URBELAC: Urban European and Latin American and Caribbean cities

The URBELAC network was created in November 2010 on the basis of the interest held by both the European Commission (DG REGIO) and the Inter-American Development Bank in helping national, regional and local governments face the challenge of harmonizing social development, urban productivity and environmental protection in the context of the increasing concentration of population in urban areas and the central role played by cities in development processes.

So far, there have been five rounds of URBELAC meetings, involving 47 cities from both Latin America and Caribbean and Europe. Each URBELAC edition has focused on specific topics as follows:

• URBELAC-1: Long term sustainability referred to environmental, urban and fiscal sustainability of cities
• URBELAC-2: Integral management of urban districts (historical centers) and management of tourism in historical centers
• URBELAC-3: management of urban centers and management of metropolitan areas.
• URBELAC-4: Circular economy
• URBELAC-5: Inclusion of migrants and refugees, urban poverty and jobs and skills in the local urban economy.

The aim of URBELAC is to promote sustainable development in cities in the two regions – Europe and Latin America and Caribbean – by establishing networks and encouraging the various public players, with similar challenges, to exchange experiences, best practice and lessons learnt on sustainable and integrated urban policies and measures, as well as to define local action plans.