URBAL B PROJECT
INTERCITY SYSTEM OF QUALIFICATION IN PARTICIPATIVE LOCAL PLANNING
AND MANAGEMENT
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INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHING MEETING
PLANNING WORKSHOP OF THE INTERCITY QUALIFICATION SYSTEM
Porto Alegre, November 21, 22 and 23, 2007
HELP MEMORIAL (PRELIMINARY VERSION)
I.
BACKGROUND
The URB-AL is a decentralized cooperation program of the European
Commission that has as its objective bringing closer cities, entities and local
collectivities of Latin America and the European Union through the exchange of
experiences in urban policies among its members. During the period from 2003
until the present date, the City Administration of Porto Alegre was responsible for
the coordination of the 9 Network, whose central topic was the “Local Financing
and Participative Budget.” This Network was conceived to develop a permanent
process of experience exchange among the local Latin-Americans and European
administrations for the socialization, systemization and implementation of the
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best experiences within the sphere the local financing and the practices of
participative budget.
The B Project: “Intercity System of Qualification in Local Planning and
Management”, coordinated by the City Administration of Porto Alegre, makes
direct reference to the 9 Network, Local Financing and Participative Budget.
Through the annual seminars, base document and case studies that support it,
many are the main conclusions that in a great extent support the present B
project:
-
A first conclusion is that the participative budgets, and more generally
speaking the participative practices, have difficulties in sustaining
themselves over time and, in addition, they are processes that can
become “volatile."
-
A second conclusion, thoroughly validated within the sphere of the 9
network, is that the sustainability of the local participative processes is
closely
linked
to
the
“training
and
reinforcement
of
the
local
administrations' capacities.” During the works of several A projects
coordinated by some of the member cities of this proposal (Belo
Horizonte, Cordoba), the necessity to expand the training towards the Civil
Society, and specially towards the urban actors that are in the interface
between the local government and the civil society, whether or not
organized, was seen. They are the ones who establish the ties of
continuity and sustainability. Their training, qualification and empowerment
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appear as a good guarantee to give a perennial dimension to the
experiences.
-
The third conclusion is that the Participative Budgets are hardly sustained
in case they work separately. On one hand, to optimize their impacts
(especially social and political ones), the Participative Budgets must be
part of a participation system. Such system, characterized by the
multiplicity of its participation channels, the existence of participation laws
or a “right to participate”, enriches the participative budgets and is
enriched by them.
-
A fourth conclusion was that the participative budgets are, and must be,
part of a wider planning system so that they can fully accomplish their
potential (specially institutional and territorial ones) and be sustainable.
The necessary connections with the Master Plans, Strategic Plans, the
Local Development Plans or the Territorial Ordering Plans were one of the
debate topics of the network.
-
A last conclusion is that the participative budgets are multidimensional
processes that comprise several dimensions, namely: a) Financial and
Fiscal; b) Participative; c) Institutional; d) Territorial. The political and
governance dimension was introduced from the proposals of the 9
Network as a traverse variable, which links the other ones. This
conclusion about the multi-dimensionality of the participative budgets led
to the proposition of a project organized by topics that precisely
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correspond to the dimensions to be considered in participative processes
such as the Participative Budgets.
In that context and faced with the need to increase its knowledge about local
strategies of qualification in participative local planning and management, the city
administration of Porto Alegre coordinated the elaboration of a B-Type common
project together with the external partners and local collectivities that nowadays
are members of the project.
That B project is a concrete action to qualify and optimize the contents of the
exchanges among the cities and give those exchanges a more lasting wider
reaching structure. The production of pedagogic materials from the experience
accumulated by the cities and the presentation of the experiences within a
qualification sphere allows, on its turn, a critical reflection about the very “what to
do” of each of the participating cities.
In the theme of the project are the Participative Local Planning and Management.
Each member city of the project developed and tried several innovative programs
and policies. Their activities within the URB-AL program, as coordinators of
networks (4 cities), as coordinators of common projects (4), or participants in
common projects (all), allowed them to accumulate a volume of unique
knowledge. Both their own experience and the identified cases within the URBAL program contribute with extremely valuable answers to each of the identified
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or key dimensions for the participative budgets in special, and to the participative
planning and management in a more general way.
Based on the state of the knowledge, expressions of interest of each city and a
search of comparative advantages and complementarities, the 1 st Project
Workshop of the Qualification System will be held in the City of Porto Alegre,
with the support of the external partners. The meeting is a privileged room for the
collective project of the methodology to be used in the Qualification System and
its implementation, in a collective way, with the member cities of the Common
Project and the external partners.
II. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
1. Presentation, by each city, of their offers and demands of local
qualification in planning and participative management (summary of the
local studies).
2. Establishment of an agreement about the operation in network, the
specific works of each city and the common activities.
3. Presentation and discussion of a preliminary proposal of intercity
qualification system
4. Establishment of an agreement about the evaluation system of the project
and training modules.
III. EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE WORKSHOP
The following results are expected to be reached at the end of the workshop:
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1. Common understanding and shared vision of the project
2. Defined theme of each city’s qualification module
3. Defined request of qualification module from each city
4. Agreed work plan for the next months.
IV. EXPECTED DOCUMENTS OF THE WORKSHOP
1. Power Point Presentations:

