URBsociAL Newsletter //
October 26th
Bogotá, October 26th, 2012
The tree of the contributions of the participants of the II Exhibition URB-AL III
URBSOCIAL LOOKS INTO THE FUTURE Sharing was the key of the second day of URBsociAL 2012. Whereas dialog between continents has been one of the most enriching elements for the URB-AL III Program as a whole, Plaza de los Artesanos (Artisans’ Square) was a minute sample of how such sharing is achieved. Workshop participants worked in five groups that represented the five spheres underlying social cohesion: civic, productive, occupational, social, and territorial dimensions. Conclusions included continuity strategies for the projects and their ability of replication. Trust between the actors, strengthening of an entrepreneurial network and innovation in governance were some of the good practices identified, as well as community participation and the ability to guarantee increased diffusion of the initiatives In the afternoon, reflection and exchange were the central elements of the Second URB-AL III Fair. Twelve projects presented their main achievements and sustainability strategies, whilst an artist was made available for the attendants to graphically capture their ideas of the future and to show the driving concepts developed in the workshops. •
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Foundations of URBAL policies
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lo largo de estos últimos cuatro años URB-AL III ha impulsado la Cohesión Social en base a 8 políticas principales: Desarrollo económico local y emprendedurismo, medio ambiente y gestión de residuos, gestión y ordenamiento territorial, ocupacionales y de apoyo a migrantes, participación ciudadana, cooperación transfronteriza, rehabilitación socio-urbana y de seguridad pública.
URBsociAL Newsletter // Report
October 26th
The value of shared experience The joint search for mechanisms to make social cohesion a reality was the focus of yesterday’s workshops. The discussions yielded conclusions aimed at giving continuity, publicity and permanence to the initiatives.
T
he URBsociAL 2012 workshops became the venue through which the projects’ protagonists shared their experiences on the practical implementation of the various dimensions of social cohesion. The five workshops, of thirty persons each, were based on case studies presented in videos.
agenda. Afterwards, the groups worked on developing strategies to ensure their permanence, and lastly, on the mechanisms to ensure that the projects are replicable and sustainable. At each workshop, smaller teams were formed to discuss each of these aspects. During the discussions, the roundtables were rotated twice to enable all participants to contribute to the discussions. The conclusions of this work were submitted in the afternoon during the URB-AL III Fair, and will also be read tomorrow during the closing event of the congress.
Each of the case studies was based on a territory that was representative of one of the areas of intervention. After watching the video, the group analyzed it to identify the public policies that were promoted and their incidence on the communities’ social cohesion
Civic dimension: trust One of the key lessons learned in many of the experiences that were narrated was the strengthening of inter-municipal management in matters such as financial transfers, competencies and government. The cooperation between actors represents, in this sense, one of the most valuable assets for communities that are working on development. Proposed strategies for sustainability include the effective inclusion of the private sector to ensure not only the economic viability of the projects, but also their real integration with the communities. The key element was said to be the capacity to generate trust among all the actors: the private sector, the government and the citizens. The dialog among them must be ongoing and fluid, with the objective of getting communities accustomed to this type of exchange. In this sense, the following will be the major challenges in years to come: the development of replication dynamics, the possibility of continuing to work through the network after the institutional project has ended, and that the project will be promoted by the community itself. •
Working on the workshops’ conclusions
The multi-level cooperation network created by the IDEAL project for the solution of environmental problems has highlighted the importance of getting all actors involved in attaining the development objectives.
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URBsociAL Newsletter // Report
October 26th
Productive dimension: strengthening emiDelen La Paz (Bolivia) works on capitalizing the knowledge and resources of returning emigrants to favor the community. Their experience enabled them to share common experiences, such as the recognition of innovation as an element to drive growth. It was highlighted that institutions must work to modernize their processes so as to incorporate citizen activism in a more natural manner. The challenge of reinforcing the social environment to drive the productive sphere and the promotion of entrepreneurialism among young people were other concerns that were discussed. In order to give continuity to the initiative once the international cooperation funding has ended, an attempt was made to shield the projects from the seasonality of the political cycle and incoming administrations. Searching for new models for public-private articulation and for driving citizen participation will also enable the future maintenance of program initiatives. Optimizing relationships between the governments and the communities was the last point that was highlighted.
