Dates: 22-28 October 2010
Place: San Sebastian, Spain
Over the past few years, UNCRD-LAC has expanded its network of collaboration with relevant organizations to strengthen exchange of experience and information and technical support to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean in the area of integrated urban and regional development planning and management. One of these institutions is the International Association for Urban Development (INTA), a global membership association with members in 60 countries, where public and private policy-makers and urban practitioners come together to share knowledge, experience and performing tools for integrated urban development.
In the context of the INTA-UNCRD partnership initiated in 2010, UNCRD-LAC coordinator was invited to participate in the INTA 34th International Congress to contribute to the Workshop on "Governance of the urban region across scales, different understanding of stakeholders in developing a metropolitan region" through the presentation of UNCRD-LAC experience on capacity building for integrated regional development management and human security in complex territories as well as in the INTA Annual Council (comprised of selected practitioners, academics, government officials, corporations and investors worldwide), in the panel discussions, and discuss ways to strengthen partnership with INTA and other international organizations for capacity development.
The Congress was aimed at facilitating a forum for discussion and exchange of experiences worldwide on the future of urban development (as part of its programme 'Objective 2030'), and to explore ways of bringing hard and soft development factors together with urban and regional governance in pursuit of integrated approaches to smart development.
Major outputs of UNCRD-LAC's coordinator contribution to the INTA Congress were an
Increased awareness of the importance of: (i) using global knowledge to assess and address the high complexity of urban regions in developing countries, particularly in Latin American countries (with outstanding levels of urbanization and wide disparities between poverty and modernity); (ii) to prevent the range of conflicts related to unresolved human security threats, including climate change; (iii) the need to placing people at the core of the debate and strengthening collaborative networks to address critical challenges of developing countries that are undergoing rapid urbanization processes: increased poverty in urban areas, uncontrolled migration from rural to urban areas derived from violence, degradation of ecosystems, the effects of climate change, and decreasing sustainability of rural areas; (iv) to define new territorial frameworks including rural/urban and city/region relationships in developing countries remains a challenge for policy makers and urban and regional development planners.
Other important outputs were: (1) enhanced visibility of the methodologies and capacity building activities implemented by UNCRD LAC to promote collaborative management of urban/city regions, and to assess human security and vulnerability at different territorial scales (regional, city and neighborhood levels), to promote integrated urban and regional development planning and policy making; (2) an enhanced network of collaboration for UNCRDLAC to strengthen and expand activities in Latin American and the Caribbean, and to access to information and experiences from the INTA members; and (3) interest generated in various relevant entities in the work of UNCRD-LAC (as the European Investment Bank, the Agency for Urban and Regional Development Planning of Barcelona and Madrid, Japanese and European research and technical cooperation agencies, and other various local and regional development entities around the world), opening ample possibilities for future cooperation. In this connection, the national government of Peru requested to evaluate the possibility of initiating activities in this country, particularly in the areas of development of sustainable rural areas (rural services) and building of environmental indicators.
Attendance:300 participants, representing governmental, academic, private, community, research and international cooperation organizations and practitioners on urban and regional development from all around the world.
(Office: UNCRD Latin America and the Caribbean Office)