GNLC Awardee: Belfast

Against a backdrop of long-standing social and political unrest, the city of Belfast is using learning to tackle inequalities and improve quality of life for all of its citizens.

Thanks to the ‘Belfast a Learning City’ strategy, the municipality has made great strides forward in recent years.

Belfast offers citywide Easter, summer and after-school programmes providing literacy and numeracy support that benefits disadvantaged children and young people.

Festivals and networking events capture the enthusiasm of key stakeholders to build a learning city that benefits everyone.

With over 500 events as part of the annual Belfast Festival of Learning, Belfast promotes the city’s exciting array of learning opportunities and helps build a culture of lifelong learning for all.

Belfast’s 'Good Relations Strategy’ helps the city to build better relations between people from different political, religious and racial backgrounds. Strong positive and transformative civic leadership, and inclusive governance with community change-makers are among the cornerstones of the strategy.

Elected members and community partners coordinate the implementation of the strategy. Their aim: a ‘21st-century learning city that is driven by our young people’.

A wide variety of projects is being implemented with this goal in mind. Diversionary initiatives seek to limit the likelihood of young people becoming involved in conflict when tensions arise. Initiatives with schools and youth organizations provide opportunities for children and young people to learn about the different and shared identities of people within their neighbourhoods and across the city.

The UNESCO Learning City Award was established to further promote lifelong learning for all and showcase good practices in building learning cities. It is conferred on cities that have thereby achieved outstanding progress in learning city development. All awardee cities have demonstrated best practices that lay the foundation for sustainable development.

The UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC) supports and improves the practice of lifelong learning in member cities by promoting policy dialogue and peer learning, documenting effective strategies and good practice, fostering partnerships, providing capacity development, and developing tools and instruments to design, implement and monitor learning cities strategies.

UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities

Credits: © City of Belfast; Monkey Business Images