The concept of "Educating City" signifies the understanding and treatment of the city as a multi-dimensional space of co-existence and relationships based on respect, information, participation and a positive attitude towards diversity.
The city is educative per se: it is undeniable that urban planning, health, the environment and nature, sports, citizen services, culture, the media, schools, traffic and transportation, safety, etc. include and generate different forms of education of the city's inhabitants.
The city becomes an educating city when it explicitly accepts this reality and becomes committed to it.
Local governments, first of all, as the democratic representatives, are the institutions that must incorporate these aspects, this willingness to educate and this commitment, into their policy lines as a whole.
This involves, within the local governments themselves, new co-ordinated ways of working: the transversality of the questions demands it. On the other hand, it is more obvious every day that there is a need for and usefulness in dealing with issues in a multi-disciplinary manner.
Thus it involves new and necessary relationships with "civil society" and the different collectives and institutions that share common aspects.

The Association
The conviction that today more than ever before, the educating city needs to enter into dialogue with other cities, reflect collectively, collaborate on projects and specific actions, and also search jointly for the elements of evaluation required for the different proposals and activities, led, in 1994, to the creation of the International Association of Educating Cities (IAEC).
The IAEC is an Association of cities represented by their local governments, which are grouped together in order to collaborate on projects and activities to improve the quality of life of their nhabitants, on the basis of the involvement in the knowledge, use, and evolution of their own city. We could say, on the basis of the four pillars that are set forth in the Delors report, that we are dealing with learning how to know, learning how to do, learning how to be and learning how to live together, in the city.
The forms in which the cities carry out the development of the concept of the Educating city are as diverse as the two words that make it up: City and Education.

There are cities that are working on a vertebrating project around which all the educating actions of the inhabitants revolve. This is the case of the cities such as Porto Alegre in Brazil or Vallenar in Chile.
In the first case, through the Participatory Budget, the citizens can participate in municipal power and decide on the budget as a whole. In this way an active citizenry is created, which takes decisions and which has direct political participation alongside the government.
In the case of Vallenar it is the Recovery and Integration Project of the river which is generating all the activities. With this project they have managed to reverse a situation of degeneration of the river area and rehabilitate public spaces to be used by the inhabitants for different activities. This recovery has been carried out bearing in mind the architectural lines of the environment and through the active participation of the inhabitants and different public and private institutions.

Other cities have shown their work as educating cities on the basis of activities coming out of general programmes aimed at different sectors of the population and within different thematic areas.
In Barcelona, the Youth Plan is the instrument for directing the youth policy of the City Government. It is based on 11 action programmes and 120 specific activities and projects. Montevideo has set up a Commission for the elderly with the participation of associations alongside specialised public institutions. This Commission prepares policies in the areas of health, culture, education and the use of free time.

There are cities that describe their work through specific activities. Budapest has shown us, amongst other proposals, the organisation of a training activity in collaboration between the municipality and the Faculty of Architecture, so that future architects will know the real issues in the urban development of the city and the work of the local government in this area, and so that these students can become active participants in its development.
Among the activities undertaken in Geneva is the organisation each year of a ceremony to proclaim the entrance into public life of young people who in the following year will reach the age of majority and, therefore, will accede to all their civil rights.
We could provide many other examples from these and other cities. All of them can be found in the International Documents Bank of Educating Cities, which we will talk about further below.

All of these cities share the following objectives:

Today, the IAEC has 284 members in 34 countries. The evolution of its growth, its geographical distribution and the number of inhabitants are reflected in the following chapters.
The General Assembly is the supreme governing body. It is made up of all the Associated Cities.
The Executive Committee made up of Barcelona (which holds the Presidency and the General Secretariat) Budapest, Geneva, Lisbon, Lomé, Mexico, Porto Alegre, Rennes, Rosario, Tampere and Turin.
Since 1996, The Association has initiated the creation of territorial networks (Italy, France, Spain, Brazil, etc.) with different characteristics and structures. Their objective is the exchange and cooperation between cities which are close in terms of territory, language and concerns.
Since 2000 it has organised thematic networks that were put forward by the Executive Committee. Their objective is to bring cities together who want to work jointly on a specific issue, through the exchange of experiences, the construction of common projects in order to improve the treatment of different issues in each city, seek out common elements of assessment and prepare conclusions.
It is also contemplating the chance to organise other networks, on the basis of the same cities, in accordance with needs and preferences.