Dialogue on the worktable.
the importance of strengthening inter-municipal networks, promoting social and corporate responsibility and technical implementation of globalization and to have access to other experiences. Lastly, the participants called for the integration of communities that normally do not participate in business networks. •
Some of the expected future challenges for the URBAL III territories, according to the participants, include
Institutional dimension: innovation The World CafÊ methodology made it possible to share lessons learned regarding three central aspects: consensus-building on policies between public bodies and other actors; the importance of strategic planning, and local coordination between different administrations. The discussions provided clear evidence of the achievements, opportunities, sustainability and challenges that arise during the implementation of projects that enable the development of the various regions, with the clear interest in preserving natural resources. The conclusions that were shared by the various roundtables were along the lines of highlighting the need to work on similar paths. To develop trust, emphasize real results, create self-financing and innovation as central strategies for community development were some of proposals for sustainability that were set forth. In the future, direct and real participation by the population is necessary if the intention is to solve authentic problems.•
Sample of the workshop illustrations
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URBsociAL Newsletter // Report
October 26th
Social dimensions: training Thanks to the policy called “Pact for life”, Pernambuco (Brazil) managed to get taken off the top of list of criminality rankings. The example it set in terms of multi-level cooperation left behind a common lesson: training of the population ensures greater publicity for social inclusion programs, which leads to social strengthening. The sustainability of the results was analyzed from two perspectives. The first, a greater budgetary allocation in order to make the social plans a reality, an effort which must be combined with a social information plan to create awareness on the positive impact their taxes have on society. Secondly, the initiatives should be taken on by the local administrations in order to turn them into public policies. Illustrating the thoughts
Regarding future challenges, the workshop participants proposed promoting the formal creation of a network of territories to give continuity to the sharing of experiences. They also called for the creation
of a 4th stage of the URB-AL Program, in order to consolidate the initiatives and to give a greater scope to its proposals. •
Territorial dimension: participation Considering that 80% of the population in Latin America lives in the cities, the development of this model was viewed by workshop participants as one of the greatest achievements and lessons of the Program. In connection with this, one of the risks also became evident: the lack of involvement of the national administration in local territorial policies hinders their expansion and adoption. The existing paradox between growth and development was another issue that was discussed. In this sense, the promotion of publicprivate cooperation through the promotion of partnerships would help overcome this gap in the objectives. The educational component was also highlighted. Project video shown during the workshop
In order to make the effort sustainable, it was suggested that territorial planning should be integrated into the communities’ legal framework. The law must go hand in hand with the populations in order to develop a comprehensive national territorial plan. In the future, the institutionalization of the networks that were developed was the common conclusion of the workshop. •
In addition to guaranteeing legal certainty for land ownership, the Integral Land Management Project of Puerto Cortés (Honduras) has promoted a decisionmaking system based on participative assemblies. These assemblies decide on territorial matters that directly affect them, and the development plan is designed according to their proposals.
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URBsociAL Newsletter // News
What were the main lessons learned from your participation in the OCO consortium?
October 26th
BARCELONA MADRID
FLORENCIA
SAN JOSÉ BOGOTÁ
SANTA FE
For Bogotá it has been very important to be part of the OCO consortium. Having an office installed in our facilities that is responsible for following up and monitoring 5 local government projects in the Andean region has undoubtedly strengthened our District’s technical capabilities in terms of managing decentralized cooperation projects of this magnitude. It has also demonstrated that Bogotá is a capital with a vocation for leadership at the international level.
