URBSOCIAL JOURNAL. OCTOBER 25TH

URBsociAL Newsletter // October 25th

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Bogotá, October 25th, 2012

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Institutional representatives and experts during the URBsociAL 2012 inaugural session

Plaza de los Artesanos has received nearly 350 registered participants, including 16 may-

ors from Latin American cities, 13 local district mayors from Bogotá, and del-egates from 25 Latin American and European countries. Among the over 20 experts and institutional personali-ties who will participate in the event are the Mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Pet-ro; the EU Ambassador in Colombia, María Wilhemina Josepha van Gool; the International Affairs Director of Diputación de Barcelona, Jordi Cas-tells, and Sandra Bessudo, Director of the Colombian government’s Interna-tional Cooperation Agency.

URBsociAL 2012 in figURes

The URB-AL III community inaugurated URBsociAL 2012 with its sights set on addressing the challenges of giving continuity to the local public policies launched within the Program’s framework and of spreading the concept of decentralized cooperation.

During the opening session, the Chief Ambassador of the EU Delegation for Colombia and Ecuador, María Wilhelmina Josepha Van Gool, highlighted the importance of decentralized cooperation between Latin America and Euro-pe. The director of demand for the Colombian government’s International Cooperation Agency, Carolina Tenorio, called for the development of local and national agendas for social cohesion. The International Affairs Director of the Diputación de Barcelona, Jordi Castells, underlined that URB-AL III has contributed substantially to the debate on redefining cooperation models. In turn, the Environment District Secretary of the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá, Susana Muhamad, pointed out that this meeting represents a suitable framework for the systematization of four years of hard work in order to disseminate the knowledge capital on decentralized cooperation.

The day concluded with the opening of the Second URB-AL III Fair, where the attendants had a chance to exchange experiences and knowledge. The fair features stands of the 20 URB-AL III projects, the European Com-mission, OCO, and the consortium’s institutional partners. •

URBsociAL feAtURes its thiRd edition


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URBsociAL 2012 inaugural session

which provide feedback to the gover-nance dynamics in the continent. In this sense, she said that the European Union is proud to have cooperation agree-ments in place with countries and ter-ritories in Latin America at a time when alliances between these continents are ever more important.

Along the same line, Carolina Tenoris, Director of Demand at Colombia’s Inter-national Cooperation Agency, pointed out that these spaces for dialog on

regional cooperation are an opportu-nity to bring the two continents closer together. In the particular case of Colom-bia, she explained that the objective is to continue promoting dialogs and good practices in terms of inter-regional work.

The Director of International Affairs of the Diputación de Barcelona, Jordi Castells, highlighted one of the great achievements of URB-AL III: having helped redefine the traditional models of cooperation by promoting the sharing of knowledge in both directions. He said that one of the greatest assets of this new form of cooperation is the active participation of the local entities. Simi-larly, another noteworthy legacy of these four years of Program execution is, in his opinion, having promoted the union of political decision and execution.

The challenge of keeping alive the wealth of cooperation knowledge gained through the URB-AL III projects was also one of the aspects highlighted by Susana Muhamad, District Envi-ronment Secretary of the Office of the Mayor of Bogotá. Regarding the appli-cation of this knowledge, she advised that the numerous transformations the territories currently face will force local governments to design instruments to ensure social cohesion despite the many changes. •

the inaugural session of URBso-ciAL 2012 marked the begin-ning of three days of activities for the URB-AL III community,

which focused on the need to ensure the continuity of the local public policies promoted in the setting of the Program.

María Wilhelmina Josepha Van Gool, Chief Ambassador of the EU Delegation for Colombia and Ecuador, pointed out that Europe has much to learn from the experiences collected by the Program,

URBsociAL strengthens ties between continentsIn the opinion of the inaugural event panel, one of the main achievements of the decentralized cooperation effort promoted by URB-AL III has been the development of a new cooperation model for a sustainable development in both Europe and Latin America.

Gerardo Ardila, secretary of Planning for the Office of the Mayor of the District of Bogotá, provided details on the foundations on which the city is currently promoting its development. Two of the areas the municipal government is working on are an integral plan to manage water and the environment and a decided fight against segregation. The challenge of the city’s growth in an environment that is limited in terms both of resources and territories was another aspect that was highlighted. This issue, which he believes is also faced by many Latin American cities, makes it necessary to transform traditional urban planning policies so as to promote a space of coexistence marked by diversity in each of the city’s environments.

