The City2City Programme of the Urban Transitions Mission (UTM) is a new global twinning initiative. It connects cities in dynamic peer learning to co-create practical solutions for net-zero, resilient and people-centred urban futures.
Following a call for expression of interest that closed on 7 September 2025, 28 cities were selected from the growing UTM city cohort and from among cities looking to join the cohort. The selected cities will exchange with their peers in 11 groupings of up to 3 cities on selected priority topics of mutual interest, as follows:
- Ablekuma (Ghana) – Belo Horizonte (Brazil) – Salvador (Chile)
- Cuenca (Spain) – Mendoza (Argentina)
- Darkhan (Mongolia) – Istanbul (Türkiye) – Valencia (Spain)
- Braga (Portugal) – Tegucigalpa (Honduras)
- Guimarães (Portugal) – Renca (Chile)
- Miami-Dade (United States) – Porto Alegre (Brazil)
- Bandirma (Türkiye) – Cascais (Portugal)
- Barranquilla (Colombia) – Córdoba (Spain) – Quelimane (Mozambique)
- Kisumu (Kenya) – Sakarya (Türkiye) – Surat (India)
- Çorlu (Chile) – Sekondi (Ghana) – Zhytomyr (Ukraine)
- Baguio (The Philippines) – Chefchaouen (Morocco) – Leh (India)
With funding from the European Commission, the new twinning programme aims to improve cities’ capacity to design, implement and manage sustainable and innovative urban practices in integrated and participative ways. The programme should help cities identify and scale new joint pilot actions, with support from the UTM Global Innovation Alliance. It should also help identify viable and bankable projects that the city could implement in the short-medium term through fostering cooperation with key city partners (public and private).