The Global Platform for the Right to the City is organizing several events in Quito during HABITAT III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development – October 2016.
1. Networking Event – “Moving from Habitat III to implementing the Right2City”
Date: 19 October
Time: from 2pm to 4pm
Venue: Habitat 3 Conference – Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Avda. 6 de diciembre 21-218 – Room MR16.
This event aims to examine the potential of the Right to the City paradigm as an urban policy tool for implementing the New Urban Agenda, and a benchmark against which to monitor the outcomes of the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), as well as relevant SDG targets. The main goal of the event is to develop the GPR2C’s proposal for establishing a Global Observatory for the Right to the City, building on the collective contributions of international, national and grass-roots networks and organizations, as well as partnerships with academia and local and national governments. The international consensus achieved through Habitat III and the SDGs will be a benchmark for the next two decades. It is critical for organizations focusing on habitat-related human rights and the Right to the City to define the principles and practices underpinning the creation of just, inclusive and sustainable cities. The aim of the Observatory will be to raise awareness of multiple actors, mobilize allies in the international, national and local spheres, and strengthen networks and community processes to support innovative public policies that implement the commitments of Habitat III and the New Agenda.
2. Training Event – “Implementing the Right to the City – building Just, Inclusive Democratic and a Sustainable Cities”
Date: 19 and 20 of October
Time: 9:30am to 12:30am
Venue: PUCE – Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Avenida 12 de octubre 1076 y Vicente Ramón Roca
Registration: contact@right2city.org
The workshop will develop a better understanding of the conceptual elements of the Right to the City, as well as legal, administrative and judicial tools that may be used for its implementation in cities. Facilitators will explore initiatives and experiences in which the Right to the City can be used as a reference for policies, programs and projects of urban development in order to build inclusive, democratic and sustainable cities.
3. Regional Meeting – “Urban Alternatives and Agents of Change”
Date: 14 to 16 of October
Vanue: FLACSO: La Pradera E7-174 y Avda. Diego de Almagro
Registration: www.bit.ly/flacsoreg
In the context of Habitat3, it is vital to combine academic reflection with the experiences from social movements and political actors who face the real problems of everyday life in cities, where they constitute spaces in permanent construction and dispute. The meeting highlights the need to coordinate the work of critical research and formulation of proposals, with the construction and strengthening of urban social subjects, their strengths, their struggles and their prospects.
4. Discussing Opportunity + Equality, Resilience + Mobility, Public life + Design from a Right to the City Perspective
Date: October 20th
Time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Venue: Asamblea Nacional, World Stage Pavillion by Next City
We propose 3 TED-inspired different presentations, each addressing one the issues proposed – Opportunity + Equality, Resilience + Mobility, Public life + Design – and how they are connected with the concept of the Right to the City. Each presentation will bring: an evaluation of what has been discussed in the New Urban Agenda in regard to the related topic; the proposition of the 2 to 3 main challenges that need to be dealt in the next 20 years; and a video or case study that shows how those challenges are materialized in a specific situation that involves real people, in a specific part of the world, or solutions/ideas that have been already experimented to address those challenges.
A concluding presentation will address how the challenges and dimensions previously explored can be connected with the concept of the Right to the City and why it matters in the pursuit of more peaceful, just, inclusive and sustainable cities, villages and settlements for everyone, everywhere. The event will serve to inspire and engage the audience to think how their own activities and organizations can benefit from the Right to the City approach in the promotion of a more sustainable urban future.
5. Asamblea de Convergencia sobre el Derecho a la Ciudad
Date: October 19th
Time: 5pm-8pm
Venue: UCE – Universidad Central del Ecuador – Facultad de Derecho (Paraninfo Che Guevara).
The Convergence Assembly aims to bring together – from a critical point of view and oriented to advocacy – organizations, networks and individuals working in a variety of areas related to the Right to the City. The topics we propose to gather in this Assembly are: gender equality, quality public spaces, governance and local participation, inclusive economies, food security, rural development, sustainability, housing and urban development, among others. Our Assembly will produce a final statement oriented for future action on the agenda of the Right to the City worldwide
