Latin American challenges to have more inclusive cities in the next 20 years

Latin America is the most urbanized developing region in the planet. It has four of the 20 cities with more than 10 million inhabitants, and 55 of the 414 cities with more than one million inhabitants. In these 55 cities, there are 183 million people, representing one third of Latin America's total inhabitants.  

Based on this context, a new urban agenda should be developed for the next 20 years, and this subject is going to be discussed by the member countries of the United Nations in a conference called Habitat III, which will take place in October 2016, in Quito. 

The "Seminario Internacional sobre Ciudades Inclusivas" (International Seminar on Inclusive Cities), lead by CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, and the Universidad de Los Andes, was used to analyze the challenges of the region regarding inclusive cities, territorial expansion strategies, socio-environmental rights, and the economy. 

José Carrera, Vice President of Social Development at CAF, stated, "Events such as this seminar are among the initiatives supported by CAF to promote discussion regarding pragmatic ways to stimulate greater social equity in the region. Knowledge on best practices regarding social inclusion, urban modification, and environmental sanitation, especially in informal settlements, represent a valuable tool for empowerment and an accurate path toward the transformation of our cities into cities of opportunities, quality of life, and development".   

At the same time, Carolina España, CAF's Director Representative in Colombia, stated, "framed in the objectives stated by Habitat III, the purpose of this seminar is to contribute to define a new urban agenda, incorporating mechanisms and actions that contribute to the construction of inclusive cities and the right to the city. This space seeks to present successful programs, actions, cases, and experiences in Colombia and the rest of Latin America, that my be used as specific models to generate changes in our cities". 

To help promote sustainable development in cities, CAF developed the Cities with Future Initiative which, through publications such as Inclusión de habitantes en la ciudadanía plena (Inclusion of inhabitants to full citizenship), considers common guidelines for its interventions in urban areas that help, be means of a vision and a comprehensive development agenda, to take advantage of the synergies of the different initiatives that the Institution promotes in the different areas of public management, citizen safety, productive transformation, infrastructure, inclusive urban development, environment, energy, and ICT.