BOGOTá WORkS fOR SOCIAL COhESIOn


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Images of social cohesion

the 14-minute URB-AL III documentary video showed one of the program’s most relevant results has been its capacity to conceptualize in an innovative manner the highly complex issue of social cohesion, which

goes beyond the eradication of poverty and is capable of overcoming the fragmentation of public policies so as to achieve greater integration, at various levels, between the

citizens of a given region. As the documentary shows, a cohesive society is sustainable, participative and respectful of its identities and differences.

The search for a common language to strengthen and lend credibility and legitimacy to the incidence of public policies in the regions is one of the objectives of a decentralized coop-eration model such as this. Some of its key implementation strategies have been the sharing of experiences and lessons learned, as well as the possibility of replicating successful projects in other territories.

Some of the impacts of the URB-AL III highlighted in the documentary include the progress made in the political and institutional arenas and the establishment of consensus-building arrangements between the private and public sec-tors. It is also clear how it has promoted the establishment of institutional policies through integral, strategic and cross-cutting management, promoted by multi-level participation and widespread diffusion of the knowledge and experiences gained through decentralized cooperation. •

Providing details of the experience of URB-AL III in its four years of operations, Octavi de la Varga, Executive Director of the Coordination and Orienta-tion Office (OCO), stressed the important evolution

undergone by the cooperation models. “We no longer talk about cooperation for development, but about coopera-tion between territories,” he said.

De la Varga stressed that the exchange and dialog between actors within the framework of the Program has boosted the development of innovative methodologies aimed at convert-ing an isolated project into public policies for social cohe-sion. The URB-AL III Program, he said, has brought about good practices and models that can be replicated by other cooperation projects.

“While at Sitges 2010 we concluded that the local government is an actor with full rights, and at Rosario 2011 we suggested the need to innovate and to be creative in order to manage local public policies, Bogotá 2012 starts with the purpose of constructing an inclusive and sustainable future,” De la Varga explained.

“URBAL-III has helped to redefine the traditional cooperation model”

octavi de la VargaExecutive Director of the Coordination and Orientation Office – OCO

“With a balance of over 150 public policies promoted or cre-ated within the setting of the Program, we can confidently say we successfully completed our work,” he said. •


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Roundtable URBsociAL 2012

deVeLoPing teRRitoRies. needs thAt ARise fRom LocAL conditions

this first session of the URB-sociAL 2012 meeting began with a roundtable on “Local governments, strategic driv-

ers for territorial development”, with participation by four experts in local governance issues who, from various perspectives and invited by moderator Alberto Henríquez, OCO’s public policy expert, reviewed the following issues: the unbalanced relationship between the formulation of government public policies and their actual incidence in the local and municipal territories; the design of consistent legal frameworks, and, lastly, the need to include other types of actors in designing new financ-ing models and plans, because it has been demonstrated that the participa-tion of governments on their own is insufficient.

The careful review of these aspects will surely promote continuity in the execu-tion of public policies and development plans in the territories that promote

social cohesion and the eradication of poverty.

cLARificAtion of concePts

The initial round of interventions focused on the need to distinguish between decentralization and de-concentration processes, many of which are not defined in the specific public policy laws. The first speaker was Jaime Ordoñez, Director of the Central American Institute for Governance, who first pointed out the limits of centralized execution, in so far as many Latin Ameri-can countries have historically featured deep-rooted centralization processes, and also due to the instability of govern-ments and local development plans, given that all too often the plans and the officials change at the start of each term in office, which generates, among

We are struggling with that label of origin through which our rulers have despised others and excluded them

Jaime ordoñezDirector of the Central American Insti-tute for Governance


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other difficulties, an increase in a type of corruption that the panelist labeled as “light”, in the sense that it affects budget execution in the short term and reaches alarming proportions.

He was followed by María Rosa Pujol Esteve, Vice-President of the Territorial Studies Institute of the city of Lleida, who, in a brief speech, defended local autonomy and the competencies of the municipalities in a model such as the Spanish one, in which the State is divided into autonomous communities, which in turn are sub-divided in ayun-tamientos, which have available sub-stantial financing to seek, control and coordinate projects to promote social cohesion, not only in socio-economic terms, but also in cultural aspects, which is crucial in the panelist’s opinion.

Josep Llorens Muñoz, Councilman and Attaché of the Office of the Mayor of Tordera, in the province of Barcelona, suggests that we should not ignore the recent past of the communities to ensure that public policies are designed to fit, based on the premise that there are no standard municipalities, that each municipality has its own particu-larities and dynamics.

He believes that local politicians should be the direct recipients of the needs of local citizens and should become the link with the national governments.

