Barcelona takes news steps to become a hub for international organizations

On July 14 was held in Barcelona the presentation of a new International Public Policy Action Plan. This project aims to acknowledge the city as a core attraction for international organizations and thus, identify this metropolis as a place of global values. At the meeting, GUNi, represented by our Executive Director Josep Maria Vilalta, signed a document launching this project together with others leading organizations, both from the public and the private sector.

This initiative arises from efforts driven by various organizations to convert the Catalan capital into an international center toward a global reference on the development and the promotion of projects related to global issues such as education, democracy, environment, conflicts, and global health among others.

The Action Plan’s brings together global ideas through two main activities: provide incentives thought the creation of networks with public and private spaces, which will be used, with reduced prices, for national and international projects and, open a call for those organizations that are interested in settle an headquarter in Barcelona, so they can approach this new opportunity. This initiative has received the support of Barcelona Global.

There are a lot of reasons to select Barcelona as the hub of this initiative. Beyond its cosmopolitan aspect, the promoters of the Action Plan highlighted the Barcelona’s potential due to its global connection, the great social mobilization capacity, neutral political identity, institutional benefits and its large experience on boosting clusters in areas such as Smart cities, design and research & technology. These features allow Barcelona to be not only an international reference but also enhance its capacity as an important global actor regarding international organizations and governments.

This is list of the signatories of the Action Plan:

• Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT)

• Barcelona Global

• Instituto Salud Global Barcelona (ISGlobal)

• Open Society Initiative for Europe

• World Vision (Catalunya)

• Democracia Abierta

• Africa Digna

• Fundació Fòrum Universal de les Cultures

• Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB)

• Associació Catalana d’Universitats Publiques (ACUP)

• Global University Network for Innovation

• Casa Asia

• Imacity

• Acció contra el Hambre

• MedCities

• Federació d’Organitzacions Catalanes Internacionalment Reconegudes (FOCIR)

• Active Africa

• Instituto Europeo del Mediterráneo (IEMed)

• Blanquerna – Universitat Ramón Llull

• Worldreader

• Centre d’Estudis Africans

• Global Water Operators’ Partnership Alliance (GWOPA)

• Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI)

• Fundació Catalunya Europa

• Ideaborn

• Fundació Cercle d’Economia

• Institut Català Internacional per la Pau (ICIP)