URBsociAL 2012 newsletter. October 24th

Bogotá, October 24th, 2012

View of the Center of Bogotá.

Photo: Bogotá Mayor Press Office

Bogotá ANALYZES THE URB-AL III LEGATE URBsociAL 2012, the third Euro-Latin American meeting for the Dialogue on Social Cohesion and Local Public Policy opens today in Bogotá with two objectives: recognize the role of local governments in the articulation of social cohesion in their respective territories, and revealing keys for sustainability and replicability of results and impacts approached in the framework of the European Commission’s URB-AL III Programme.

Up to 26th October and under the slogan ’Govern the local: toward a sustainable and innovative future’, those taking part will have a space for exchanging and it will be based on three themes: plenary sessions that will contribute strategic focus in regards to key themes for local governments; workshops that will analyze the five dimensions of social cohesion taking as start point case studies; and the II URB-AL III Fair will show achievements in matters of public policies and their sustainability strategies.

This time, the meeting will count on one speaker´s corner, a specific space for presenting projects. URBsociAL 2012, organized by the Coordination and Orientation Office (OCO) will have a collecting memory of Sitges 2010 and Rosario 2011 Agendas to keep improving the quality of life of citizens. •

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Gustavo Petro Mayor of Bogotá, D.C.

Bogotá BETS ON CITY HUMANIZATION

T

his administration has taken important decisions on the main themes of the city, based on its background, Economic and Social Development Plan: “Human Bogotá”. These themes are based on three fundamental axes that will make this city a place that contributes to segregation and discrimination reduction placing human beings as main objective development concerns in regards of climate change and its effects around water, as well as protecting, and strengthening the local.

URBsociAL Newsletter // Editorial

October 24th Jordi Castells Director of International Relations of the Diputación de Barcelona and General Coordinator of the OCO

In this manner I consider that my administration has been addressed responding to challenges in matter of building a “Human Bogotá” with the objective of promoting an integral development for children; healthy territories’ creation; promoting an innovative, diverse and high quality education system; redefining the city expansion forms in accordance with its economic, ecological, and social projections starting from the governance of water; promoting integral and multimodal transportation models through “clean technologies”; sustainable urban development; promoting knowledge production, democratizing access to ITs and addressing participatory processes.

CAPITALIZING ACHIEVEMENTS

T

he URBsociAL meeting that we open today has the great challenge of working from the local in the construction and promoting of sustainable and innovative development models beginning from the experience of subnational governments participating in the URB-AL III Program.

In this respect, these achievements formulation corresponds to a city vision I presented under my administration program and due to a significant opinion of hundreds of citizens who participated in the “District Councils” and participatory budgets, a process that took place for the first time collectively in the history of Bogotá as well as to start out lining its background by promoting a direct democracy.

This third edition of the Euro-Latin American Dialogue on Social Cohesion and Local Public Policy ­URBsociAL acquires a different character to the previous therefore it coincides with the closing of the Program.

In Sitges 2010, the basis of the political-strategic agenda were established to position subnational governments as key players in the processes of social, economic and territorial development. In Rosario 2011, tools and innovative instruments were analyzed and exchanged to implement from local public policies that contribute to improve the citizens’ standard of living.

It is worth mentioning the new policies that have been adopted during my administration and they have already started to produce significant impacts in the city. In particular, the Programs as follows: “Citizens Disarmament”, “Drinking Water for all Population”, “Transportation Integrated System”, and “Pedestrianization of Seventh Avenue”.

Nowadays, in Bogotá 2012, the impacts achieved by the projects will be shared individually and the whole Program in matter of public policies that contribute to the social cohesion keeping an eye toward their sustainability and replicability.

As part of this process, my administration has committed to develop an agenda with the aim of strengthening citizens’ active participation in different international settings through twinning processes, building city networks and exchanging “good practices”, all under a framework of promoting a decentralized cooperation or “south-south” strategy. In this context Bogotá opens today the third URBsociAL edition.

In this respect, we seek to capitalize on the work of the participating territories in URB-AL III and share the learning with the remainder of the subnational governments and Latin America and Europe actors that will attend this meeting.

