The Network of Sustainable Cities and Mayors' Offices for Democracy was consolidated in December 2020, with the Regional Center for Green Growth and Climate Change, seeking to strengthen political and environmental dialogue among Latin American mayors' offices through spaces for the exchange of experiences, training and dissemination of actions within the framework of democratic values and green growth.

After the creation of the Network, several virtual exchanges were carried out with the active participation of several Latin American city mayors' offices. This trajectory led the Network to hold the first face-to-face meetings in March 2022 in Mérida and later in December 2022 in Buenos Aires to commemorate the Network's anniversary.

This trajectory led the Network to hold a second face-to-face meeting "II Latin American Dialogue of the Network of Sustainable Cities and Mayors' Offices for Democracy", which took place from March 15 to 17 in Coyhaique (Chile), with the participation of more than 25 representatives of mayors' offices of Latin American cities.

This meeting succeeded in strengthening the bonds of trust and collaboration between mayors of Latin American cities that share similar challenges. On this occasion, we had the participation of municipalities from Chile (La Granja, Peñalolén, Renca and San Javier), Mexico (Mérida, Puebla, León, Kanasín and Ticul), Colombia (Támesis and Venecia), Argentina (CABA, Córdoba and Luján de Cuyo), Belén from Costa Rica and Callao from Peru.

During the three days of the meeting, different activities were developed where participants exchanged their experiences and knowledge for the consolidation of sustainable cities in their localities, as well as what is being worked in Coyhaique to be a democratic city with policies and actions that seek to forge sustainability.

The first day was the inauguration of the event. The mayor of Coyhaique, Carlos Gatica, presented the work on sustainability that is being done in his administration and the challenges that still lie ahead. On this day, the mayors and representatives of the municipalities had the opportunity to exchange with community leaders and authorities of Coyhaique.

The second day was focused on strengthening the topics of interest of the municipalities members of the Network through panels where the representatives themselves presented their experiences. The day began with a presentation by UN Environment on Climate Finance for Cities, which was complemented by a panel formed by Alejandra Bolio (Municipality of Merida) and Carolina Theler (Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires). This was followed by a presentation on Political Communication for Sustainability by Eduardo Verdugo (OCPLA Consultant), which was complemented by a panel formed by Juan Martín Vásquez (Mayor of Támesis), Carolina Leitao (Mayor of Peñalolén), Benjamín Campos (Municipality of Puebla) and María Malgor (Municipality of Luján de Cuyo). This was followed by a session focused on the Challenges of citizen participation in the municipal environmental agenda, whose panel was formed by Óscar Andrés Sánchez (Mayor of Venecia), Jorge Silva (Mayor of San Javier), Thais Zumbado (Mayor of Belén) and Claudio Castro (Mayor of Renca). At the end of the day, a closed session was held to discuss the challenges of the political agenda in Latin America.

The third day was devoted to a technical visit to the Laguna San Rafael Biosphere Reserve, a site of global importance for climate change research, where mayors and municipal representatives learned first-hand about the consequences of climate change and the urgency of taking immediate action.

Participants agreed that meetings like this are necessary to consolidate the work on sustainability in their municipalities and reinforce their personal and political commitment to green growth.

From EKLA we are convinced of the potential of the Sustainable Cities and Mayors for Democracy Network to lead the implementation of positive sustainability actions and contribute to our goal of promoting more decision-making processes on climate change and energy security.