Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla and the City of Hoboken today announced that the City has been selected as one of 24 cities from across the Americas to participate in the Cities Forward program, a collaborative initiative between the U.S. Department of State, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, Resilient Cities Catalyst, and the Institute of the Americas.
The program, launched in April 2023 at the Cities Summit of the Americas, is dedicated to assist cities in Latin America, the Carribean, and U.S. create sustainable, inclusive, and resilient futures through peer-to-peer project consultation, knowledge sharing, capacity building, and diplomatic engagement.
The program received 129 applications for just 24 openings from cities across the Americas. The following municipalities were selected and paired for the program:
“Cities like Hoboken bear the brunt of the effects of climate change, including more severe storms and storm surge, which have a direct impact on the quality of life of our residents,” said Mayor Bhalla. “That’s why I’m very pleased to join other cities across the globe to pool resources, share knowledge, and align strategies to prepare Hoboken for the future, and create a more sustainable city for current and future generations. I look forward to working with Montego Bay leadership and I thank ICLEI, the Resilient Cities Catalyst, the US Department of State, and the Institute of the Americas for providing this opportunity for collaboration..”
"We are thrilled to collaborate with these cities and tap into their ingenuity and creativity," stated Angie Fyfe, ICLEI USA Executive Director. "By bringing together local expertise and global perspectives, we can craft innovative, inclusive sustainable solutions that will have a lasting impact across the world.”
For more information, visit https://icleiusa.org/cities-forward.
About ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability
ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) is the first and largest global network of more than 2,500 local and regional governments devoted to solving the world's most intractable sustainability challenges. The worldwide network is active in 125+ countries, focused on influencing sustainability policies and driving local action across five key pathways: low emissions, resilient, equitable, people-centered, nature-based, and circular development.
About Resilient Cities Catalyst
Resilient Cities Catalyst is a nonprofit, founded by members of the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) leadership team in 2019 to drive catalytic change to help partners solve their most pressing challenges. Building on the pioneering legacy of 100RC, and in partnership with a community of urban resilience actors, RCC is helping cities build the capacities and partnerships needed to understand, prioritize and concretely address their risks and chronic stresses as they pursue their strategic goals or recover from a crisis.
About Institute of the Americas
The Institute of the Americas (IOA) is a non-partisan, independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to be a catalyst for promoting economic development and integration, emphasizing the role of the private sector, as a means to improve the economic and social well-being of the people of the Americas. Throughout our 40-year history, the IOA has convened events of regional importance in an effort to support our mission of promoting better understanding and thought-leadership, surrounding critical issues in energy, climate change and economic development.