Among the established international meetings it also stands out the “Cities Summit” that will be taken place in November with the aim of finding strategies at a local level against climate change. It is worth mentioning the innovation of “South American Cities Network” in order to provide integration as well as a joint space promoting dialogue between local governments and contributing building a South American identity and citizenship.

In order to achieve this we will recover the format initiated in Rosario: plenary sessions to reflect on the role of local governments in the development process, workshops to work on the linking of obtained achievements with the sustainability and replicability challenges, and a fair to show results and power the exchange of experiences.

From the Office of Coordination and Orientation (OCO) we are pleased to state that URB-AL III has contributed to position the social cohesion in the political agenda of latinamerican subnational governments and has been a laboratory of innovative experiences to promote the step of a “cooperation project” to a public policies process. In this regard, we encourage the URB-AL III community to continue along the way initiated in building an inclusive and sustainable future for our cities. •

In this form, I am very optimistic about my administration commitment contributing to social cohesion, environmental sustainability and democratic governance achievements; attributes of a city vision that intends to face effectively the XXI century upcoming challenges. • Gustavo Petro Mayor of Bogotá, D.C.

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URBsociAL Newsletter // News

October 24th

URBsociAL Agendas, backgrounds for social cohesion

Photo: Juan Giovanicchini

Social cohesion must become the guiding principle for public action to be able to respond decisively to the challenges of our societies.

The agendas have been spread among nearly 5,000 Actors

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f in Sitges 2010 Latin America and Europe opened the debate by defining the main challenges that the public agents should face and proposing general lines of work to address them, Rosario 2011 collected the evidence of these reflections making concrete proposals on how to build a new society model that promotes an equitable and sustainable development through the social cohesion promoted by the local. The result of all these studies in which more than 800 people participated was reflected in the Agendas, roadmaps to work on behalf of social cohesion containing diagnoses, recommendations and commitments.

The Agenda Sitges 2010 offered indepth study the situation of the social weaving in which the different local governments develop their task. Dur-

ing this event it was stated that the confluence of multiple factors, as economic, environmental, migratory processes or the increasing centralization have caused that the gap between economic growth and sustainable and equitable development is increasingly deeper.

Thus, in situations of inequality, exclusion or loss of community sense, the answer of the Agenda Sitges 2010 was to strengthen the local boost as a way to fight the disaffection and promote active citizens participation in the processes of building more cohesive societies.

Confirming that the approaches of Sitges 2010 were fully in force, Agenda 2011 Rosario defined a roadmap with an emphasis on finding innovative formulas to boost the local governing to

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promote an equitable and sustainable development.

The Rosario 2011 Agenda bet on multilevel governance, where there is a constant dialogue between all existing agents involved in the development (different levels of government, economic actors and civil population). In this regard, there were issued recommendations to optimize the potential of local development for the cohesion and inclusive growth, promote institutional innovation and work in an integral way to strengthen comprehensive land use planning.

Bogotå 2012 will continue along the way initiated to build inclusive and sustainable societies under the belief that local governments are key actors in this process. •

URBsociAL Newsletter // News

October 24th

URB-AL III in numbers

82.000

INVESTMENT

EXECUTED THROUGH

Citizens

€ 64.4 M

160 12 8

population of

1,2

that have directly benefited

Participants Actors

European Coordinators

in a semi direct way

Latin American

URB-AL III

OBJECTIVES A total of

SCOPE

74

with direct impact on

Territories in Latin America

Missions

52

of methodology implementation

EXCHANGES, TRAINING AND LEADERSHIP

500 Trained People

and they were given

municipalities

with a total population of

million people

Orientation Office

OCO staff has performed

622 Hours Training

Out of this total, a hundred have participated in the Local Leadership Platform

500

representing around

1 Coordination and

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

150

122

public policies promoted

20

Projects of regional cooperation

million

composed by Barcelona Provincial Council, FIIAPP, Bogotá DC Mayor Office, Santa Fe Province, Tuscany region and San José Municipality

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REFLECTION AND DIFFUSION The OCO has generated

60

Documents, statements or publications and it has mobilized in its activities

The OCO role

(URBsociAL, Regional Dialogues, capitalization, seminars)

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Euro-latinamerican Actors

Creating thematic clusters:

integrated management of municipal solid waste, urban and regional integration, cross-border cooperation and regional competitiveness

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around

3.000

URBsociAL Agendas have been spread among nearly

5.000 actors

URBsociAL Newsletter // News

October 24th

Photo: Juan Giovanicchini

Seeking replicable and sustainable models URBsociAL Workshops 2011

In 2012 URBsociAL workshops we will work the linking of obtained achievements in the projects with challenges for their sustainability and replicability.

