The Eleventh Edition of the World Urban Forum will be held in Katowice from 26 to 30 June.

The World Urban Forum (WUF11 in 2022) is the premier global event with a focus on urban policy and sustainable urbanisation, introduced by UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme). For the first time in WUF history, the event will be organised in Central and Eastern Europe. The Association of Polish Cities intends to take advantage of that development for purpose of popularising urban themes and the National Urban Policy across Poland. “Changing Our Cities for a Better Future”, the lead theme chosen for the 2022 WUF edition, expresses a concept we are all following. We all want our cities and towns to develop for a better future.

This is why the Association of Polish Cities is launching a new series of seminars under the well-known Local Development Forum (LDF) formula with a focus on preparing Polish cities and towns for participating in the 11th edition of the World Urban Forum. If interested, you are invited by the Association to join the first online opening seminar on 11 February .

The series of WUF11 preparation seminars has been designed to provide representatives of cities and towns with knowledge regarding fundamental issues associated with this year’s focal World Urban Forum themes, including fair cities; green urban future; developing urban resilience; urban planning and administration; and the future of urban economy and finance.

The invitation issued by Executive Director of the Office of the Association of Polish Cities Andrzej Porawski and extended to Polish cities and towns reads, “We intend to further explore all these themes with you in the course of LDF seminars we consider a substantive and technical preparation for WUF11. These meetings will allow us to identify and discuss essential matters which might be presented by representatives of Polish municipalities, and pinpoint individuals who can be coached and potentially notified by the Association as attendants of various themed events at the World Urban Forum proper in June this year.”

World Urban Forum organisers and the Association wish for the community of international speakers in Katowice to include Polish municipal mayors and presidents.

Notably, the Association of Polish Cities succeeded in securing a World Urban Forum Accompanying Event status for the LDF seminar series.

The opening seminar will be held on 11 February. We will be joined by representatives of the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, City of Katowice – host city of WUF11, Institute of Municipal and Regional Development, and – obviously – Association of Polish Cities.

We are counting on cities and towns’ interest, and active participation of their representatives.

We would like to remind you that the Local Development Forum seminar series is delivered as part of the “Local Development” programme implemented by the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy as part of the 3rd edition of Norway and European Economic Area Grants. The LDF is an open platform created by the Association of Polish Cities to accommodate a local and central government and expert debate, coupled with an integrated package of activities to promote sustainable and endogenic local development approaches and tools.