Gerardo Ardila, Planning Secretary of the Office of the Mayor of the District of Bogotá, stated that local autonomy for decision-making has been historically difficult in Colombia, and even more so when governments have attempted to curtail it through the imposition of laws and regulations that were not well suited to the communities’ needs.

the LegAL fRAmeWoRks

The moderator pointed out that to launch a second round of interventions it is not possible to wait until there is a perfect framework for the design of local public policies, given that local issues add complexity to the overall policy

design. He also pointed out that it is not the same to develop public policies in countries that have sharply divided social fabrics than to do so where the social fabric is solid.

Afterwards, Jaime Ordoñez indicated that Latin America is one of the most centralist continents in the world because, historically, our rulers have despised those who are different and have inevitably excluded them from the large cities and the big government decisions.

He insists that because of this, there is not a methodology to de-concentrate the execution of public services.

María Rosa Pujol spoke of the unbal-ance that has been created recently by the crisis in terms of the assistance that the richer autonomous communities in Spain provided the poorest ones.

As a result, Josep pointed out that the municipalities often end up exercising their autonomy by accident, but they fall short in terms of administrative and technical capabilities to exercise said autonomy.

fUtUReA final round provided general recom-mendations to local governments for the design of public policies for the develop-ment of local territories and countries.

Gerardo Ardila pointed out that the best path is to build public policies collec-tively.

Jaime Ordoñez said that, even though there are no ready-made formulas, it is necessary to distinguish between public policies at the local and national level, in order to have clarity regarding the particular needs of local communities and the efficient transfer policies of national governments, and that it would be convenient to replicate some of the European models.

María Rosa Pujol suggested that there should be a harmonic triangle between private enterprise, government and cul-ture, a view Josep Llorens shares, in explaining the experience of his city, Tordera. •

it is necessary to seek out new actors to help design local public policies

culture is a defining issue in the construction of social cohesion

Public policy is nothing more than the tool we use to ensure the enforcement of human rights

Josep Llorens muñozCouncilman and Attaché to the Office of the Mayor of Tordera (Barcelona)

maría Rosa Pujol esteveVice-President of the Territorial Studies Institute (Lleida)

gerardo ArdilaSecretary of Planning of the Office of the Mayor of Bogotá


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The workshops will cover the 5 dimensions of social cohesion in order to discover sustainability clues and ways to duplicate the projects

In order to continue with the work car-ried out by the Program, URBsociAL 2012 offers, in its workshops today, a space designed for the exchange

of experiences and opinions and thus reflect about the impact the projects have had on the different territories, also, to unveil the clues for sustainability and duplication of the obtained results.

The workshops will be structured through the five social cohesion dimen-sions: civic, occupationally productive, institutional, social, and territorial. World Cafe methodology will facilitate debate and discussion on very specific mat-

ters since the participants will split into work groups to exchange opinions and experiences. Each workshop will have a case study as a starting point which will present some URB-AL III territory’s experience in each one of the five social cohesion dimensions through a video or a paper. From there on, the participants will analyze the impact of their respec-tive experiences related to social cohe-sion, operational tools developed, and the proposed sustainability strategies.

After a morning of work, the workshops’ conclusions will be developed jointly within the Second URB-AL III Fair. The

the World cafe format will facilitate a shared analysis among the workshops’ participants to reach conclusions as a group within the second URB-AL iii fair

URBsociAL workshops’ work groups, Rosario 2011

shARing AchieVements to gUARAntee sUstAinABiLity of URB-AL iii


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final conclusions document, which will be read in tomorrow’s full session, will be a valuable roadmap for those who are already working toward social cohesion in their territories or for those who wish to lead new projects with the URB-AL III spirit.

institUtionAL dimension: institUtionAL stRengthening And fiscAL mAnAgement

The third workshop will focus on the analysis of inter-sector strategic planning processes for social cohesion, local institutions’ training, development of institutional mechanisms for public-private agreements related to local management and the search for multi-level governance.

The debate will take place based on the experience of Rio Lempa Trinational Border Commonwealth project empha-sizing the development and implemen-tation of trans-border policy for land-use planning in the area where El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras converge. The institutional dimension aims at the generation of strategic planning pro-cesses, local institutions development, public-private management mecha-nisms support, different government levels complementing each other, and strengthening of local fiscal manage-ment with redistribution capacity.

1.IDEAL Project

2.Tucumán, Argentina

3.EmiDel Project

4.La Paz, Bolivia

5.Rio Lempa Trinational Border Commonwealth Project

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sociAL dimension: UniVeRsAL Access to BAsic sociAL seRVice And citiZen sAfety

As a structural aspect of a fair and inclusive community development, this dimension focuses on the manner the increment of scope and quality of basic social services in the territory allows the construction, guarantee, and strength-ening of citizenship.