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ocial cohesion in its civic dimension, productive, institutional, social and territorial will be the axis of the five parallel workshops to be held on Thursday in URBsociAL 2012.

With a maximum of 30 participants per workshop, each discussion will begin with a video presentation on a case study that will be useful as a starting point for the analysis of concrete experiences involved with sustainability of the project results and political-strategic initiatives generated. Case studies are also included in the papers available on URB-AL III website.

Among the objectives of the session will identify local public policies have been developed in the framework of the project and how they have impacted on the political agenda of social cohesion. As well as to work on the raised elements and sustainability strategies and operational tools which have been designed to ensure the projects’ viability, persistence and replicability.

Five dimensions of social cohesion Workshop I Civic Dimension Case Study: San Miguel de Tucuman (Argentina). IDEAL Project, coordinated by Michoacán State (Mexico).

Workshop II Productive and Occupational Dimension Case Study: La Paz (Bolivia). emiDel Project, coordinated by municipality of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain).

Workshop III Institutional Dimension Case Study: Trinational Community Lempa River Border (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras). Promotion Project of social cohesion and regional integration territorial of Trifinio Central American border municipalities, coordinated by the Community.

Workshop IV Social Dimension Case Study: State of Pernambuco (Brazil). Local Policy Project violence prevention in marginal urban areas, coordinated by the Government of Pernambuco (Brazil).

Workshop V Territorial Dimension Case Study: Puerto Cortes (Honduras). Lands Integral Management Project, coordinated by the city of Puerto Cortes (Honduras).

Workshops will regain the Rosario World Cafe methodology, which is the division of participants into small working groups to facilitate the exchange and debate. The innovation will be that during the afternoon conclusions will be built together in the URB-AL II III Fair framework. The final conclusions will be read at the plenary session on Friday 26th October. •

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URBsociAL Newsletter // Report

October 24th

In addition to the exhibition area, the II URB-AL III Fair will count on a speaker’s corner where projects can make individual presentations keeping an eye toward its sustainability

Photos: District Department of Economic Development

A FAIR FOR EXCHANGE

Convention and Exhibition Center Plaza de los Artesanos, URBsociAL 2012 venue

‘P

laza de los artesanos’ hosts from today the second URB-AL III Fair, a space for explanation and analysis of the projects’ results under the Program developed, from the impact it has had on public policies that contribute to social cohesion and the strategies and tools that have been configured to ensure sustainability.

In the Second Fair URB-AL III actors will explain in first person the obtained achievements and future prospects of their projects

URB-AL III Fair, to be held permanently and parallel to sessions, will be the place where the protagonists explain, through graphics, text and audiovisual support, how was the process to implement their projects, obtained achievements and future prospects they have.

EXCHANGE An outstanding innovation in relation to the first Rosario 2011 Fair edition is the incorporation of a speaker’s corner; a common area that tomorrow afternoon will be available for projects to exchange experiences and ideas. Structured through individual presentations with emphasis on the impact they are having initiatives in the process of building more cohesive

Overall, the 20 projects in the framework of the URB-AL III Program have driven or strengthened a total of 122 social cohesion policies. The program has had an impact on some 500 American municipalities, covering a population of approximately 23 million people. Each initiative also has many human stories that deserve to be explained. The 700 m2 of second

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URBsociAL Newsletter // Report

October 24th projects –seven of the OR of Central America, Cuba and Mexico, five of the Andean Region and eight of Southern Cone Region– will show to the attendees concrete results of the work done through images, videos, texts or other materials distribution.