Because it is a consortium of public administrations, OCO has been able to work for and with local and regional governments that have first-hand knowledge of the realities of the cities. This represents a highly significant added value for the Program. Also, for Diputación de Barcelona, participation in URB-AL III has represented great value in terms of sharing experiences and lessons learned on common challenges.
Gustavo Petro
Jordi Castells
Mayor of Bogotá D.C.
Director of International Affairs at Diputación de Barcelona
For FIIAPP, participating in this third edition of URBsociAL means to continue playing a key role in strengthening local government governance, an objective we have always considered a key component for proper institutional development in the countries we work in. We are also convinced that the dynamics the URBAL community contributes to Bogotá 2012 will continue to provide elements to develop a more efficient work agenda in the field of social cohesiveness.
For the Municipality of San José being part of the OCO consortium is very important for two reasons: at the institutional level, the municipality gained more experience on the various types of international agreements that local governments can submit in technical and financial aspects; and in the international scene, the International Cooperation Office made it possible to achieve greater recognition and positioning in the international community.
Javier Quintana
Marco Vinicio Corrales y Gabriela Calvo
Director of FIIAPP
Office of International Affairs of the Municipality of San José
Our experience in connection with OCO has enabled us to contact a broader audience of Latin American and European local governments and to have a full understanding of the richness and added value of decentralized cooperation. Also, through the work that has been done by the Tuscan Assistance Office we were able to witness the most innovative experiences promoted by URB-AL. The presence of the Office represents an essential step for the creation of the Program.
The balance of our participation in the OCO consortium is highly positive. Now when we talk about decentralized cooperation we no longer think about who gives and who receives; we are now at a higher level where we can all contribute. The relationships created through the Offices have been the starting point for relationships with other sub-national governments that have begun to discuss their common issues. Working in the network has enabled us to view the multiple dimensions of the problems.
Maria Dina Tozzi
Marcelo Romeu
Responsible for International Activities, Tuscany Region
International Affairs and Integration Secretary for the Province of Santa Fe
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URBsociAL Newsletter // Report
October 26th
The fair enables sharing between geographically remote territories
A meeting place
Live presentation of the projects
T
he fair’s structure favored the true integration among the participants of URBsociAL 2012. Yesterday afternoon, attendants went from one project to another, acknowledging the scopes and achievements attained by members from distant territories. The fair was an opportunity to accentuate and explore the results and mechanisms that have driven the progress made in social inclusiveness. All were live examples of the different faces of social cohesion and the numerous lessons collected by the territories.
The fair’s format drove participants to try to benefit as much as possible from mutual knowledge
mutual knowledge. Hard work was highly visible in this space. Thanks to this, the fair was an excellent opportunity for sharing and for dialog. Each of the participants became a facilitator for instruments and opportunities for their peers to improve and broaden their sphere of action. Thus, attendants to the fair strove to express as best as possible their experience to help others become an active part of Latin American development.
URB-AL III projects’ stands were an appropriate setting for presenting results and achievements. In addition, the stands’ graphic elements allowed attendants to appreciate the particular nature of each project, while highlighting the priority themes developed during the unfolding of URB-AL III.
To a large extent, sharing of these experiences helped find common points related to public policy making. When asked about the benefits of this informal dialog, attendants said they were confident that the participation of the different actors and direct beneficiaries within the context of the fair would help create empowerment processes that guaranteed the continuity of the Program’s achievements.
The fair’s format drove participants to try to benefit as much as possible from
Local development practices presented in the ‘speaker’s corner’ showed how
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URBsociAL Newsletter // Report
October 26th methodologies can be created to find direct work allies. Worthy of note was the involvement of institutions, from schools to NGO´s to public entities. According to various speakers, such practices will enable the strengthening of the initiatives’ decentralizing spirit.