Project Guide.

8 presentations about each partner’s “Offers and demands of
qualification in local participative planning and management”.
2. Final version of the 8 local studies about the qualification offer and
demand.
3. Synthesis of the local studies
4. Work plan for the second stage of the B project.
5. Meeting memorial containing contributions to the: a. Intercity qualification
system; b. Qualification modules; c. Internal evaluation system; and d.
Capacities of evaluation of the modules.
V.
WORK METHODOLOGY
The first Workshop Seminar of the project will be developed in two parts:
a.
First Part: Open Event
The first part, the Open Event, will be developed during the first day and will
allow the socialization at the local, national and international levels of the reach
of the project, giving visibility to their contributions to the Local Participative
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Planning and Management and aiming at establishing strategic alliances with
those actors.
Equally, the diffusion of the strategies/interventions of training and qualification
developed by local governments from Latin America and Europe among those
actors is sought, giving visibility and rescuing the contribution of the case studies
of the A type common projects.
b.
Second Part: Internal Workshop
This second part, which is called Internal Workshop, will be developed during the
second and third days and will allow to the local teams of the project’s member
cities and the external partners to plan the implementation of the activities.
The topics of the works are:

Projects conceptual framework

Offer and demand of municipal qualification in Latin America and in
Europe.

Qualification modules

Elaboration of an agreed plan for the development of the activities of the
project, which includes timeframes, responsible parties, etc.

