The Cities Learning Together conference was convened in Hong Kong in November 2013, by the EU Centre at RMIT in conjunction with PASCAL International Observatory and the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Together with seven other partners, the conference was designed to focus on major challenges facing cities and communities within cities, and to explore the ways in which learning can assist in addressing those challenges. The concept of ‘learning cities’ has been the focus of this kind of thinking for some time, initially in Europe, with strong support from the OECD and the European Union, and more recently in Asia. The PASCAL International Exchanges (PIE) program has been one site where these ideas have been explored directly, while UNESCO conducted the International Conference on Learning Cities in October 2013 in Beijing, China.

Following the discussions in the Drafting Committee and their adoption in outline form at the final plenary session, we have finalised the Beijing Declaration on Building Learning Cities, Key Features of Learning Cities: Introductory Note and the Key Features of Learning Cities (attached). Please disseminate these documents in your constituencies/networks. We hope that these documents will help you to develop strategies that promote the building of learning cities.