Networks and cities' news

Gender and Social Inclusion in the One Health Approach

Why inclusion matters for One Health

The One Health approach recognises that the health of people, animals, plants, and ecosystems is deeply interconnected. From air quality and food systems to mental well-being and biodiversity, our cities’ health outcomes depend on how these systems interact. Yet there is another kind of interconnectedness that deserves equal attention: the social one. Gender, income, age, disability, and other forms of social difference all shape how individuals experience health risks and benefits in urban environments.

Integrating gender and social inclusion into One Health means ensuring that everyone can contribute to and benefit from healthier urban systems. It recognises that health is not distributed evenly and that without equity, sustainability remains incomplete.

Mob.Feira: a pilot action driving digital mobility transformation in Santa Maria da Feira, by Alberto João Mendonça

The Mob.Feira project stands as the pilot action of Santa Maria da Feira’s IAP, now entering its real implementation phase in the parish of Milheirós de Poiares. Developed through continuous dialogue with the URBACT Local Group, the digital platform aims to centralise all mobility information in one accessible, user-friendly space — connecting citizens with public transport, cycling routes, and micromobility options.

An Urban Biodiversity Guidebook for cities to transform their relationship with nature

The BiodiverCity URBACT Action Planning Network (community-based approaches to foster urban biodiversity and nature-based solutions) has published its Network Result Product. From sustainable urban tree management and wildflower meadows through nature-inclusive buildings and constructed wetlands to bird-friendly policies and community engagement, this guidebook highlights those thematic fields where cities can enhance urban biodiversity, enabling them to put biodiversity as a core organising principle of urban planning.

Biodivercity IAP interview #2 Guimarães

Stakeholder engagement for humanizing metaverse: some useful lessons from METACITY

Technologic development rarely makes headlines, as it usually advances outside the everyday current affairs of our societies. Nevertheless, the emergence of immersive technologies is sparking unprecedented debate, as digital technologies are reshaping how cities are planned and promoted, but also how people take part in new forms of participatory governance.

Dialogue and collaboration with residents are becoming crucial aspects of every digital transformation process, as experienced by the partners of METACITY which are finalizing the process of integrated action planning. For many of them this was the first opportunity to bring the potential of metaverse technologies for urban innovation under the spotlight as a crucial topic of the local political agenda.

Bringing together municipalities, universities, research centres, and local communities from across Europe, the network has fostered the co-creation of Integrated Action Plans that embed digital innovation within inclusive and participatory governance models. The partners of METACITY are experiencing innovative ways to strengthen stakeholder engagement on topics like artificial intelligence and virtual reality offering useful lessons also for other cities that are including the use of immersive technologies into their local strategies.

Biodivercity IAP interview #1 Sarajevo