URBsociAL, journal, 23, ok

SECOND MEETING

Journal

SEGUNDO ENCUENTRO

Rosario, 23rd September 2011

The second day of the 2011 URBsocIAL meeting in Rosario was held yesterday. The day was divided into three simultaneous workshops devoted to innovation policies in local government management. The first workshop addressed the potentialities of local development based on the specific analysis of experiences in matters of employ-ment creation, territorial competitiveness, and innovation. The second workshop focused on strategies of land use planning and sustainable development with a debate on integrative design and urban mobility. The main aspect of the third workshop was institutional innovation and it was developed through the reflection about the articulation of actors, local pooling and associativism, and cross-border cooperation. The inventive World Café system served as a catalyst of interesting debates where each participant made a contribution and was enriched with that of the others. In parallel, there was a fair with stands showing the different URB-AL III projects, where participants talked about their own experiences and were able to go into the cases they were more interested in, in a relaxed and comfortable manner.

RosaRio is handed the baton of the uRbsoCIal 2010 sitges agenda

The first workshop, Potentialities of Local Development, addressed the matters of employment creation, with the PACEF project as reference; territorial com-petitiveness, with the COCAP project as starting point; and the concept of innovative cities, based on the example of Medellín. The second workshop, cen-tred on land use planning and sustainable development, analysed the concept of integrative design, on the basis of the INTEGRATION project; and the con-cept of urban mobility, with Curitiba as an example. The third workshop was devoted tothe institutional innovation and was divided in three themes: articulation of territorial actors, with the project of Santa Fe as reference; local associativ-ism, starting from the RESSOC project; and cross-border cooperation, illustrated by the Tourist Borders project.

WORkShOPS

The participants of the fair visited the stands of the URB-AL III projects.

URBsociAL Newsletter // September 23rd

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Approximately ninety people participated in the first workshop.

innovative local developmentThe objective set for the first workshop was to share the lessons regarding strategies, public policy and innovation applied for finding solutions in the field of social cohesion.

the debate of the first of the three workshops conduct-ed yesterday at the URB-sociAL meeting focused

on the Potentialities of Local Devel-opment. The workshop was based on the World Café methodology, which proposes a casual work envi-ronment to maximise results and an open dialogue, and the session started by introducing case stud-ies. Delia Schubert was in charge of presenting the PACEF project for employment creation at the Central Department of Paraguay. Ms. Schu-bert highlighted the results, which started with an unequal society with really important gender gaps. “We succeeded in reorienting the government, structuring the hier-archy of women's organisations, and mainstreaming the gender perspective in every other direc-tion,” Schubert explained. In other words, they managed to bring the

problem of gender inequality under the spotlight, and the solution to this problem starts in gender train-ing pacts and the transfer of good practices in the framework of the PACEF project.

Next was Raúl Osvaldo Benítez, Minister of Economic Develop-ment and Production of the Prov-ince of San Juan (Argentina), who described the COCAP project. Among other aspects, Mr. Benítez emphasised the work done in order to reduce the digital gap affecting small wine producers in San Juan, and he also celebrated the “insti-tutional character” gained by the project as it was passed as a law. He also vindicated the usefulness of the interactions created “between the social actors in favour of social cohesion with the goal of reduc-ing gaps and fragmentation.” The presentation was closed by Maribel

Díaz, Deputy Director of the Agency of Cooperation and Investment of Medellín (Colombia). Ms. Díaz stressed how the innovative sense of social urbanism that has taken place in this city of Colombia has strengthened and united the region. She admitted that “Medellín is not a perfect city, there is inequality and violence, but creativity and innova-tion have allowed us to draw a path that has taken us from fear to hope through education and culture as the engines. Social urbanism has changed the face of Medellín.”

After launching the practical case studies, the participants -almost one hundred- divided into discus-sion groups to draw the framework conclusions. The informal environ-ment during the meeting and the croissants helped create a pleasant and enriching debate that contin-ued in the afternoon. •

the experiences of the central department, medellín and san Juan were a starting point for reflection.

the methodology applied allows establishing a collective consensus.

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The participants worked in small groups around two themes.

tRansveRsal citiesThe participants of the second workshop analysed the main challenges cities face to achieve a sustainable territorial development.

about 60 people took part in the land use planning and sustain-ab le deve lopment

workshop held during the sec-ond day of URBsociAL. The two themes to discuss were urban mobility and integrated urban design, illustrated with the case studies of Curitiba (Brazil) and Quito (Ecuador).

