Through the IUC programme, cities and regions across Europe have entered into partnerships on sustainable development with counterparts from around the globe. For a full list of city pairings so far, see the table below:
The City of Parma joined the IUC programme out of a desire to gain a non-EU perspective that could enrich the city's planning processes. The city was paired with Fredericton in Canada, with the Canadian city’s Department of Heritage and Urban Planning, Growth and Community Services exchanging with Parma's Equal Opportunities Office and European Project Office.
The pairing chose gender equality and the participation and inclusion of marginalised groups as their focus. Together, they intend to tackle the issues through the creation of stakeholder inclusion mechanisms and fair socio-economic development.
In particular, the cities want to address the involvement of citizens in local decision making. Once citizens develop a feeling that their participation does not have a meaningful impact - that decisions have already been made and that making their voices heard does not influence outcomes - it can lead to cynicism and distrust. Combating this, particularly in typically marginalised communities, is important to both cities.
Despite barriers to working prompted by the geographic and time-zone barriers, the cities are committed to creating a model of transferable public commitment that can be used to enhance local democracy. To do this, the pairing aims to determine the obstacles and limitations to the political participation of marginalised groups, identify the root causes of these barriers, and propose mechanisms and strategies to address these obstacles and limitations.