Fair participants enthusiastically narrated their experiences Another topic mentioned was the common need for establishing legal instruments to guarantee the long-term permanence of the effort within the territories. Individual interventions confirmed that political contingencies capable of destabilizing whole regions remains a latent issue in the subcontinent. One curious element that was mentioned by all the actors who narrated their experiences was the relationship between the projects and the mass media in their territories. The stands showed that the media are key allies that help publicize their work among the citizens. •
SOCIAL COHESION DRAWING There was also time for fun at the fair through drawing. An artist produced visual illustrations of the various conclusions that were reached through the workshops. The participants’ comments will be attached to the drawings using colorful post-its. Some of the ideas that were drawn were the possibility of integrating the various territorial actors into the development processes. They also displayed issues such as the need for social improvement, the continuity of public policies after incoming administrations take office, and the responsible use of natural resources. The need for cross-border integration, gender equality and the drive to establish clear and solid legal frameworks were also included in the mural.
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URBsociAL Newsletter // URB-AL III Projects
October 26th
PROJECTS (III) SOUTHERN CONE REGIONAL OFFICE (ROSARIO, ARGENTINA)
Tools for growth Projects aimed at designing an inclusive future through strengthening of business networks, multi-level governance or citizen participation.
COCAP
URB-AL Pampa
Productive development and social capital. Territorial development and social cohesion through the development of production chains of medium and small businesses in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil is the main objective of this project. Agrofood and handicraft initiatives, among others, are consolidated by means of an innovative methodology based on consensusbuilding that has enabled territorial actors to work hand in hand, sharing knowledge and experiences. •
Sustainable cooperation. The Pampa region of Uruguay and Brazil, an environmental protection area, has been targeted through various activities to improve the population’s living standards. Starting out with an inventory of potentiality, currently new income sources are being designed that may become in the future a model for inter-regional cooperation to diminish social imbalances. •
Growth with environmental protection
Strengthening business networks
Coordinator: Municipality of Borba (Portugal). Partners: Intendencia Departamental de Rivera (Uruguay), municipalities of Alegrete, Quaraí, Rosário do Sul and Santana do Livramento and Fundación Maronna (Brazil).
Coordinator: Veneto Region (Italy). Partners: San Juan Province (Argentina), Department of Misiones (Paraguay), State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) and Fondazione di Venecia (Italy).
EU-LA-WIN
Linea Internacional
Social Protection. The vision of multi-level governance for the welfare policies of three local governments in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia has produced achievements such as territorial agreements to undertake initiatives or pilot plans that foresee the establishment of ‘Local Development Agencies’. •
Trans-national cooperation. The objective of this project is to re-urbanize the area on the border between Pedro Juan Caballero (Paraguay) and Ponta Porã (Brazil). It started out with consultations with the citizens and has managed to coordinate legislative initiatives and undertake the construction of new “booths” that will help drive the economy in the region and to recover a highly degraded area. •
From informality to competitiveness
Development of networks for welfare
Coordinator: Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy). Partners: Province of Buenos Aires, Municipality of General Pueyrredón (Argentina), Secretary of Agriculture of Paranà (Brazil), Office of the Governor of Antioquia, Institute for the Development of Antioquia (IDEA, Colombia), Marche Region, XVII Municipality of Rome, CESTAS, CISP (Italy) and Mancomunidad de Ribera Alta (Spain).
Coordinator: Prefeitura de Ponta Porã (Brazil). Partners: Municipality of Pedro Juan Caballero (Paraguay), Paz y Desarrollo ONGD (Paraguayan Delegation), Diputación Provincial de Málaga (Spain).