URBS Manager of Urban Mobility from Curitiba, Olga Mara Prestes, presented the case study of the City of Curitiba, where there is an integrated public transportation system with a single fare. Accord-ing to Prestes, "the Mobility Plan

integrates all kinds of trips in the city and is autosustainable."

The second case study, about integrated urban design, dealt with the project developed by the Metropolitan District of Quito. The Secretary of Territorial Coor-dination and Public Participation and responsible for the INTEGRA-TION project in Quito, Nathalia Novillo, argued the concept of "Green Quito" ("Quito verde") as a case of transversal structure to take advantage of the diverse geography of the municipality and to generate green spaces in a city with more than 4,000 neighbourhoods.

During the morning, the partici-pants listened to the presenta-tions and they later discussed the two themes that had been set out in small groups. In a set amount of time, they exchanged experi-ences in a pleasant and relaxed way. This methodology of gather-ing opinions enabled the creation of a joint speech which was ana-lysed in the form of a discussion panel during the afternoon. The final objective of the discussions is to lay out the learned lessons and recommendations related to tools and strategies, the impacts on social cohesion and to iden-tify good practices and experi-ences. •

the way the workshop functions enables gathering different opinions.

based on the explanation of the case, the participants suggest tools and strategies to be followed.

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Participants actively taking part in the preparation of conclusions.

the value of innovationSeveral relevant cases of local management in Latin America were analysed by simultaneous small discussion panels –the World Café method–.

t he institutional innovation workshop carried out yes-terday morning started by introducing three concrete

cases of URB-AL projects. The first one of these was the territo-rial articulation plan, described by Pablo Abalos, Executive Coordi-nator of the Santa Fe project and Provincial Head of Strategic Plan-ning. Mr. Abalos discussed the state reform carried out by his adminis-tration, which started in 2008 by decentralising the territory, giving rise to five regions. The following step in institutional innovation was calling for periodic public meetings. These meetings include approxi-mately 500 citizens that discuss matters personally with govern-ment ministers. Other spaces for participation were created, such as the Youth Forum and Thematic Seminaries, where people were able to voice their needs, as for example

the members of indigenous com-munities. The experience of the URB-AL Tourist Borders project was discussed to illustrate cross-border cooperation. The purpose of this project is to promote culture and develop community tourism. The project includes cooperation among entrepreneurs from the Province of Jujuy in Argentina, the Bolivian municipalities of San Pedro de Quemes and Calacoto, and the Municipality of Tarata in Peru. Bladimir Chura Pastor and Alejandro Choque, coordinators of this project in the Bolivian munici-palities, described the refurbishing of different thematic routes and museums.

The experience of an URB-AL project in a municipality of the met-ropolitan area of El Salvador helped illustrate institutional innovation from the perspective of local associativ-

ism, starting with an urban waste recycling initiative. The municipal administration enabled recovery of an area, a former illegal dump-ster where more than 400 people worked under inhuman conditions. Half of these people were children. The place became a landfill and an association of 14 municipalities resulted in the creation of a shared waste management plan. This ini-tiative also led to the creation of a mixed recycling company.

As with the previous two, this work-shop continued with the dynamic debate system in small discussion panels –the World Café methodol-ogy–. With this method, participants spend 40 minutes in each panel to analyse particular experiences and compare them with the rest, thus taking advantage of shared knowl-edge to enrich each other. The main purpose is always innovation.•

the purpose of the tourist borders project is to add value to local culture in order to foster tourism.

pablo abalos: "We want to stop being a reactive state to start being a state that upholds rights."

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long term sustainability. This is the main challenge faced by regional programmes and local social policies, which are often at odds with electoral times. To deal with

this uncertainty, the Coordination and Orientation Office (OCO) establishes multilevel coordination of actors and complementation as key factors.

That is to say, giving the project a status of a shared and interdependent commitment, so that its sustainability is not tied to a single agent. To this end, complementation of agendas and the programmes of international cooperation agencies play a critical role. As stated in the Paris Declara-tion, the different agencies need to coordinate efforts to ensure consistency and effectiveness of the development impulse. The various summits

in Latin America and the European Union share this same criterion.

Today, the European Commission will introduce the main programmes channelling regional coop-eration with Latin America. The very nature of two of these EC programmes is meant to create such bonds: URB-AL and EUROsociAL.

Both may be considered as two processes con-tributing to achieve the objectives set in the shared agenda of both regions. EUROsociAL works its way downwards, through States. While URB-AL works its way upwards, starting near local gov-ernments. Coordination of both programmes may trigger multilevel agreements and foster dialogue between state and local policies.•

URB-AL: A programme to foster the exchange of experiences among local European and Latin American communities.

