The 23rd LivCom Finals & Forum was successfully held in Avcilar Istanbul, Türkiye from 18- 21 November, 2025. The winners of LivCom 2025 covering categories of Whole City Award, Environmentally Sustainable Project Award, Technology and Solution Award were announced at the Avcilar Culture Center on the afternoon of 21st November. Dr. Arab Hoballah, LivCom Jury Chair, announced the winners of the Finals at the Awards Ceremony. This year, INIA's Partnership Project - World Healthy & Positive Ageing City Pilot list was also released onsite. Ms. Angela Kane, LivCom Committee Chair & former UN Under-Secretary-General, along with several officials from UN agencies and special guests, as well as an International Panel of Judges, presented the awards to winners.
The International Awards for Liveable Communities/LivCom Awards were launched in 1997 and is the World’s major Awards Competition focusing on International Best Practice regarding the management of the local environment and development. It is managed by the LivCom Committee and held in collaboration with UN agencies and international organizations. This year marks the very first time that the LivCom Finals & Forum organized in Türkiye, hosted by the Avcilar Municipality, with the theme of ‘Culture Innovation for Sustainable Urban Future’. The Acting Mayor of Avcilar - Yüksel CAN,Esq. spoke in his awarding address that, “the livability of a city depends on its neighbors with hopes”, with emphasis on the fact that a city should be inventive for living, harboring with culture prosperity, unity and young spirit. He mentioned that “Today, we are not merely embarking on an awards ceremony; instead, we are making a bold commitment to the future”.
The LivCom Finals & Forum 2025 is organized by the LivCom Committee in collaboration with ISOCARP, UNCRD, UN-INIA, UNESCO-CISH, UNU-EHS and CEDARE, supported by the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES and UN-Habitat. UCLG has once again participated in LivCom Forum. A total of 30 cities and 38 projects from 35 countries are invited to the Finals, including a project submitted by Avcilar.
This year's LivCom Finals have made adjustments in terms of the Judging Criteria, demographic categories, and time for presentations. The new changes also prompt the participants to focus more on presenting key points and make the distribution of Whole City categories more balanced. A series of activities were also held concurrently with the LivCom Finals presentations, lasting for four days. These included the highly anticipated Opening Ceremony and the LivCom Forum - International Forum on Culture Innovation and Sustainable Urban Development, as well as the two-day USF Conference: Building Age-Positive &Sustainable Cities, UN Training Session on Healthy and Positive Ageing Cities and Communities, exhibitions of cities and projects, city excursion to Istanbul, Awards Ceremonies, etc. Similar to 2024, the selection and presentation for WHAPAC pilot cities and projects were also organized concurrently during the Finals.
Through the 2-day online and offline presentations, for Category A (Population up to 75,000) of the Whole City Award, the first place-Gold Awards goes to Poti, Georgia, and the second place-Gold to Birgu, Malta. For Category B (Population 75,001 - 200,000), the first place Gold goes to Saint-Étienne, France, and Case Bronze to Mendoza, Argentina. For Category C (Population 200,001 - 400,000), the Liverpool, Australia is presented Single Awards due to the best practices in circular economy. For Category D (Population 400,001 - 1,000,000), the first place Gold goes to Katowice, Poland. For Category E (Population Over 1,000,000), the first place Gold goes to Baoding, China, the second place-Gold to Busan, South Korea and the third place Silver goes to Kuching, Malaysia.
For Environmentally Sustainable Project Award, the first place Gold goes to Trend Station Show in Łódź, Poland; the second place Gold to Beijing Wenyuhe River Park (Chaoyang Basin), China; the third place Gold goes to Healthy Futures: Families United Against Addiction in Avcilar, Türkiye. For Technology & Solution Award, the first place Silver goes to Digital Transformation For All: I-Data at the Heart of Subang Jaya, Malaysia; The SJCC Zero Counter Initiative from Subang Jaya ranked the second place Silver; the third place Silver goes to RAP Espumado in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Furthermore, a total of 5 cities and 3 projects in different countries are selected as the World Healthy & Positive Ageing City Pilots 2025 and were presented the Certificates during the Awards Ceremony (please see the the full winners list on http://www.livcomawards.org).
The LivCom Finals & Forum 2025 was proved to be another successful event. A large number of guests and delegates expressed their voices and thoughts during the event. The Avcilar Municipality was highly praised for successfully hosting this year's LivCom events. As the academic partner of LivCom Finals 2025, the Alanya University and volunteers also provided support for the LivCom judging review and conference logistics.