When designing cities, communities — especially young people and civil society — should be included in the process not only as beneficiaries, but also as co-creators of cities and decision-making processes, Maleyka Taghizada, Advocacy and Events Consultant at UN-Habitat, said during the event titled “Youth and Civil Society Leadership in the Development of Sustainable and Inclusive Cities” held within the framework of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku, APA reports.
“One of the most effective ways to strengthen cooperation is to ensure that relations do not remain only at the level of symbolic participation. Because very often we invite people to events, tell them ‘you are leaders, you are the future of cities,’ they come, listen in the audience and leave. And that is where everything ends,” Maleyka Taghizada noted.
According to her, a structured model should be established so that people genuinely feel they are participating in decision-making.
“Long-term mechanisms should be created so that youth organizations, NGOs and academic circles can come together to identify problems, discuss ways to solve them, and jointly decide who should participate in these processes,” Maleyka Taghizada emphasized.