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URBsociAL Newsletter // URB-AL III Projects
October 26th
Rosario, Argentina
Prevention of violence in marginalized urban areas
Habitar Goes
Livable and cohesive urban spaces
Safety for the future Rosario, Argentina
Recovering social value. To recover the social, cultural and economic wealth of Goes, one of the most emblematic areas of Montevideo, this project started out by defining an integrated municipal vision and implementing activities such as promoting cooperatives, training women, rehabilitation works with a social focus, and the creation and start-up of a cultural and economic development center. •
Violence prevention. The project promotes actions to promote prevention and to minimize exposure to violence. Training of over 1,000 prevention promoters and technicians, training of 1,500 youths to enter the labor force, legislative initiatives, promoting debates and workshops on prevention and training of 500 community leaders are some of the achievements of this initiative. •
Coordinator: Intendencia de Montevideo (Urugay). Partners: Intendencia de Florida (Uruguay), municipalities of Rosario (Argentina), Bilbao and Tenerife (Spain), Office of the Mayor of San Salvador (El Salvador), Autonomous Municipal Government of La Paz (Bolivia).
Coordinator: State of Pernambuco (Brazil). Partners: Comune di Bergamo (Italy), Loreto Region (Peru), Intendencia de Paysandú (Uruguay) and Cesvi (Italy).
Institutional Innovation
PACEF
Redesign the region. The consolidation of innovative spaces for citizen participation, the appropriation of a new model of government based on new practices and tools for territorial management and the introduction of a new vision and a shared long-term project are the main impacts of this initiative led by Santa Fe. •
Redress inequality. The project has managed to improve public and regulatory policies related to work training, create a network of international institutions to help transfer best practices, systematize the training pact model and increase cooperative and employment opportunities for women. •
Training pacts with a gender focus
New forms of local management
Coordinator: Province of Santa Fe (Argentina). Partners: Council of Mayors of the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador (El Salvador), Government of Arequipa (Peru), Diputación de Barcelona (Spain) and FUNDE (El Salvador).
Coordinator: Regione Siciliana (Italy). Partners: Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Central Department and PROPADE-ONGD (Paraguay), Commonwealth and Association of Municipalities of Cochabamba (Bolivia).
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URBsociAL Newsletter // Interview
October 26th
María Wilhelmina Josepha Van Gool Chief Ambassador of the EU Delegation for Colombia and Ecuador
The development of clean energies will be a key topic in the EULatin American agenda common language has been developed, thereby creating a community of knowledge that is the driving force of nearly 150 local public policies. What do you believe are the keys to achieving the multi-level dialogue that URB-AL III seeks to promote, particularly given the diversity of actors?
“Both Europe and Latin America are working on improving their welfare models.” The Ambassador of the European Union in Colombia analyzes the future challenges that both Europe and Latin America will face in terms of consolidating a growth model based on social cohesion. Given that Europe is currently redesigning its Welfare State Model, is it Latin America’s turn to take the lead in terms of social and sustainable development policies?
B-41601/2010
The European Union has been under construction for 62 years, and this is not its first crisis. Obstacles and difficulties lead societies to turn to creativity to overcome their problems. In this sense, both Europe and Latin America have each provided examples on how to overcome and improve their social welfare models. I do not see it as a relay race, but as an opportunity to share experiences that will help both parts understand our own
particularities and to replicate the best practices, when applicable. Which do you think is the greatest contribution Latin America and Europe can make to strengthen social cohesion? Europe has a long tradition of working on social cohesion, which is in fact one of the foundations of the Welfare State. Even though Latin America is in full economic growth, it has a pending assignment in terms of cohesion, of reducing inequality. In this sense, the contribution of the URB-AL III Program has been fundamental. Social cohesion has been positioned in the policy agenda of local governments in the region and a
The key has been to develop projects based on consortia between peers. When the European Union launched the invitation for URB-AL III, in 2008, one of the requirements was that the projects had to include a diversity of partners from Latin America and Europe. This has implied that a total of 160 participants from both sides of the Atlantic have participated in the program, including not only local and regional governments, but also intermediate public administrations, civil society organizations and entities, academic institutes, etc. This model has enabled the development of multi-level alliances whose work potential goes beyond the scope of URB-AL III. Could you tell us in general terms what will be on the agenda for Europe and Latin America in the near future? The budget and the scope of the activities is still being defined, but it is clear that the EU will continue to work on poverty reduction, on the enforcement of human rights, on promoting sustainable development and respect for the environment. Similarly, the development of clean energy will be an important issue. The chiefs of state and of governments will chart the path to follow and the main points of our future agenda at the upcoming Summit of EU-Latin American Heads of State and Governments to be held in Santiago de Chile next January. •
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, Angélica Chimbi, Lizete Orjuela Medina, OCO and URB-AL III projects archive.
