Medellín becomes a worldwide example of best practices on education issues with the lowest dropout rate in its history reaching 2.9%. This is a result of policies and programs which seek to train citizens throughout their life cycle.

This is the lowest dropout rate in Medellín’s history. Medellín, the first Colombian city to join the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, will host the Network’s world meeting in 2019.

14 years ago, the capital of Antioquia started a transformation process in which education has been fundamental to achieve social changes. The work and the combination of efforts have reduced the school desertion, one of the biggest problems of the educative system, in 29% during this period. The greatest results were reached during the last two years through programs like: En el colegio contamos con vos, ¡y con tu voz! [We count on you and your voice at school!] which has brought back 5,165 children and young people to the classrooms.

These programs join other best practices such as Buen Comienzo, Sapiencia, the Software Nursery, and the recently inaugurated Teacher Innovation Center – MOVA -, among others. All of them have made Medellín a world leader in educational issues, thus guaranteeing its entry to the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, and to be chosen to host the Network’s global meeting for the first time in South America in 2019.

In November, Medellín will have a new space for healthy indoor entertainment with 100 trampolines and a wide range of activities for children, young people, and adults. In a 2,900 mt2 area, the park has a capacity for more than 400 people per hour and will generate 35 direct jobs.

Under the concept of healthy entertainment for all ages, the first indoor trampoline park arrives in Medellín with an innovative and fun model seeking to differentiate itself from the available offer in the city.

This is the second opening in Colombia within the framework of a Regional expansion plan of the U.S. based company which includes cities such as Panama, Dominican Republic, Chile, and Uruguay. Their investment totaled 2 million dollars and will generate 35 direct jobs.

“This park fits the strategic proposal of INDER which aims at promoting sports, recreation, and physical activities in different spaces. The Olympic trampolines will help future young promises of the Team Medellín to practice gymnastics” affirmed Andrés Felipe López Vergara, INDER’s chief city-events officer.

Thus far, the city has received a total amount of USD 249.9 million between new investments and reinvestments. 22 new companies have settled in Medellín and eight more have reinvested. Therefore, 2,945 jobs in the infrastructure, real estate, food and industry 4.0 sectors are estimated. ACI Medellín supported the opening and settling process of the Summit Trampoline Park in the city.

The XV Congress of Educating Cities: “The city belongs to the people,” was held in Portugal, from November 13 to 16. Medellín participated with the project Child Workshops for Citizen Participation of the Medellín Mayor’s Office and managed by the Secretariat of Citizen Participation.

It is the Educating Cities Award of the International Association of Educating Cities (IAEC).

• The project Child Workshops for Citizen Participation is executed by the Secretariat of Citizen Participation of the Medellín Mayor’s Office.
• The project received the award in the XV Congress of Educating Cities, Cascais 2018.
• ACI Medellín managed and supported the application of this initiative.

Child Workshops for Citizen Participation is a proposal born in 2013. It aims to increase the participation levels among children and young people of Medellín through a training process in citizen and democratic capacities.

The Secretariats of Citizen Participation, Education, Youth, Inclusion and Environment and the Inclusion Unit of the LGBTI Population work together in this project.

The Agency for Cooperation and Investment of Medellín and the Metropolitan Area – ACI Medellín – led and supported the award application process in which 49 cities from 12 countries nominated.

A delegation of 80 students from Medellín will travel to the United States on the tour called Medellín Canción Viva to interpret the repertoire with the same name. They will visit Boston, Baltimore, New York and Washington and, in the latter, they will be part of the commemoration of the Veterans Day at the Crossing Historic Park.

Between November 6 to 16, the Music Schools Network of Medellín will visit several cities in the United States playing its repertoire: Medellín Canción Viva.”

These young people who make up the orchestra, belong to the Medellín Music Schools Network. They went through several auditions organized by public call, so they could join the select group. They will perform compositions wrote by them and their teachers in the Laboratory of Musical Creation with cross-cultural aim and in the Laboratory of Musical Creation with Alternative Media for Sound Production.

The musical repertoire is the city itself, told through the sensitivity, talent and creativity of children and young people inspired by tango, salsa, rock, Colombian music and symphonic music with some touches of urban and modern rhythms.

