Edward Mayor – Ambassador of Cities’ Friendship: Cities4Cities launches annual award

Cities4Cities is launching the annual Ambassador of Cities’ Friendship Award. It is about people and a network of friends who help build partnerships with Ukrainian communities. Edward Mayor, president of the French NGO Stand with Ukraine, is the first recipient of the new award.

“This year, at the Lviv Municipal Partnership Forum on November 26, for the first time, we presented the first Ambassador of Cities’ Friendship award to Edward Mayor. Thanks to the synergy and work of his team with the Ile-de-France region, 5 Ukrainian-French partnerships have already been established, and 7 more will be born soon. We are incredibly proud of this cooperation,” says Svitlana Blinova, coordinator of the Cities4Cities initiative.

Since 2014, the French organization Stand with Ukraine has been actively promoting the idea of cooperation with Ukraine in France, and after the full-scale invasion, it has also been helping Ukrainian mayors talk about Ukraine and life in French communities.

“We have two goals. First of all, we have created a support network in France for Ukrainian communities to show concrete solidarity and provide the necessary assistance. And secondly, our long-term goal is to help Ukrainian cities in their development and recovery. This is a mutual process that benefits both Ukraine and France: our experiences can strengthen our countries,” says Edward Mayor.

Recently, 50 representatives of Ukrainian communities returned from the Congress of French Mayors in Paris. It was Edward Mayor who advocated and, together with his partners, organized a panel on Ukraine at the Congress. This is a large multi-day event with the participation of more than 12,000 French mayors.

Stand with Ukraine and the Ile-de-France region have already established partnerships: Boyarka – Palaisseau; Slavutych – Frankiville; Gostomel – Velizy Villacoublé; Kruty – Santenay, Koryukivka – Chavilly.

And now new partnerships are being formed: Chuhuiv – Chateau Thierry; Opishnia – Valoriz, Verkhivtseve – Bezier. Nosivka, Sosnytsia, and Tarashcha are also beginning to develop cooperation with French communities.

The Lviv Municipal Partnership Forum is an annual international event of the Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine initiative and the Lviv City Council, which aims to promote the idea of inter-municipal cooperation between Ukrainian and international communities.

The forum is organized with the support of the USAID Ukraine Confidence Building Initiative (UCBI) and the Swedish-Ukrainian Polaris Program “Support to Multi-Level Governance in Ukraine” implemented by SALAR International.