The 2nd Collingwood World Summit is organized around four themes with the overarching emphasis on achieving the SDGs and in particular the urban SDG 11 at the scale of towns and small cities. The Summit will bring diverse views from mayors, town councillors, urban practitioners, community organizations, private sector stakeholders and academia to share their practical solutions and approaches on sustainable urban development and economic prosperity.

The Summit is an open platform for diverse ideas and exchange of lived experiences and practical examples and approaches to current and future actions related to the 4 themes and topics for discussion below.

Discussion Topic Areas
Theme 1: Housing

In the post pandemic era, we analyse the trends to safe, affordable and sustainable housing, A view on zero carbon construction will be part of the discussion to adhere to the priorities of climate action and environmental protection.

Topics

·       Access to housing finance

·       Access to sustainable building resources

·       Zero carbon housing technologies

·       Planning and building design in housing

·       Housing and access to infrastructure and services

Theme 2: Urban Assessment, Benchmarking and Urban Resources

Continue to acquire a clear understanding on urban assessment and benchmarking using the United Nation’s City Prosperity Index (CPI) to measure and evaluate progress towards achieving the SDGs each year for evidence-based decision making. CPI as a monitoring mechanism is a tool to measure the 2030 Agenda and sustainable urban development (SDG 11) with a people-centred approach.

Topics

·      Collect and manage data for analysis

·      Benchmark urban assessment for policy development and investments

·      Enhance the capacity of Towns and small cities to access and use urban resources sustainably

·      Consistently monitor and evaluate outcomes to move forward SDG 11

Theme 3: Regional and Global Connectivity

Strengthen regional, national, and global connectivity to enable towns and small cities to adapt and recalibrate to a growing changing environment.

Topics

·      Build on existing Town characteristics (example, tourist destination, technology centre, industrial base, etc.)

·      Maintain social cohesion and good quality of life

·      Town identity in a growing urban environment

·      Migration patterns and impacts on towns and small cities

·      Food security and agricultural markets

·      Connectivity to small and larger urban settlements 

Theme 4: Public Participation and Civic Engagement

Foster the interplay between the public, private, social, business and community groups and civic engagement for good governance and active participation in decision making.

Topics

• Role of civic engagement and participation 

• Values of good governance and active participation

• Asset based community development (ABCD)

• Business Community

• Climate Action Team

• Gender and age balance and equity 

• Diversity and inclusion