The Israeli Center for Learning Cities in Modi'in is the initiator and leader of the first National Convention of the Israeli Forum for Gender Equality – Israel 2030, on behalf of PASCAL International Observatory's Learning Cities Networks (LCN) Workshop.

The convention opened the International Women's Day events by Dr. Orna Mager and under the auspices of the Ministry for Social Equality, Ms. Gila Gamliel, chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel & mayor of Modiin-Maccabim-Reut, Mr. Haim Bibas and Dr. Dalit Atrakchi, Secretary General of the Israeli Commission for UNESCO - Ministry of Education. The forum has formulated a declaration, endorsing the objectives of the United Nations SDG 5, and calling for a joint action to achieve gender equality in Israel towards 2030. Participants in the forum included leaders of gender equality and promotion of women in government, academia, women's organizations and media.

Prof. Roberta Piazza, an associate professor in Adult Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Catania represented PASCAL Observatory as guest of honor. Prof. Piazza presented the work of PASCAL Observatory and attended professional discussion regarding the role of Lifelong Learning on the world stage. Prof. Piazza stressed the correlation between personal and professional development to attaining equal opportunities in a learning society and emphasized the contribution of PASCAL Observatory to promoting research and activities for LLL.

The Minister for Social Equality and the Chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities stressed in their speeches the importance of Lifelong Learning as leverage for personal development and for Empowerment of women and girls in all sectors in Israel. Dr. Mager appealed to the Israeli government, to lead and promote the development and implementation of the model of Learning City as a lever for equal opportunities for all and for gender equality in particular.

The forum has discussed the promotion of sustainable gender equality in Israel, towards 2030 and introduced the current status of gender equality in Israel in 2016, from the viewpoint of the various participant organizations. The declaration will serve as a basis for the forum's annual discussions in the future.

"We join hands as a national forum, in order to lead together, a significant change in the implementation of gender equality within the government activity, including legislation and allocation of resources for the coming years". (Dr. Orna Mager, Founder of The Israeli Learning Cities Network and head of the ICLC- the Israeli Center for Learning Cities in Modi'in).

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