Eurosocial: A programme to increase social cohesion in Latin American societies.

multilevel goveRnance to ensuRe sustainabilityCooperation between regional programmes will be crucial to ensure long term success.

henning Reimann, Alfonso Diez Torres, Tarso Genro and hermes Binner at the European Union stand.

@LIS: A programme aimed at improving the current Information society and fighting against the digital gap in Latin America.

AI-Invest : An ini t iat ive to support internationalisation of Latin American sMEs.

MAIN PROGRAMMES RELATED TO REGIONAL COOPERATION WITh LATIN AMERICA

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Poll

“it allows us to plan a long term strategy for em-ployment creation and eco-effective waste manage-ment.”maria lluïsa ferréBarcelona Metropolitan Area project

“seeing the experiences of other territories helps us incorporate the concept of social cohesion.”andreu pontPonta Pora project

“it has enabled us to strengthen environmental and cultural policies in our territory.”

maria dalmira de camargo andrade Borba project

“it contributes to multiply the effect of good practices in municipalities across latin america.”

manuel garcíaL’Hospitalet de Llobregat project

“it provides global visibility to a project developed at the local level.”

andreas markerStuttgart project

“integration into a community allows us to know other realities that enrich our project.”

lola bernáldezAlcorcón project

“the ability to work with different levels of government in order to develop social cohesion.”

diego vecchiattoRegion of Veneto project

“through uRb-al we can reach different levels of government to which we would normally have no access.”david ZaccaroPuerto Cortés project

WhiCh iS The mAin ConTribuTion of urb-AL iii To The projeCT you Are deveLoping?


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Poll

“it contributes to the inclusion of local governments into international cooperation.”

mariangela RibeiroPernambuco project

“the project allows us to provide the tools for promoting social inclusion.”

Rafael velázquezSicily project

“it is an opportunity in terms of economy and also for shared learning among the members.”Roberta dall’olioEmilia-Romagna project

“it highlights the importance of integration and association as communities.”

silvia liceht chavarría Río Lempa project

“uRb-al iii helps europe and latin america become closer as part of an agreement based on change and progress.”giuseppe cesariArezzo project

“this programme acknowledges the silent and peaceful revolution we are conducting at the local level.”mario ensástigaMichoacán project

“it develops cohesion among territories and incorporates the ability to work as a team and achieve autonomy.”michela sauFrosinone project

“it is an opportu-nity for developing the project from a technical, econom-ic and legitimacy point of view.”

paz alonsoMontevideo project

“the programme places us in a framework of legitimacy when we address political authorities.”silvia istillarteIrún project

“cohesion is not an easy road, but dialogue will allow us to find a way to make it successfully.”

susanna guidottiToscana project

“by participating in the programme we are able to take advantage of the knowledge gained from the shared experiences.”carlos palmaSanta Tecla project

“it warrants and ascertains the legitimacy of our continued public policy.”

soledad delgadoSanta Fe project


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URB-AL III Projects

The projects related to the Central America regional office deal with themes such as waste management, inter-municipal governance proposals, legal safeguards for investment or education for social cohesion.

PROJECTS (III) regionAL offiCe of CenTrAL AmeriCA, CubA And meXiCo (SAn joSÉ, CoSTA riCA)

Barcelona Metropolitan Area Economic management of urban waste

Business recycling from landfill sites. The Ressoc project: Social entrepreneurship and eco-management of urban waste, is led by the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, and its goal is to create economic benefits through the improve-ment of the comprehensive management of urban waste. The beneficiaries of this initiative are the individuals living or working in landfill sites in San Salvador, El Callao and Managua. The project will promote the creation of micro-businesses for differentiated waste collection, recycling and sale of products destined for the beneficiaries.•

leader: Association of Municipalities of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. partners: Metropolitan Area of san salvador (El salvador), Provincial Municipality of El Callao (Peru), Mayoral office of Managua (Nicaragua), Mairie de Toulouse (France), Intendencia of Montevideo (Uruguay).