The thematic networks now operating are:

1. ICT – i.e. Information and Communication Technology. May 19-20^th, 2005 will the city of Tampere host the first meeting of ICT in Educating Cities Thematic Network. This meeting will be held under the theme of "Opportunities and Challenges for the Administration and Education" and will focus on ICT for all and ICT in the schools. Special emphasis will be placed on digital literacy, active citizens, the use of the new technologies in the schools as a learning tool, teacher training, etc. This meeting was addressed mainly to civil servants in local councils, educators and teachers, pedagogical support personnel, administrators and directors of schools and libraries, and other experts interested in sharing best practices and learning from others.

2. The fight against failure at school. Not only in the case of young people but also for adults. Bearing in mind the physical, psychological and social limitations and also dealing with apparently collateral aspects, such as questions of health, nutrition, etc. Co-ordinated by the city of Turin.

3. Transition from school to the workplace. The city must collaborate in this transition, not only from the perspective of decreasing unemployment, but also by helping people find a place in society. Co-ordinated by the city of Barcelona.

4. Educating in values. Habits, human relations, belonging to the community, multiculturalism. Citizenship: rights and duties. Co-ordinated by the city of Barcelona.

5. Safety in the city. For all inhabitants and in different aspects: Traffic, Public thoroughfares, Education... to deal with emergency situations and all types of violence. Co-ordinated by the city of Geneva.

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES
International Congresses are held every two years and provide the occasion to disseminate, contrast and exchange programmes and experiences related to the principles of the Charter. They are the scenario for plenary sessions, workshops and presentations as well as a good opportunity for the different networks to meet.

The Association has organized the following Congresses:

The IXth International Congress of Educating Cities will be held in Lyon (France); Sepetember 14-17^th, 2006: �People�s place in the city�

TheInternational Bank of Educating Cities(BIDCE)
This is the tool that the IAEC uses to spread its educative action around the world, in order to foster the exchange of experience and the creation of joint projects.
Information on more than 700 programmes in educational policies and concrete activities that are aimed at the population as a whole in the cities in all walks of life can be found at the Bank.
These are actions carried out by any public or private institutions, although the city governments play the leading role.
Encouragement is given to the incorporation of programmes that are accompanied by concrete experiences that roll them out.
Information on thematic networks can also be found. Bibliographical material in support of the Educating City is also being introduced
The Association Website is found at (www.edcities.org) and the documents are freely available once at the site.
The Bank is fed on the basis of contributions from the member cities and information from the territorial and thematic networks.
The documents mostly arrive through the form in the Website itself and by e-mail. There is a direct interactive updating system of the documents, carried out by those responsible.

Which cities may form part of the IAEC?
Those cities that identify with the principals of the Charter of Educating Cities and wish to commit themselves to complying with them and also to improving them individually and collectively.
Those cities that wish to contribute to the construction of a new way of understanding the city and education, from the point of view of democracy, concerns for peace and social welfare, realism and rigour, but also creativity.
Those cities that carry out programmes and action with education in mind for their inhabitants, and which are fostered, created and programmed by the local governments or other city collectives, in both in formal and non-formal education.
Those cities that wish to share their proposals, make them known, compare, contrast and evaluate them with other cities.

How to formalise membership in the IAEC?
Those cities that wish to form part of the IAEC must first adopt the Charter of Educating Cities.
The application form for joining the IAEC must be signed by the mayor after having been approved by the Local Council.
Interested cities must address their request to the Secretariat in order to obtain the necessary information and must punctually pay their fees. It should be clear that no city will be excluded from the IAEC for economic reasons.

International networks
Traditionally, international relations were reserved for the State and therefore few cities maintained stable relations with other municipalities.
The phenomenon of globalisation has generated changes in the equilibrium and flux between cities, but the cities have not only been the stage for these changes, they have also participated actively in the process.
In some cases, the urban areas themselves are rivals in consolidating themselves as economic, cultural, political and technological centres of the region to which they belong.
On other occasions, this competition has disappeared in favour of co-operation when the cities establish agreements based on co-operative projects that can benefit the region as a whole, defending their interests against other territories.
The growth and consolidation of the networks of cities over the last few years has almost become a compulsory strategy for most cities, regardless of their size.
The explanation is that networks offer a field for horizontal relationships, which give way to a complementary international field of relations.
The International Association of Educating Cities today is made up of small, medium and large cities. This allows them to improve their actions and take advantage of the possibility of establishing links to a higher system of relations (UN, UNESCO, OEI, EU, Mercociudades...), to access greater volumes of information through the publication of best practices, access to subsidies, new technologies, joint projects, etc.
With the conviction that the proposals of Educating Cities and your link to the IAEC could be beneficial for your cities and for the Association itself, I encourage you join us and accompany us on this stimulating and positive path.

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*Marina Subirats is the Vice Mayor of Barcelona and President of IAEC
Pilar Figueras is the General Secretary of IAEC