The projects will emphasize both the impact they have had in promoting social cohesion in their territories, as the public policies that have promoted or strengthened and designed actions to guarantee continuity.

The exhibition area will also have an OCO stand, a space of the European Commission and an area reserved for institutional partners of the consortium: Diputación de Barcelona, leader of OCO, the government of Santa Fe Province (Argentina), the International Foundation and for Latin America of Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP); Tuscany Region (Italy), Municipality of San José (Costa Rica), and the Mayor of Bogotá (Colombia), host of URBsociAL 2012. At the OCO stand will be offered a tour of the main developed activities for this office to fulfill its dual purpose of providing technical support and strategic direction to projects and encourage reflection, training and dissemination of experiences and good practices on public policies of social cohesion.

societies, each project will expose the roadmap that will ensure the sustainability of their work.

Along with this new space, the show will be also the place to build together the workshops conclusions that will be later read at the closing session on Friday October 26th. Participants will also have space available at the fair to dump ideas about future and proposals for exchange and sustainability of projects, giving maximum visibility to the opinions of those who have worked and contributed to URBAL III success.

The exhibition area will stand twenty projects of Lot 1, the six institutional partners of the consortium, EC and OCO

PARTICIPANTS Organized according to the Regional Office to which they belong, the 20

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Finally, the show will also count on a large panel where those present can see graphically how the Lot 1 20 projects are integrated into different dimensions of social cohesion (institutional, civic, social, productive and territorial) as well as main public policies supported or reinforced in the URB-AL III framework. •

URBsociAL Newsletter // URB-AL III Projects

October 24th

UNE Participation for the development

PROJECTS (I) REGIONAL OFFICE OF CENTRAL AMERICA, CUBA AND MEXICO (SAN JOSÉ, COSTA RICA)

From theory to practice Involvement of Citizens. After the definition of work-tourism environments, Local 21 Agenda and technological development– the four territorial areas work in the consolidation of initiatives. Arica (Chile) and Tacna (Peru) focus their activity in designing a cross-border tourist product including formation of professionals; Santa Rosa de Copán (Honduras) has launched the Pilot Plan of Municipal Action 21 for sustainable environmental development, and in Zapotlán el Grande (Mexico) are already 25 technological base enterprising projects launched.• Coordinator: Municipality of Irún (Spain). Partners: Regional Government of Arica Parinacota (Chile), Regional Government of Tacna (Peru), Municipality of Santa Rosa de Copán (Honduras), Municipality of Zapotlán el Grande (Mexico), Board of Castilla and Leon (Spain).

San José, Costa Rica

RESSOC The economic engine of waste

IDEAL Synergies for environment

Micro Enterprisers Training. The project, that pursues to generate financial profits for San Salvador (El Salvador), El Callao (Peru) and Managua (Nicaragua) citizens through management improvement of urban residues, bets on the training so that harvesters can become micro enterprisers.

Creating physical infrastructures network, improving harvesters working conditions and improvement in conditions of access to formation and women’s employment are the main achieved impacts.•

Share value. Centered on five municipal governance experiences, in Tucumán (Argentina) it has been consolidated a network of local governments, private sector and social agents to offer joint solutions to environmental problems. In Mexico, the eight municipalities participating in the Eastern Monarch CITIRS certify the benefits of separating waste for health and environment protection.

The project has also initiatives in Bolivia, Guatemala and Nicaragua.•

Coordinator: Association Municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (Spain). Partners: Metropolitan Area of San Salvador (El Salvador), Provincial Municipality of Callao (Peru), Municipality of Managua (Nicaragua), Mairie of Toulouse (France), Montevideo Commissariat (Uruguay).

Coordinator: State Government of Michoacán (Mexico). Partners: Greater San Miguel de Tucuman (Argentina), Commonwealth Huista (Guatemala), Town Hall of San Sebastian de los Reyes (Spain), Municipality of Tuma La Dalia (Nicaragua), Inter-Municipal “CITIRS Eastern Monarch” (Mexico), Association of Municipalities of North Paceño (Bolivia), General Council Upper Pyrenees (France).