The case study on the experience in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco by the Violence Prevention Local Policy in Marginal Urban Areas project will work as the trigger for an interesting debate. The participants will analyze diverse strengthening and integration

policies related to basic social services, actors complementing each other, and citizen safety.

teRRitoRiAL dimension: RedUction of UnBALAnce

This workshop’s debate will concen-trate on policies related to urban inte-gration, land-use planning, and waste management, as well as on trans-border cooperation, which makes it possible to improve the living standards of par-ticularly deprived territories.

The experience in Puerto Cortés by the Comprehensive Management of Land project (GIT in Spanish), which works on the improvement of juridical safety of real estate property rights in the coastal municipalities of Honduras

for each dimension, existing sustainability’s elements and strategies and the suggested operational tools will be identified

URBsociAL workshops’ work groups, Rosario 2011


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6.Lampa

7.Local policy for violence prevention in marginal urban areas

8.Santo Amaro, Recife (Pernambuco)

9.GIT Project

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and Guatemala, will be the case study motivating discussion on ways to work for an orderly development as a tool to reduce territorial unbalance.

ciVic dimension: ActiVe citiZenshiP constRUction

Building a socio-cultural identity focused on gender and respect for diversity, particularly through the devel-opment of civic organizations’ participa-tion in the definition, implementation, and control of public policy, is the pivotal factor structuring the social cohesion’s civic dimension.

IDEAL project’s inter-municipal gover-nance experience, coordinated by the Mexican state of Michoacán, in San Miguel de Tucumán (Argentina) will be the starting point for an analysis empha-sizing initiatives based on cooperation and participation. Workshop participants will debate about gender, active citizen-ship construction, multi-cultural integra-tion, and identity cross-sectional policy.

PRodUctiVe And occUPAtionAL dimension For this workshop, the dialog will be structured around the diverse initiatives issued for the promotion of economic development and dignified employment in the regions where the projects are car-ried out. Economic development sup-port policy and activities, territorial com-petitiveness and innovation, PYMES support and development, as well as migrants’ insertion in the work market and productive appraisal of received remissions are some of the topics for analysis to identify good practices.

The responsible undertaking model developed by the emi-Del project in La Paz (Bolivia) will be the fundamen-tal case study for the debate analyzing the ways to incorporate business initia-tives to urban development strategies. This project has been coordinated by the Ayuntamiento de L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona). •

URBsociAL Newsletter // October 25thURB-AL III Projects

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, Angélica Chimbi, OCO and URB-AL III projects archive.B

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Initiatives focused on training, cooperating, and restructuring traditional management ways.

PROYECTS (II)ANDEAN AREA REGIONAL OFFICE (BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA)

coordinator: comune di Arezzo (italy). Partners: Arica Municipalities (chile), cuenca and Lago Agrio (ecuador), general Pico (Argentina) and santiago de surco (Peru); Buenos Aires Province (Argentina), Lille Métro-pole (france) and oxfam italia (ngo, italy).

coordinator: Municipality of stuttgart (germany). Partners: Prefeituras de são Paulo, Río de Janeiro (Brazil), Municipality of Quito (ecuador), chihuahua state and Municipality of guadalajara (Mexico), Mayor’s office of Bogotá (colombia), KATe (germany) and icLei (Brazil).

coordinator: frosinone Province (italy). Partners: Municipality of Purmamarca , ADeso (Argentina), commonwealth of san Pedro de Quemes and Municipality of calacoto (Bolivia), Municipality of Tarata (Peru), Bolzano Autonomous Province (italy).

coordinator: Ayuntamiento de Alcorcón (spain). Partners: c. Mu-nicipal são João da Madeira (Portugal), Municipality of Valparaíso (México), Pimampiro (ecuador) and curahuara de carangas (Bolivia), Paysandú Province (Uruguay), AMiBe (Bolivia), and Amas de casa por el Desarrollo, Pimampiro (ecuador).

coordinator: L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (spain). Partners: Municipal Autonomous government of La Paz (Bolivia), canelones Municipa-lity (Uruguay), Municipal Mayor’s office of santa Tecla (salvador), Diputación de Barcelona (españa).

Capitalizing on resources and knowledge

Value chain. A project developed in six Latin American municipalities has determined models for a sustainable management of garbage through an inter-regional dialog. It is also supporting recycling systems, the creation of coop-eratives, improvement of recycling workers’ working condi-tions, environmental education, and citizen participation in public service.