State of Michoacán Five experiences of inter-municipal governance

Five ideas. The IDEAL project, fostered from Michoacán, pro-poses five inter-municipal governance experiences that encour-age social and territorial cohesion focused on different themes. Argentina’s focal point is on decreasing the levels of contami-nation in waterways and on promoting the recycling of waste; Bolivia works on territorial planning for the management of natural resources; Guatemala deals with the care of natural resources; Mexico aims at solid waste management; and Nicaragua centres on basic services and environmental protection.•

Ayuntamiento de Irún Private-public collaboration for local economic development

Economic synergies regarding development. This initia-tive is coordinated by Irún (Spain) and is divided into four projects among four territorial areas in Latin America, all aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and at reinforcing public administrations as an engine of local economic develop-ment based on networking and public-private consensus. Each area will work on a specific theme: Arica-Parinacota (Chile) and Tacna (Peru) will deal with tourism; while the Local Agenda 21 will be a vehicle for action in Santa Rosa de Copán (Honduras) and for technological development in Zapotlán el Grande (Mexico).•

líder: Ayuntamiento de Irún. socios: Gobierno Regional de Arica Parinacota (Chile), Gobierno Regional de Tacna (Perú), Municipali-dad de santa Rosa de Copán (Honduras), Ayuntamiento de Zapotlán el Grande (México), Junta de Castilla y León (España).

leader: Administration of the state of Michoacán. partners: Munic-ipalities of san Miguel de Tucumán (Argentina) and san Antonio de Huista (Guatemala), san sebastián de los Reyes (spain) and Tuma la Dalia (Nicaragua), Inter-municipality “Citirs Monarca de oriente” (Mexico), Association of Municipalities of the North of La Paz (Norte Paceño, Bolivia), Department of Hautes-Pyrénées (France).

san José, Costa Rica


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URB-AL III Projects

Mancomunidad Río Lempa Transnational collaboration in the Trifinio region

Cross-border initiative for regional cohesion. The project, managed from the Mancomunidad Trinacional Fronteriza Río Lempa that joins El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, aims at the development, promotion and institutionalisation of a process of strategic, participatory, integrative and territorial planning with the purpose of articulating social, environ-mental, economic, and cultural dimensions in the territory shared by these three countries in the region of Trifinio. In order to achieve this, joint and participatory policies and processes are being implemented in connection with social cohesion and cross-border territorial management.•

Mayoral Office of Santa Tecla Education for cohesion and the coexistence of citizens

Promotion of the conditions for social interaction. This is the purpose of the Different People, Equal People (Gente diversa, gente equivalente) project, coordinated by Santa Tecla. In order to achieve it, the following activities will be conducted: research and participatory debates dealing with the factors affecting social cohesion and the mechanisms which promote it, training workshops, and good neighbour and recovery of spaces campaigns. Thus, civil society’s chan-nels for dialogue will be reinforced, and awareness will be raised in local governments. This project is developed in Santa Tecla and in the capital city of Ecuador, Quito.•

Tuscany Region key for social and territorial cohesion

Participatory urban and territorial management. The goal of this project is to create participatory territorial manage-ment plans linked to the territorial planning processes or projects already in place. After the joint establishment of the “territorial management model” between the members -Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cochabamba (Bolivia) and Asun-ción (Paraguay)-, the local plan will be configured in each area through participatory methodology and incorporating the participatory-geographic information system (P-GIS) into the public administrations responsible.•

Municipality of Puerto Cortés Setting the legal bases for capturing investments

Legal safeguards as a condition for investment. The GIT (Integrated Land Management) project is aimed at improving the legal safeguards offered by property rights in the municipalities of Puerto Cortés, Omoa and Tela in Honduras, and the City of Puerto Barrios in Guatemala. The objective of this project is to warrant the minimum conditions for creating financial invest-ment in these territories with great tourist and business potential. This process implies developing a land and property registry and record system, and updating the Land Use Plan.•

leader: Mayoral office of santa Tecla (El salvador) partners: Metropolitan District of Quito (Ecuador), Municipality of saint Denis (France)

leader: Mancomunidad Trinacional Fronteriza Río Lempa. partners: Asso-ciation of Municipalities of Nororiente, Lago Güija, Copan Chorti (Guatema-la), Association of Municipalities of Cayaguanca, Trifinio (El salvador) and Valle de sesecapa (Honduras), Lombardía (Italy) and Diputación Huelva

leader: Municipality of Puerto Cortés (Honduras). partners: Municipality of Tela (Honduras), Municipality of omoa (Honduras), Municipality of Puerto Barrios (Guatemala), Kadaster (the Netherlands).

líder: Región Toscana. socios: Comunidad Regional Punilla (Argen-tina), Municipalidad Viña del Mar (Chile), Asamblea Municipal Habana (Cuba), Municipalidad Antigua Guatemala (Guatemala), Alcaldía de León (Nicaragua), Región Provence (Francia), Co.opera oNGD (Italia).


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Interview

Organization of Urbsocial: OCO-URB-AL III

OCO Consortium: Barcelona Provincial Council, international and Ibero-American Foundation of Government and Public Policy, FIIAPP (Spain); Province of Santa Fe (Argentina); Mayoral Office of Bogotá (Colombia); Municipality of San José (Costa Rica) and Region of Tuscany (Italy).

