Romania Has One City in UNESCO Learning Cities Member List: RESITA

Resita is the only Romanian city accepted by UNESCO as a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities. Resita joins an extensive list of 294 cities selected by UNESCO to be part of this new program.

According to the program’s guidelines, the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities is an international policy-oriented network providing inspiration, know-how and best practice. Learning cities at all stages of development can benefit greatly from sharing ideas with other cities, as solutions for issues that arise as one learning city develops may already exist in other cities. The Network supports the achievement of all seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 4 (‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’) and SDG 11 (‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’). The UNESCO GNLC supports and improves the practice of lifelong learning in the world’s cities by promoting policy dialogue and peer learning among member cities, forging links, fostering partnerships, providing capacity development, and developing instruments to encourage and recognize progress made in building learning cities.

What makes a learning city?

The same guidelines define the learning city and how one becomes a partner within the network:

A learning city promotes lifelong learning for all. UNESCO defines a learning city as a city that:

• effectively mobilizes its resources in every sector to promote inclusive learning from primary to higher education;
• revitalizes learning in families and communities;
• facilitates learning for and in the workplace;
• extends the use of modern learning technologies;
• enhances quality and excellence in learning; and
• fosters a culture of learning throughout life.

The city enhances individual empowerment and social inclusion, economic development and cultural prosperity, and sustainable development.

Romania is again an exception. Even Moldova, the sister country, has two cities included in the learning cities program, Chisinau and Cahul. Other countries, such as South Korea, have more than 50 cities on the list.

Anyway, the Romanian city of Resita joins this network where lots of other famous cities are present, such as Athens, Beijing, Bonn, Charleroi, Doha, Dublin, Glasgow, Hamburg, Kyiv, Lausanne, Ljubljana, Marrakech, Mexico City, Montpellier, Palermo, Sao Paulo, Turin.