Social economy. Providing mechanisms to support local economic development is a reality thanks to training pro-grams undertaken by emiDel; they give special attention to returning migrants and women. It is an undertaking model implying legislative, normative, and management changes with obvious involvement and commitment of related public, private, and social actors.

An enterprise with good perspectives. Located on the bor-der between Argentina-Bolivia and Bolivia-Peru, this project has promoted “environmentally friendly, etno-sustainable” tourism initiatives. Citizen’s participation has been the clue in the creation process of local tourism operators, which also upgrade the area, protect the environment, and vindicate the territory’s identity.

Entrepreneurial initiative. Focused on improving the produc-tive performance of four municipalities in Ecuador, Uruguay, Bolivia and Mexico, the project works to promote SMEs, boost projects with emphasis on returned emigrants and an ambitious training process with 184 instructors and 1,010 young people from 31 educational institutes. •

Setting up patterns. Integration pursues sustainable urban internal development and the revitalization of unused con-taminated sites. The implementation of pilot projects to revi-talize vacant lots in five Latin American cities has allowed good practices to be established in connection with urban planning and collaboration dynamics between governments and citizens.

Integration new life to space

Melgodepro Sustainable economy cycle

EmiDel Learning to undertake

Touristic Borders Trans-border tourism

La basura sirve Improved waste management


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Replicable and sustainable capitalization

On October 23, nearly 65 URB-AL III actors participated in the Meeting on the Capitalization of Good Practices of the Coordina-tion and Orientation Office (OCO), with the objective of sharing the results.

This meeting was part of the pre-liminary activities of URBsociAL. During the meeting, the institu-tional and technical coordinators and the territorial partners of the 20 URB-AL III cooperation projects analyzed the results achieved by the capitalization strategy, which were compiled in the final activity report. Also during the meeting, ideas were exchanged on how to develop a methodological pro-posal on capitalization that may be replicated in other cooperation programs.

The OCO’s good practices capital-ization strategy has made it pos-sible to end the traditional isola-tion of cooperation projects and develop a community of public and private actors from Latin America and Europe who share experienc-es and develop synergies that go beyond the scope of URB-AL III. Its greatest achievement has been its capacity to internally identify the best practices developed in the framework of the Program.

TODAY´S AGEnDA09.00 – 13.00 h. Workshop I: On the civic dimension:

San Miguel de Tucumán (Argentina) - Project IDEAL: “Inter-municipal management: an effective tool for social and territo-rial cohesion” coordinated by the state of Michoacán (Mexico).

Workshop II: On the productive and occupational dimension:La Paz (Bolivia) - Project EmiDel: “Local Development and Emigration in Latin America” - EmiDel - coordinated by the municipality of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Spain).

Workshop III: On the institutional dimension:Rio Lempa Trinational Border Commonwealth (El Salvador, Guatemala, honduras) – Project: “Promotion of social cohesion and regional territorial integration of the municipalities where the three countries meet in Central America” coordinated by the Commonwealth itself.

Workshop IV: On the social dimension:State of Pernambuco (Brazil) – Project: “Local violence pre-vention policies in marginalized urban areas”, coordinated by the government of Pernambuco (Brazil).

Workshop V: On the territorial dimension:Puerto Cortés (honduras) – Project: “Integral land manage-ment”, coordinated by the municipality of Puerto Cortés (Hon-duras).

13.00 h. Lunch

14.30 h. URBsociAL at the fair •Speaker´s corner: Presentations of the URB-AL III projects

(according to the previously announced schedule) and joint development of conclusions from the workshops.

•Time to contribute ideas on sustainability and the future•Meetings and exchanges between URB-AL III projects.


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Back pageURBsociAL newsletter //

the eU is proud to have cooperation agreements with countries and territories in Latin America

María Wilhelmina Josepha Van Gool, chief Ambassador of the eU Delegation for colombia and ecuador

it is necessary to keep on developing national and local agendas that have an effect on social cohesion

Carolina TenorisDirector of Demand for the colombian government’s international cooperation Agency

URBAL-iii has helped to redefine the cooperation model by promoting knowledge

Jordi Castellsinternational Affairs Director of the Diputación de Barcelona

the challenge is to keep alive the wealth of knowledge about cooperation gained from projects

Susana MuhamadDistrict secretary of the Mayor’s office of Bogotá

Inauguration of the Second URB-AL III Fair, a space for the exposure and exchange of experiences and ideas.

Documents

URBSOCIAL JOURNAL. OCTOBER 25TH