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URBsociAL Newsletter // URB-AL III Projects

October 24th

GIT Improving legal certainty

Urban management and territorial participation Plural territorial development

Optimized management of the territory. Improving the legal security of property in the coastal municipalities of Puerto Cortes, Omoa and Tela (Honduras) and Puerto Barrios (Guatemala) is being strengthened through initiatives such as access to land ownership of the most vulnerable sectors, land registry updating, technology application and signing of agreements for the creation of a unique window on urban issues, or implementation of a geo-referenced territorial system for building permits and taxation procedures.•

Structuring participation. The project works in the participatory territorial management plans elaboration in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, Cuba and Chile. Efforts are focused in the creation of local networks that allow the consolidation of pilot projects as well as identifying patterns to reduce conflicts that may arise with implemented actions.

During its implementation they have worked to incorporate participants in government geographic-participatory information system.• Coordinator: Tuscany Region (Italy). Partners: Regional Community Punilla (Argentina), Municipality Viña del Mar (Chile), Municipal Assembly Havana (Cuba), Municipality of La Antigua (Guatemala), Mayor of León (Nicaragua), Provence Region (France), Co.opera ONGD (Italy).

Coordinator: Municipality of Puerto Cortes (Honduras). Partners: Municipality of Tela (Honduras), Municipality of Omoa (Honduras), Municipality of Puerto Barrios (Guatemala), Kadaster (Netherlands).

Diverse people, equivalent people Citizens for cohesion

Promoting social cohesion in Trifinio Strengthening Cross-border

Good neighborhood consolidation. The project works in Santa Tecla (El Salvador) and Quito (Ecuador) to promote interaction conditions and social life to consolidate full citizenship. In this sense, it has actively supported Santa Tecla civic participation policies, an innovative initiative as is the first of this kind in El Salvador. It has also promoted degraded areas recovering or performing citizens’ events through the creation of ‘Integral Centers of Culture and Coexistence in Equity’, agencies involved in local government.•

A Common Agenda for Central America. In the area at the confluence El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras they are working to implement Trans-boundary regional policies for land demarcation, protection of natural resources and waste management. The obtained achievements range from creation of an institutional tri-national of local governments to the impact in management of the public investment and strengthening the role of the six participants associations of the project representing a population of around 800,000.•

Coordinator: Mayor of Santa Tecla (El Salvador). Partners: Metropolitan District of Quito (Ecuador), Municipality of Saint Denis (France).

Coordinator: Tri-National Border Association Lempa River. Partners: Northeast Associations, Lake Güija and Copan Chorti (Guatemala), Municipalities Association of Cayaguanca and Trifinio (El Salvador), Municipalities Association of Sesecapa Valley (Honduras), Lombardy (Italy), Huelva Delegation (Spain).

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URBsociAL Newsletter // Interview

October 24th

Salvador Esteve i Figueras Diputación de Barcelona President

Photo: Oscar Giralt

Local governments must become proactive and innovative agents to meet citizens’ demands

“Citizens need the complicity of their representatives” The Euro-Latin American dialogue promoted by URB-AL III has shown the value of sharing experiences and learning to successfully face common challenges. From the Council of Barcelona, an organization that leads the consortium of URB-AL III Coordination and Orientation Office (OCO), there is certainty that they will consolidate cooperation lines open between different local governments.

The Council of Barcelona has a long trajectory in decentralized cooperation. What is the main added value of this model?

B-41601/2010

Decentralized cooperation facilitates searching, from the local, joint solutions to shared problems. Through the exchange of experiences and learning, decentralized cooperation allows pooling agents from different realities but

with a shared challenge: provide suitable responses to citizens’ demands.

Furthermore, through this cooperation model we can obtain a general picture of different local, regional and intermediates governments performance, representing a great wealth.

What is the balance of the Diputación active participation as OCO consortium leader?

OCO works by and for local and regional governments from direct knowledge of cities and territories reality, so the balance of this experience has been very positive. Participating in URBAL III Program has provided to the Diputación exchanging experiences and learning among agents in Europe and Latin America about common challenges and local financing, climate change and inclusive economic development. Furthermore, since OCO we have woven a network of alliances that opens future lines of cooperation.