Diputació de Barcelona, September 2011. Coordination and supervision: Office of Coordination and Orientation of URB-AL III Program. Edition and layout: Pauta Media S.L. Photography: Diputació de Barcelona (Òscar Ferrer, camaleó), Gover-nment of Santa Fe (Marcelo Beltrame), OCO and proyectos URB-AL III archives.

vittorio tonutti Coordinator of the socio-economic sector at the Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation of the European Commission

the agenda between the European Union and Latin America?

Decentralised cooperation is essential and the space occupied nowadays by local authorities is huge. In Latin America, there is a long way to go due to the extreme weakness of municipali-ties when it the time comes to handover the power and decentralisation proce-dures. That is where a local articulation problem arises, a problem that requires complex solutions.

What are the main challenges of the second edition of URBsociAL?

We are at an instance that allows com-munication among the different experi-ences, a dialogue from which we can learn from the different poles. This ena-bles the creation of an expansive effect of ideas beyond the boundaries of the programme. This edition goes straight in the direction we expected: discussions are not academic, but rather based on specific experiences. For example, the case of waste recycling. We do not speak about climate change but about specific solutions to coordinate waste management policies.

The initial proposals of the projects were a bit confusing and shallow. But during the last three years, a very interesting and well articulated work has been done. People came closer to the projects, and the exchange on policies helped under-stand the complexity of the political man-agement in a systematic way.

And the lesson is that when you acknowledge citizens' responsibility, you can see their productive passion translated into interesting results. URB-sociAL is the ideal space for them to make visible their work and to feel part of the society.

In the medium-term, what is the role of decentralised cooperation within

We have reached the last lap in the third stage of the URB-AL Pro-gramme. In your opinion, what is the primary added value of this stage?

The qualitative jump in the third stage lies in the achievement of the inter-sectoriality necessary among the dif-ferent political competences, since the conduction of inclusion programmes at the territorial level is extremely complex and important.

The general purpose of URB-AL III is to contribute to the increase of social cohesion between the sub-national groups in Latin America. What are the main contributions of the projects in this sense?

“We want ideas to have an expansive effect.”sixteen years elapsed since the creation of the URB-AL pro-gramme. Its principal creator, Vittorio Tonutti, claimed the impor-tance to “overcome the gap between the different policies in order to achieve a global vision and reach out to the whole society.”

this edition goes straight in the direction we expected: discussions are not academic, but rather based on specific experiences.

Juan

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decentralised cooperation is essential and the space occupied nowadays by local authorities is huge.


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Agenda

PROGRAMME FOR TODAYthe oco stand

The Coordination and Orien-tation Office (OCO) of the URB-AL III Programme showed in its stand the activities it performs in matters of technical assistance, training, education, and dissemi-nation of good practices. In addi-tion, the publications and main dissemination products distrib-uted by the OCO were available at the stand. The Coordination and Orientation Office is a con-sortium led by the Diputació de Barcelona, and also composed of the FIiAPP, the Province of Santa Fe, the Tuscany Region, the Municipality of San José, and the Mayor Office of Bogotá.

09.00 - 09.30 h Workshops' Conclusions and Recommendations

09.30 - 09.45 h Chronicle of the Event Alberto Enríquez, Expert on Decentralised Cooperation and Local Public Policies José Luís Furlan, Director of the Latin American Centre of Local Studies (CELADEL)

09.45 - 10.00 h Coffee break 10.00 - 13.00 h The Territorial Complementarity among European Union Regional Programmes

13.00 - 13.30 h Presentation of the 2011 Rosario Agenda

13.30 - 13.45 h URBsociAL Closing

13.45 - 15.00 h Lunch


ALCALDÍA MAYORDE BOGOTÁ D.C.

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Sentences of the day

"decentralised cooperation is a fundamental instrument for strengthening the capacity of our region."maribel díazDeputy Director of the Agency of Cooperation and Investment of Medellín

"the cocap project has strengthened the government of san Juan as an institution."

Raul osvaldo benítezMinister of Economic Development and Production of the Province of San Juan

"our mobility plan plan integrates all kinds of trips in the city."

olga mara prestesURBS Manager of Urban Mobility in the City of Curitiba

"multilevel gov-ernance and agreement among the actors consti-tute the current challenge faced by cooperation."lucía salaDeputy Director of FIIAP

Group photo of the coordinators of the twenty URB-AL III projects and the representatives of the European Union and the OCO

URBsociAL, journal, 23, ok

Documents

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