The Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District, Alderman Graham Warke, travelled to Belfast last week to join civic leaders from Cork, Dublin, Belfast and Limerick to renew their commitment to promote learning across all five cities and city regions.
Dignitaries and representatives from the Irish Network of Learning Cities from across Ireland came together to sign up to an extended five-year period of collaboration to use learning to improve the lives of all citizens.
Speaking at the event, Alderman Graham Warke, said it was vital to retain strong educational links across the island, with a shared focus on improving learning opportunities for all ages.
“We look forward to working on more collaborations with all the cities in the next five years, not only to support learners, but to help create a culture of lifelong learning across the island both north and south.
“We have a wealth of talent here in our City and District, we need to enhance and promote the range of opportunities available, and we can learn much from the experience our partners that will help us along this journey,” he told delegates.
Welcoming the delegates to City Hall, Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Michael Long, said: “I am delighted to host the Lord Mayors and Mayors representing the Irish Network of Learning Cities in Belfast today to reaffirm our joint pledge to work together to share best practice on all things related to lifelong and life-wide learning.
“Through this renewed Memorandum of Understanding we promise to support, inspire and share good practice with a focus on building learning cities based on the principles of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities.
“The importance of building a learning city cannot be underestimated, especially in the wake of the pandemic.
“We believe that by working together to nurture a culture of learning across all aspects of life, we can empower all our citizens to improve their quality of life and in turn build stronger and healthier communities.
“Since signing the original agreement in 2019, we have built strong foundations as a network and look forward to further collaboration to celebrate learning and shine a spotlight on the achievements of all learners.
“We are very much looking forward to the next five years.”
All five cities in the Network are members of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, a network of over 200 cities around the world committed to using learning to improve the lives of their citizens by sharing good practice, creative solutions and ideas in addressing key concerns that impact society.
For more information on Derry Learning City, please visit: https://learningcityds.com/
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