Medellín joined UNESCO’s Global Network of Learning Cities, thanks to an articulated strategy which places education as an axis to achieve great social transformations. This membership, awarded for the first time to a Colombian city, will allow us to share our knowledge with other capitals of the world and to promote public strategies for development.
During the Third International Conference of the Cities of Learning, held in Cork, Ireland, Mayor Federico Gutierrez Zuluaga highlighted Medellín’s plan by 2030 which has been kept regardless the changes in government. “This plan was developed with universities and the private sector to reduce inequality.”
Being part of this network, reinforces the city’s commitment to fulfill the Sustainable Development Objectives adopted by the UN through actions that, in 70%, depend directly on the Development Plan. One of the most important is to guarantee children and adolescents’ access to education.
“By providing our children and young people with education, we are also giving them the ability to dream, to think that they can get as high as they want,” he said, explaining that education helps reduce hunger, poverty, gender gaps and generates economic progress.
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UNESCO’s Global Network of Learning Cities highlighted the importance of programs such as Buen Comienzo, which currently serves 74,042 children between 0 and 5 years old. Likewise, they praised the initiative “We Count on You at School,” which has identified 1,600 children who have deserted the education system and helped them to return.
“I have toured around neighborhoods and streets so that our children and young people do not stop studying. We did a door-to-door job and we will continue to do it,” said the Mayor.
In terms of higher education, the mayor of Medellín highlighted the delivery, through Sapiencia, of 2,842 scholarships and credits for training of young people in relevant programs, to facilitate access to the labor world.
Source: Mayor of Medellín (September 18)
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