Kozhikode: Kerala's Kozhikode has found a place in UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). The historic city in North Kerala is among 55 from across the world to be included in the list.

Kozhikode has been recognized in the creative field of literature. The UCCN list has increased to 350 cities from more than 100 countries, representing seven creative fields such as crafts and folk art, design, film, gastronomy, literature, media arts and music.

Gwalior is another Indian city listed in the UCCN, for its focus on music. Rio de Janeiro, Taif, Tukums, Hobart, Lasi, and Okayama are some of the other newly-inducted cities, also selected in the field of literature. Kathmandu is listed among the cities focused in the field of film.

The newly designated creative cities have been invited to participate in the 2024 UCCN Annual Conference to be held in Braga, Portugal from July 1 to 5. The theme for the conference is bringing youth to the table for the next decade.

By joining UCCN, the cities commit to sharing their best practices and developing partnerships involving the public and private sectors as well as civil society. The selected cities will cooperate with members of the network to strengthen their resilience to the face evolving threats such as climate change, rising inequality, as well as rapid urbanization, with 68 per cent of the world's population projected to live in urban areas by 2050.

The UCCN was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. According to UNESCO, the cities that currently make up the network work towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.