By Patricia Lanzagarita
KNOWN for its distinct flavors and prominent delicacies, Iloilo City was proclaimed by UNESCO as the first Creative City of Gastronomy in the Philippines.
On behalf of the celebration of World Cities Day, UNESCO added 55 new cities to the list that will join the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
According to the organization, the newly added cities will be cooperating with the whole network to ensure their resilience against evolving threats such as climate change, rapid urbanization, and inequality.
The agency said that the cities were designated by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay based on their strong commitment to using culture and creativity as part of development strategies and innovative practices in human-centered urban planning.
“The cities in our Creative Cities Network are leading the way when it comes to enhancing access to culture and galvanizing the power of creativity for urban resilience and development,” Azoulay added.
Meanwhile, the Iloilo City Government highlighted their journey from bidding their city to be one of the nominees to become the country’s lone official entry for the gastronomy category this year.
“This is truly a proud moment for every Ilonggo and Filipino as we finally got included in the prestigious list of cities worldwide for the UNESCO Creative Cities Network,” they stated.
Newly added cities are encouraged to attend the upcoming 2024 UCCN Annual Conference at Braga, Portugal from July 1 to 5.
Counting the latest additions, the network now has 350 cities in more than 100 hundred countries which represent various fields such as design, film, gastronomy, crafts and folk art, literature, music, and media arts.
Source: UNESCO (https://bit.ly/3u26hTB) and Iloilo City Government (https://bit.ly/3FLh4UE)
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