ESPAÑOL / ITALIANO

Reccommendations contributed by the Working Groups 

 

Group A: Knowledge Networks in the Promotion of Sustainable Urban Development in LAC: Identification of coincidences emerging from the Forum
Federico Burone, Miguel A. Gómez, Isabelle Hentic, Marcelo Korc, Mario Lubetkin, Humberto Peralta, Teresa Serra, Silvia Vetrale
1.	Governance in the urban area
	The urban-city area represents an opportunity to organize social and institutional changes vis-à-vis the challenges posed by globalization. To face such challenges institutions need a greater capacity to understand the surge of an urban culture, the demand for new types of relationship and integration with the rural space, and a new system of values. In this system of values, the environmental protection of the urban space is a dimension that has become more integrated to the need for an inclusive social development and the shared responsibility of the different actors involved.   The city appears as a privileged opportunity in the search for new social inclusion modalities, new avenues for democratic and participatory action. The conscientious and well-informed exercise of citizenship represents its uppermost duty. Urban development management represents an opportunity to set into motion new mechanisms to build up citizenship.
2.	Urban development management
	Urban development management in LAC is faced with the challenge of providing efficient solutions to:
	i.	the growing deficit in the provision of basic services;
	ii.	the growing pressure on the basis of natural resources; and,
	iii.	the control of population vulnerability by minimizing health risks mainly at the level of marginal urban populations.
	The priorities in facing these challenges are:
	2.1	the availability of instruments to facilitate the articulation of actors, namely:
		a.	Inter-governmental coordination
		b.	Institutional coordination (private sector-civil society)
		c.	Participation of research centres in terms of integrated planning
		d.	Promotion and adequate management of co-responsibility of social actors
		e.	Adequate management of the "political" dimension (short-term benefit)
		f.	Definition and acceptance of clear and locally appropriate rules of the game
		g.	Management of consensus to harmonize administrative responsibilities at the urban level.
	2.2.	institutional capacity building at the municipal level, including:
		a.	design, application and evaluation of cost recovery policy;
		b.	implementation and follow-up of policies in managing growing "metropolization"
		c.	incorporation of cost structure and mechanisms that favor the consideration of financial feasibility when defining priorities;
		d.	management of proposals stemming from participatory processes;
		e.	analysis and prevention of externalities resulting from municipal government decisions in a regional or eco-systemic context.
	2.3	improved cooperation and communication in management, including:
		a.	effective and dynamic means to communicate ongoing experiences;
		b.	dissemination of models and lessons in their whole range and identification of special features that make them locally suitable;
		c.	channels to transfer knowledge and experience.
3.	Knowledge network for sustainable urban development in LAC
	The network that supports sustainable urban development must be: Multi-sectoral (universities, NGOs, government agencies, private sector) Inter-disciplinary Related to specific issues or institutions Network of networks
	The network products must respond to the information and communication characteristics established by the different users: Academics, scientists Planners, managers of urban programs Stakeholders (take into account language constraints)

	The network must be flexible and articulate different functions and activities throughout its lifespan. This requires support to organize its role in encouraging, promoting, facilitating, systematizing and classifying information and knowledge.
	It requires different degrees of responsibility and quality control of contents on the part of the network managers, depending on their functions, namely:
		a.	Sharing information
		b.	Management of Discussion Forum
		c.	Organize/systematize/classify information
		d.	Facilitate answers
4.	Key elements in the strategy to develop and manage a network that supports sustainable urban development
	The network must:
		a.	be conceived and promoted as a means and not as an end in itself;
		b.	develop instruments to understand the demand for information and strategically position itself as information and communication service provider;
		c.	understand and position itself in the "market" through a permanent analysis of existing services and their evolution;
		d.	move ahead on the basis that there is little experience in terms of envisaging reference models, like other knowledge networks working with municipal governments, and undertake the risk of promoting innovating modalities;
		e.	assume and establish a functional commitment for an adequate period of time, by incorporating:
			-	appropriate mobilization of human and financial resources to design and maintain the network;
			-	a wareness as to requirements relevant to quality control of contents (e.g. filters such as peer review, validation of experiences, factual verification, etc.).
	The network requires an efficient management mechanism that guarantees:
		a.	the relevance (value added) of its contents and processes to users;
		b.	the presence of "transparent" political support;
		c.	the development of an adequate level of partnerships and/or institutional alliances;
		d.	the "localization of software" - linking local networks -isolated due to their language- to broader knowledge networks.

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