The Urban Social Forum 2023 rounds up more than 100 speakers from 30 cities in Chisinau, representing international organizations and partner cities, non-governmental organizations, public authorities, investors and development partners. Among them are prominent personalities from the social field, who have influenced systems and policies around the world and can provide inspiring examples and practices for Chisinau.
Alongside the local specialists, they will address subjects of greatimportance for sustainable urban development and the creation of a better living environment for the city’s residents, presenting models of social and political projects to take over, which will provide benefits to the local community.
Here we mention only a few of the speakers that those present at the Urban Social Forum can listen to in the 13 discussion panels held during the event.
Georgette Mulheir is a leading global expert who has created a new model for changing child care and protection systems, it being followed by many countries around the world. She has worked in 33 countries, consulted governments, major donors and the international community in this field. She will give a presentation on the panel dedicated to child care and protection programmes.
Lene Rachel Andersen, co-founder of the thinking lab Nordic Bildung in Copenhagen, the main initiator of the European Education Day and co-founder of the European Training Network, will give a speech in the opening panel of the forum, but also a public lesson on the concept of Nordic Bildung, being its co-author and active advocate.
Chisinau recently became part of the Global Network of Learning Cities, under the auspices of UNESCO Learning Cities. In this context, the forum will have as guests several representatives of the cities in the network.
Levan Kvatchadze, Regional Director of DVV International for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, will moderate the “Learning City” panel. The organization is a leader in adult education, providing worldwide support for the establishment and development of sustainable facilities for youth and adult education. As part of the cooperation with DVV International, the first Centre for Adult Learning was recently opened in Chisinau.
Annateresa Rondinella is the Coordinator of UNESCO’s cultural projects and programmes and the author of a project recognized worldwide as good educational practice, having been presented at many international meetings. At the forum she will talk about strengthening learning networks in the city of Lucca, Italy.
Timoleon Pietris, Deputy Mayor for Tourism in the Municipality of Corinth, Greece, has broad experience in social, educational, urban, cultural and local development issues. In Chisinau he will talk about the experience of the historic city of Corinth within the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities. Moreover, representatives of the cities of Clermont-Ferrand and Evry-Courcouronnes (France), Cork (Ireland), Oss (Netherlands) and Yerevan (Armenia) are coming to present their good practices.
Within the joint panel the following people will be participating:Francesca Bonelli, Representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in the Republic of Moldova; Felisa Tibbitts, UNESCO Chair in Human Rights in Higher Education, University of Utrecht, Netherlands; Dominika Stojanoska, UN Women Country Representative; Nigina Abaszada, Representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Moldova and Andrew Mcelroy, Global Coordinator for Making Cities Resilient 2030 within the UN Global Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Speakers will address subjects such as gender equality, city development that leaves no one behind, the refugee crisis, climate-sensitive urban development and adult education.
The city of Chisinau proposes to join the initiative of the World Health Organization – the European Network of Healthy Cities. Representatives of the network were invited to the forum, as well as other health specialists from the country and abroad, who come with ideas and practices that will help the local authorities and the city to achieve this goal.
Gernot Antes, Coordinator of the Austrian Healthy Cities Network, will speak on the “Healthy City” panel about the advantages of a network of healthy cities for the country and for the people. Odysseas Nasimpian, Deputy Mayor of Nea Smyrni, Greece, will share the healthy practices his city is developing.
Bitta Mostofi, Immigrant Rights Attorney, Senior Advisor to the Director of USCIS and former Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, will give an online response where she will talk about ways to integrate refugees and migrants.
Ko Do Hwan – Executive Director of Peace Winds Korea, will talk about the experience of managing a refugee centre in Ukraine. This topic will be addressed by Anna Szadkowska-Ciezca, deputy head of the Participation Office of the City Hall of Lublin, as well as other guests at the forum.
Luis Beltran, Municipal Councillor Responsible for Accessibility and People with Disabilities, Grenoble, France will present the experience of the city of Grenoble in regards to the accessibilityfor people with disabilities, and Carlo Nofri – president of the National Observatory on Linguistic and Cultural Mediation, Italy, will respond online with a presentation about the experience of Fermo as a deaf-friendly city.
As part of the “Energy efficient city” panel, Davit Narmania, President of the Georgian National Energy and Water Supply Regulatory Commission, will present good practices; Andrei Zamfiroi, Deputy General Director of “Energetica Servicii” from Bucharest, Romania; Nick Grove, Co-Executive Director, Palantir Group, UK; Dimitra Livadioti, Head of Circular Economy Directorate, Nea Smyrni, Greece, Feliks V. Lacroix, UK ESG expert and Jean-Luc Deflandre, Wrightbus Commercial Director, UK.
Methods to prevent all risks, but also the necessary actions for a safe, resilient and sustainable city will be discussed during the “Safe City” panel, where local experts will be guided by Milana Rikanovici, Gender specialist, UN Women Serbia; Itır Akdogan, Research Director of the Economic and Social Research Foundation, Turkey and Gabi Mihai, Vice president of the Trade Union Organization “ProLex Iasi, Politia Locala”, as well as other speakers from different fields, related to ensuring the safety of city residents.
At the “Creative City” panel we will have guests from the Danish Cultural Institute – Frederikke Thorning Jacobsen, Project coordinator; Kaspars Liegalvis, Totaldobže Art Centre – Black Holes Residency in Riga (Latvia) and Jaanus Juss, Founder of Telliskivi Creative City Centre, Tallinn (Estonia). The representative of the Telliskivi centre will also give a public lecture.
The Urban Social Forum starts today and will end on May 6thwith guest visits to establishments that provide services of social importance.
Those wishing to participate can register at www.forumsocialurban.md