We think that URB-AL III model is an opportunity to strengthen the role of cities and regions as key agents in the development process.

In this regard, what role should subnational governments perform in the current context?

Local governments must become proactive and innovative agents to develop tools that allow us facing in the most efficient way, citizens’ demands. Especially in times of crisis, people need support and complicity from their closest representatives. •

URBsociAL Organization: OCO-URB-AL III OCO Consortium: Diputación de Barcelona, International Foundation and for Latin America of Administration and Public Policies FIIAPP (Spain), Province of Santa Fe (Argentina), Mayor of Bogotá (Colombia), Municipality of San José (Costa Rica) and Region of Tuscany (Italy).

Diputación de Barcelona, October 2012. Coordination and supervision: Coordination and Orientation Office URB-AL III Program. Editorial and layout: Albert Garcia and Cuático! Estudio.

Photos: Diputación de Barcelona, District Department of Economic Development, Press Office of Mayor of Bogotá, OCO and URB-AL III projects archive.

URBsociAL Newsletter // Agenda

October 24th

TODAY’S AGENDA Decentralized cooperation to debate

14.30 – 15.30 h. URBsociAL Opening Ceremony 2012

Mayor of Bogotá DC Office

Diputación de Barcelona

European Union Delegation in Colombia

Colombian Government 15.30 – 15.45 h. Presentation of Bogotá 15.45 – 17.15 h. Roundtable: “Local governments, strategic drivers for development of territories” 17.15 – 17.45 h. URB-AL III Tour “From San José to Bogotá”

The Coordination and Orientation Office has convened a meeting today with the coordinators URBAL III projects to reflect together on the role to be performed by nonstate agents in the new stage of international cooperation system.

The roundtable “Decentralized cooperation: present and future” aims to analyze the role of local agents for the new programming period of European Commission (2014-2020).

17.45 – 18.00 h. URB-AL III video 18.00 – 20.00 h. Opening URB-AL III Fair Inauguration Welcome Cocktail

20.00 h.

The experience gained by local, intermediate and regional participants in the URB-AL III is a great heritage in order to jointly analyze the new challenges and to outline strategies and objectives. The roundtable on decentralized cooperation is part of the restricted activities to organized projects within URBsociAL 2012.

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URBsociAL Newsletter // Back page

October 24th

B

ogotá which has had remarkable progress in the urban field and its transportation systems in order to provide a more livable city, it is working today in building citizens’ social equality through the plan of development “Human Bogotá.”

Photo: Press Office Mayor of Bogotá

Bogotá works for social equality Committed to ensure its citizens’ integration in the city life, the capital of Colombia offers multiple examples on how sustainable development is concreted.

Currently, the municipal government has launched 20 projects of social investment in order to help overcome social, economic, spatial and/or cultural segregation of vulnerable groups in the city (women, youth, LGBTI, AfroColombian, indigenous, homeless, etc.). Comprehensive care for early childhood, social dining rooms to ensure their right to food and nutrition security or caregivers to provide assistance population with disabilities are some of the actions of a plan that so far has served nearly 2,000 elderly, about 3,000 children and youth exposed to marginalization and it has trained more than 1,900 homeless in order to contribute to their social and economic inclusion, among many other achievements.

Bogotá is working for social equality with the active participation of its citizens: the development plan was designed with communities’ contribution through the figure of citizens’ councils with the aim of being them the ones who decide on matters that affect them more directly. •

A city within reach of all

Patrimony to be discovered

The Public Transportation Integrated System envisaged in the plan inherits the advances achieved in previous years Transmilenio Plan to ensure 100% coverage of Bogotá offering physical and economic accessibility to this service.

The network today counts on over 400 routes with environmentally buses; it is complemented with over 390 kilometers of bikeways and bike paths that allow arriving, in a sustainable way, to any point of the city.

The development plan also works in the incubation of 120 tourist services companies and training more than 500 inhabitants as urban guides. Currently, the District Institute of Cultural Patrimony schedules on weekends guided visits to monuments and ecological walks to popularize goods of cultural and natural value or that are related with characters and significant facts of the town or country history.

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