnicoff, Subsecretary, International and Institutional Relations, City of Buenos Aires.

The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) is an award system dedicated to city-to-city cooperation and the sharing of lessons learned from experience. The Award just recently completed its fourth cycle (2018) where cities and regions submitting initiatives to the Award were asked how their respective initiatives were contributing to the implementation of the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 5th cycle of Guangzhou Award is calling for participation from all local governments! If you want the world to learn from your experience in implementing the global agendas, please share your knowledge and experience with us and check the latest submission news in our official website: http://www.guangzhouaward.org/