They will also have an exchange with Berklee College of Music, considered one of the best and most important schools in the world.

For Lina Botero Secretary of Citizen Culture, the tour means “to transcend the concerts and generate scenarios for knowledge exchange, strengthening the experience of the Network so that students become multipliers within the program and in their family and community environments.”

For most of the young people of the Music School, it is the first time they will perform outside the country. It will be an encounter with another culture and sounds, an opportunity to explore, fulfill dreams and strengthen their careers.

The Music Schools Network of Medellín,

The Network was created in 1996, with the aim of reaching vulnerable children and young people in the city and offer them a life project which help them to get away from violence. Nowadays, the network has 27 schools located in 14 Communes and 3 Townships of Medellín; 11 Integrated Groups, with a coverage of 4,600 students aged between 7 and 24 years. The Program has been strengthened by developing skills around musical performance, generating pedagogical strategies to complement the interpretative exercise with reflection and creation.

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Medellín was selected by UNESCO to host the International Conference on Learning Cities in 2019. In addition to this recognition, the World Cities Summit 2019 will be held in the city as a result of the Lee Kuan Yew Award received in 2016 for the efforts of Medellín in addressing urban challenges.

The capital of Antioquia was the first city in Colombia to be a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities.

Education has become a milestone of transformation in Medellín. This has led the city to generate a model of social integration through the development of lifelong-learning programs. Articulating them, not only strengthen and create knowledge, but allow to consolidate a global and sustainable community. These programs are: Buen Comienzo, Protective Environment School, Territory STEM + H, Sapiencia, the Center of Innovation for Teachers- MOVA, the Quality Schools and the future construction of the Western University Citadel.A process that the capital of Antioquia continues to build as one of the learning cities in the world.

This International Biennial Conference to be held in 2019 will allow Medellín to meet with government delegates and education experts from all continents and socialize the city’s best educational practices. Those which have allowed it to promote local development to build more inclusive and sustainable societies in the pursuit of compliance of SDG’s objective 4 ” Quality Education”

Thus, Medellín continues to project itself as a laboratory of best practices for the establishment of networks and alliances which generate the development of public policies to strengthen education throughout the life of citizens.

Las anteriores ediciones de la Conferencia Internacional se llevaron a cabo en Beijing, China; Ciudad de México y Cork, Irlanda.

Medellin, Colombia. More than 50 mayors from 17 different countries from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain met in Medellin, Colombia to exchange experiences and knowledge around social inclusion. This annual meeting is part of the Network of Cities promoted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to enhance the work of subnational governments in the region.

At the opening event of the Annual Meeting and Seminar “Inclusive Cities: Learning from Medellín” Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the IDB; Federico Gutiérrez, mayor of Medellín and Juan Luis Mejía Arango, president of EAFIT University, had a space to talk about the context and the expected results of the meeting. After the opening, the Mayor of Medellin made his presentation “Transformation of Medellin: progress and challenges of the city towards inclusion”, followed by a conversation with representatives of the University-Private Sector- State Committee (CUEE in Spanish) of Medellín.

“The Mayors’ Forum in Medellín is the ideal scenario to exchange experiences and knowledge among cities and discuss topics which are relevant to all mayors and the IDB. As Mayor of Medellín, I would like to express our interest and enthusiasm in participating in this important decision-making space which allows us to advance towards the objectives we share with other territories. We believe that we are able to connect with cities that face challenges similar to ours, in order to create sustainable changes in local environments,” Gutierrez said.

On the other hand, EAFIT’s President said: “EAFIT University is honored to be the center of such important meeting on inclusive cities as well as IDB’s Annual Meeting of Mayors. We consider it to be an opportunity, not just to offer our customary hospitality, but to show how this city has evolved and how EAFIT has contributed to its transformation and change. The creation of our Center for Urban and Environmental Studies and the generation of studies which positively impact and generate well-being in society confirms this effort. It is a way to highlight how a university can be linked to the transformation of a city. So, we are very happy to host this event. We hope the meeting will be a success and that attendees will keep an indelible memory of Medellín and EAFIT. ”

From September 17 to 19, the event will feature presentations and discussions of mayors, technical officers, experts and directors of the IDB on urban security, social inclusion in neighborhoods, sustainable mobility, and effective and efficient fiscal management. The seminars were organized in collaboration with the Santander City Council, the University of Cantabria and the Menéndez Pelayo International University, both universities are Spanish.

