Virtual Panel: City Diplomacy Report Launch and Roundtable

Background

The session presents the release of a new study of city diplomacy by 47 global cities, conducted by Melbourne University & Chicago Council.
The session presents the release of a new study of city diplomacy by 47 global cities, conducted by the University of Melbourne’s Connected Cities Lab and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The study highlights the strong commitment to global agendas that remains in cities and the varying set ups of international engagement strategies. Yet it also highlights three primary obstacles hindering the effectiveness of city diplomacy: inadequate funding and resources for international engagement, insufficient training in city diplomacy, and the failure of national and multilateral bodies to fully recognize and formalize city engagement in diplomacy.

The session will discuss the findings of the report, and importantly, implications for practice in a time of pandemic disruptions. The roundtable will bring together report authors and key experts in the field as well as city practitioners. The discussion will be primarily based on matching lessons from the report to practice, and to bring together experiences from other cities to discuss barriers to effective city diplomacy to encourage solution-based approaches.

Speakers

• Dr Anna Kosovac (facilitator) (Connected Cities Lab, The University of Melbourne)
• Dr Kris Hartley (Education University of Hong Kong)
• Jani Moliis (Head of International Affairs, City of Helsinki)
• Emmanuelle Pinault (Programme Director of City Diplomacy, C40)

Find all the information needed and the registration link here.