Qeshm-UTC Report

The report on our thirty-one social co-creation events, which took place as the first Urban Thinker Campus (UTC) in Iran, has been published by the World Urban Campaign, UN Habitat. UTC is an interactive forum for urban practitioners, researchers, and professionals to share experiences and knowledge in the spirit of learning and collaboration. Our Social Co-creation event in Qeshm Island was designed based on the UTC framework, and we are proud to have developed an innovative process that aligns with SDGs 5, 8, and 11.3 and the action areas of the City We Need report, including Economic Opportunities for All, Local Governance, and Learning and Innovation.

The main outcomes of our first UTC on the island of Qeshm are as follows:

We hosted eight interactive workshops on business models, tourism, digital marketing, professional presentations, smart cities, and dialogue skills using fun games for 80 local participants (SDG 4 – enabling communities for businesses and innovation).
We established a group of 80 artistic local activists in the fields of handicrafts, architecture, photography, tour guiding, painting, poetry, and local cuisine (SDGs 5,10 – social inclusion).
We created business plans for 21 local teams to support local economic development (SDG 8).
We learned about the 80-person local creative human resources network to foster stronger coordination and cooperation (SDG 11).
We used an interactive map to identify the network of local assets, including places, people, natural attractions, and social potentials to ensure policy coherence.
Furthermore, we anticipate that our program will result in an action plan that will strengthen public participation patterns in cities going forward, in addition to increasing the public’s desire to participate in the solution design process locally. These findings provide a practical overview to advance the participation rate in future cities, a principle underlined in all sustainable development papers to design inclusive human settlements.

Overall, our event demonstrated that the UTC framework can be effectively applied to foster innovation, collaboration, and social inclusion. We hope that our experience will inspire other cities to embrace this framework and promote sustainable development and inclusive growth in their communities.