Florence is getting ready to host the second edition of Unity in Diversity, the mayors’ summit which gathered mayors from all over the world for the first time in November 2015.
Starting from what has now become a platform subscribed by the mayors of over 60 countries, we decided to focus on Cities’ Resilience for this edition.
In specific, being 2016 the 50th anniversary of the flood which destroyed the city on November 4, 1966, the second edition of the summit will be dedicated mostly to the cities that face daily issues related to the coexistence with water and rivers, but not only: climate change, cultural and natural heritage protection, natural and energy resources will be the topics mayors will discuss together with high profile international speakers. As we all bear in mind that most conflicts are generated by natural and energy resources control, a special focus will be dedicated to endangered cultural and natural heritage in conflict areas, as well.
Today more than ever we have the urge for rapid and incisive actions so that resilience will not be just a spontaneous quality of a single community but a real long term strategy for cities.
For the safety of our planet, therefore for our future, our joint commitment has to be a shared and established principle of action.
For those reasons we want to keep working in the belief that inspired Unity in Diversity, that is to say that cities and mayors are the first to deal with everyday issues and that local governments can play a strong role in the growth of a community firstly, therefore of a Country. While dialogue between nations involves a more complex system, dialogue between cities and local institutions can be facilitated by the tools of local governance.