“The Mayors’ meeting is one of IDB’s initiatives which represents our commitment to advancing towards a sustainable development agenda for the region. This is a way to support our countries and their local governments in the efforts to improve the quality of life of its citizens through the acceleration of economic growth and the reduction of poverty and inequality, ” said Juan Pablo Bonilla, Manager of the Climate Change and Sustainable Development Sector of IDB.

The issues to be addressed in the Meeting were identified in line with the main demands that mayors face in their cities. For instance, from 2005 to 2015, the region doubled its total vehicle fleet, adding 100 million vehicles to its roads, increasing the demand for transportation services and the problems of pollution and traffic congestion.

One out every five people living in urban areas live in informal settlements, without property title and minimal access to basic services, exacerbating inequality. On the other hand, insecurity is one of the main concerns of the citizens of the region and one of the greatest challenges for the competitiveness of companies. According to an IDB study, crime costs 3.5% of the region’s GDP. The levels of violence are higher in poor urban neighborhoods and in peripheral areas of the city.

Despite the above, there are many positive and innovative experiences on how local governments are overcoming these challenges. This is why, IDB promotes the Network of Cities – in which 150 cities participate – as a mean to facilitate exchange spaces between cities and to have a platform to share knowledge and best practices on issues related to improving the quality of life, always focused in achieving sustainable and more inclusive cities.

About IDB

The mission of the Inter-American Development Bank is to improve lives. Founded in 1959, IDB is one of the main sources of long-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. It also conducts cutting-edge research projects and offers policy advice, technical assistance and training to public and private clients throughout the region.

Medellín is getting ready for the opening of the 12th Book and Culture Festival to be held between September 6 and 17 in Carabobo Norte. It is one of the five most important literary events in Latin America. This year’s guest country will be Mexico, which will cover all the venues of the Festival with its colors and flavors.

More than 50 Mexican guests among writers, artists and chefs, are expected in the twelfth version of the Book Festival. More than 400,000 visitors are expected.

The central theme of the event will be the forms of memory, a reflection on what we remember and forget taking into account the similarities or differences of what we live as a citizen collective in Medellín and Colombia, and how we process it through literary, visual, musical and plastic.

This event brings together prominent writers, photographers, artists and scientists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Spain, the United States, Ireland, the Netherlands, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. They will exchange knowledge and thoughts about memory, literary creation, reality and fiction in different talks and events.

Juan Villoro, María Baranda and Francisco Hinojosa, Mexican writers with a vast experience, will share with the attendees in different spaces and conversations. We invite you to check the schedule at [ Click here ]

Colombia-Mexico Year

Both countries celebrate 187 years of their diplomatic relations with a series of activities that have been extended throughout 2017 and 2018. Culture, mobility for students, commercial exchange and sports are some of the axis in which both countries have focused on, seeking to strengthen the ties of friendship between them. Mexico, as a special guest at the Book and Culture Festival of Medellín, is an opportunity for knowledge and integration of Mexican and Colombian cultural wealth.

A group of MSc students from the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University recently visited Medellín to learn about the government’s management of the city and its examples of cultural re-engineering, social inclusion and overcoming violence. This visit was set after the invitation of one of its members of Colombian origin, Colombia’s former Secretary of Transparency, Camilo Encizo.

The delegation, made up of 22 students from different nationalities, exchanged knowledge with the members and directors of the Music Schools Network of Medellín.They even had the opportunity to listen to the Music Schools Network play a Colombian musical repertoire and in retribution, one of the students of the Masters, the Chinese pianist Jie Chen , played a couple of songs for them.

“Being part of the Music Schools Network and receiving a visit from Harvard students, shows that Medellín has more to offer to the world. Peace instead of violence, ” said Emmanuel Moreno, mandolin player and one of the beneficiaries of the Network.

The Music Schools Network of Medellín plans to make a tour in United States on November, so this scenario was a prelude to what they will present in the North American country.