URBsociAL Newsletter // Agenda
October 26th
TODAY´S AGENDA Conclusion of the Local Leadership Platform
09.30 h.
Workshop conclusions URB-AL III project coordinators
10.00 h.
Roundtable: “Governance and decentralization for an inclusive and sustainable future” Horacio Ghirardi, Secretary of Regions, Municipalities and Communities of the Government of the Province of Santa Fe (Argentina) Lucia Hornes, International Affairs Director of Intendencia de Montevideo (Uruguay) Josep Martínez, General Sub-Director for Legal Assistance and Local Regime of Generalitat de Catalunya Georges Bonan, Coordination and Orientation Office of the URB-AL III Program Moderador: José Luis Furlán, Director of CELADEL
On October 22nd, the last seminar of the third edition of the Local Leadership Platform was opened with the theme “Local leadership and horizontal cooperation: they keys to having an impact on social and territorial cohesion”. The meeting, which was opened by Octavi de la Varga, executive director of the URB-AL III Program Coordination and Orientation Office, allowed all the participants to share the final projects they had prepared, to hold a workshop on projecting local governments abroad and decentralized cooperation, and to have a specific venue to discuss the modality of network relationships and the sustainability of the Platform. In the three editions of this initiative, over 100 elected participants have received training on leadership to improve local governance. In the current edition, elected leaders from 18 countries have participated, including 10 mayors, 13 municipal officials, 8 regional officials and 4 district officials.
11.00 h.
Coffe Break
11.15 h.
Presentation of the Final Report on the Program’s Development and Progress Octavi de la Varga, Executive Director of OCO
11.45 h.
Chronicle of URBsociAL Norman Wray, Council member of Quito
12.15 h.
Presentation of the Agenda for Bogotá 2012 Marcelo Romeu, Secretary of International Affairs and Integration of the Province of Santa Fe (Argentina) and representative of the OCO consortium
12.30 h.
Official closing event Jorge Rojas, Private Secretary of the Mayor of Bogotá Jordi Castells, International Affairs Director. Diputación de Barcelona Massimo Toschi, International Cooperation Advisor of the Regione Toscana and representantive of the OCO consortium Vittorio Tonutti, Europe-Aid, European Commission Angelino Garzón, Vice-President of Colombia
13.00 h.
Closing vídeo
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URBsociAL Newsletter // Back page
October 26th
The great URB-AL III family: technical and institutional cooordinators, territory partners, OCO, and the European Commission
The steering committee of OCO makes final assessment 3,000 actors from Latin America and Europe were mobilized, and roughly 60 documents were published. Moreover, the future of the Program was the object of reflection, and a joint positioning document was agreed on.
The steering team of the Coordination and Orientation Office (OCO)of the URB-AL III Program met on October 23rd to evaluate the work carried out over the past four years. Some of the main achievements attained by the Program were reviewed in the meeting – nearly
The meeting was attended by Jordi Castells and Octavi de la Varga, International Affairs Director of the Diputación de Barcelona and executive director of OCO, respectively; Beatriz Carnicer, manager of FIIAPP (Spain); Eleonora Betancur, International Affairs Director of the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá (Colombia); Marcelo Romeu, International Affairs and Integration Secretary of the province of Santa Fe (Argentina); Susana Guidotti, from the International Affairs Service of the Tuscany Region (Italy); Gildo Baraldi, director of OICS (Italy); and Marco Vinicio Corrales and Gabriela Calvo, from the International Affairs Office of the Municipality of San José (Costa Rica).
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