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Fifth Global Summit December 2024
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Fifth Global Summit

Strong Cities
Fifth Global Summit

In December 2024, the Strong Cities Network held its Fifth Global Summit in Cape Town (South Africa). The Summit convened more than 140 participants, including 60 mayors, governors and other city leaders, as well as local officials, practitioners and partners from more than 90 cities and 40 countries to showcase how cities are preventing and responding to rising levels of hate, extremism and polarisation amid consecutive global crises.

An innovations and solutions exchange of city-led action in prevention and response to rising hate, extremism and polarisation, and local impacts of global crises

Summit Highlights

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Mayoral Conversations & Plenary Sessions 

City-Led Innovations in Community Safety

Mayors and other local leaders from different cities around the world sharing their strategies for fostering safe, cohesive and resilient local communities, underscoring the interconnected and transnational nature of challenges facing cities and their role in shaping localised responses.  

Event Report

Preventing and Responding to Hate Speech

City leaders sharing strategies and approaches for addressing rising hate speech, both on/offline, its potential to divide communities and incite violence, and city-led action for fostering social cohesion. 

Event Report

Refugees, Migration and Urbanisation

City-city learning and sharing on how local leaders and governments are safeguarding social cohesion amid unprecedented levels of urbanisation and migration, caused in part by global crises, from regional and international conflicts to climate change.  

Event Report

National – Local Cooperation

A discussion led by national and local stakeholders to share approaches they are taking to strengthen collaboration with their national and local counterparts to enhance whole-of-society efforts to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation.  

Event Report

Interactive Parallel Sessions 

Digital Literacy: Role of Cities in Preventing and Responding to Online Harms

Challenges posed to cities globally by disinformation, hate speech, extremist content and cyber threats, fuelled and/or exacerbated by global crises.  

Event Report

Managing Migration: How Cities can be both a Welcoming City and Support the Needs of its Diverse Communities

City-led integration practices and how to safeguard social cohesion and manage migration and rapidly changing populations within a rule of law framework  

Event Report

National – Local Cooperation: Good Practices for Strengthening NLC in Prevention and Response

Successes and innovative practices from across diverse geopolitical contexts for aligning approaches for preventing and responding to hate, extremism and polarisation at the national and local levels.  

Event Report

Urban Design & Planning: Strengthening Social Cohesion  

Co-hosted with ICLEI, an opportunity for city-city sharing and learning on how cities can promote social cohesion through inclusive and participatory urban planning and development, and for exploring diverse lived experiences and implications for city planning. 

Event Report

Youth Councils and other City-Led Youth Engagement Initiatives

How cities are establishing youth councils as a model and mechanism for meaningful engagement with and inclusion of young people in local governance, empowering them to seek solutions and drive societal change.  

Event Report

City-Led Action in Response to Rising Tensions and Hate Incidents 

An opportunity to share approaches for how mayors, other local leaders and their governments are balancing responsibilities for protecting free speech and freedom of expression while ensuring public safety, with a focus on navigating public protests.  

Event Report

Tabletop Exercises

Building Trust as Foundation for Prevention 

Working through a series of short hypothetical scenarios, inspired by real-world events, participants explored ways local governments can (re-)build and maintain trust, including by promoting transparency, accountability, participatory decision-making, inclusivity, equity and consistency.  

Event Report

Regional Dialogues & Network Meetings 

South-to-South Cooperation: Enhancing Cross-Regional Collaboration

Sharing challenges facing cities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and opportunities for fostering cross-regional collaboration among mayors, governors and other local leaders, and local governments in these regions through the Network’s Regional Hubs and thematic areas of focus.  

Event Report

Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative 

An opportunity to build on good practices drawn from the in-person and virtual convenings of the Transatlantic community in 2024 and identifying opportunities to more fully leverage this platform for city-to-city learning in 2025.  

Event Report

International Steering Committee Meeting 

In-person meeting of the Network’s International Steering Committee; an opportunity to update and discuss with members the Network’s progress and impact in 2024, and forward plans for 2025.   

Event Report

Summit Co-hosts

Strong Cities was proud to partner with the City of Cape Town, co-host of this year’s Summit

Summit Sponsors

The Summit was sponsored by Public Safety Canada, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, the European Union and the U.S. Department of State.

Copyright © Institute for Strategic Dialogue (2024). The Strong Cities Network is hosted by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a company limited by guarantee, registered office address PO Box 75769, London, SW1P 9ER. ISD is registered in England with company registration number 06581421 and registered charity number 1141069. All Rights Reserved