Belfast celebrates new agreement with the Irish Network of Learning Cities.

On 18th May 2022 the Lord Mayor of Belfast hosted a delegation from the Learning Cities of Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Derry City & Strabane Region to renew their commitment to promote learning across all five cities and city regions.

Dignitaries and representatives from the Irish Network of Learning Cities travelled from across Ireland to sign up to an extended five-year period of collaboration to use learning to improve the lives of all citizens.

Welcoming the delegates to City Hall, Lord Mayor Councillor Michael Long said: “I am delighted to host the Lord Mayors and Mayors representing the Irish Network of Learning Cities in Belfast 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 learners within all our cities and city regions. 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 nearly 300 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.

Belfast was awarded the UNESCO Learning City Award in 2021.