Definition of the tools for the monitoring, evaluation, and reports of the
project.
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The work will be developed based on PowerPoint Presentations, according to the
enclosed model and based on the “Guides of Offer and Demand of Qualification
in Local Participative Planning and Management”, which has been sent
previously.
VI.
WORK AGENDA
The workshop seminar will be held from the 21 st to the 23rd of November of this
year and two large parts have been considered for its development.
Day 1 Open Event
Morning
Opening
09h00
Speech of the Mayor of Porto Alegre
Speech of URB-AL’s Representative
Presentation of representatives of the member cities of the
project and of the external partners.
“Intercity System of Qualification in Local Participative
10h30
Training and Management”: Relevance for a democratic
administration in the cities
11h30
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Experience: Valencia - Venezuela
Report of the World Conference of the Development of the
Cities
12h30
Lunch
Afternoon
Presentation of some conclusions of the 9 Network – Local
2h30
Financing and Participative Budgets and exchange with
cities from other URBAL networks.
4h00
Each city exposes its conclusions about their experiences
Day 2 Internal Workshop
Morning
Commented presentation of the Program of the Workshop,
and definition of the roles and responsibilities of the member
09h00
cities and of the external partner.
Presentation, on the part of the cities, of their offers and
demands of qualification and their proposals of modules.
1. City Administration of Porto Alegre, Brazil
2. City Administration of Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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3. Metropolitan District of Cuenca, Ecuador
4. Metropolitan District of Quito, Ecuador
5. City Administration of Rosario, Argentina
12h30
Afternoon2h30
Lunch
City Administration of San Salvador, El Salvador City
Administration of Barcelona, Spain City Administration of
Cordoba, Spain Tuscany Region, Italy External partners'
presentation,
roles
and
responsibilities.
Federal
University of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil
International Center of Urban Management (CIGU), Ecuador
Day 3 Internal Workshop
Morning
Summary of the previous day
09h00
Discussion about the intercity system of qualification
and the role of each member. Methodology of the
systems
Conclusion of the list of modules and their contents
Agreements among cities and with the coordinating city
(formalization of agreements)
12h30
Lunch
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Afternoon2h30
Financial Report Work Plan for the next stage
Objective and reach of the Work Plan.
Identification of elements that must be considered –
officialization of the modules. Debate about the capacities of
internal evaluation of the project and training modules.
VI.
ORGANIZATION AND LOGISTICS
The event organizing committee is composed by people from each of the
three following Secretariats: SMGAE, SMCPGL and GPO.
VII.
PARTICIPANTS
a.
Open event
International:

Representative of the European Commission - Belgium

Representatives of the international member cities.

Representative of the international external partner.

Entities and international institutions that work with the topic of municipal
training.
National

Representative of the European Commission - Brazil

Representatives of the Brazilian member cities.

Universities

NGO's.
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Local
At the local level there will be the participation of leaders and managers of the
social organizations and of the representatives of the local institutions during the
first day, called open event.
b.
Project Workshop of the intercity system of qualification.
Two representatives of each member city and of the external partners, ideally
one being the project responsible at the municipal level and one in charge of the
project and the implementation of the training module.
City Administration of Porto Alegre;
City Administration of Belo Horizonte;
Metropolitan District of Quito, Ecuador
Metropolitan District of Cuenca, Ecuador
City Administration of Rosario, Argentina;
City Administration of San Salvador, El Salvador.
City Administration of Barcelona, Spain
City Administration of Cordoba, Spain
Tuscany Region, Italy
Federal University of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil
International Center of Urban Management (CIGU), Ecuador
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VIII.
COMMUNICATIONS
All communications and coordination will be made through the Project
Coordination
Luciane Adami
E-mail: adami@gpo.prefpoa.com.br
Phone: +55 51 3289 1303
Plínio Zalewski
E-mail: plinioz@smgl.prefpoa.com.br
Phone: +55 51 3289 1637
IX.
ANNEXES
IX.
1.
ANNEXES. Guide for the PowerPoint presentations
Objective
To share, with the member cities of the project, information about: (a) the
characteristics of the cities, (b) the existing offer and demand of qualification in
the member cities, (c) the presentation of the case study, pointing out its
objective, methodology and the used indicators, the critical analysis of the
experience, its results and impacts, y (d) The preliminary proposal of the Training
Module under its responsibility in the theme set in the project.
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3.
Presentations and time
Each member city of the project will have twenty minutes for its Power Point
presentation. We suggest the use of pictures and graphs to summarize and
illustrate the presentations. To facilitate the understanding, we suggest that the
presentations are made in Spanish or in Portuguese.
4.
Contents of the Power Point presentation
It is suggested that it has approximately 25 slides, with the following information:
A. General and context information (3 slides)
Context and city location information, including location, population, indicators,
and main challenges faced, specific information about the (most) excluded, and
additional data that are considered useful for the understanding of the city's
specificity.
B. Existing training offers (4 slides)
Identification of the existing qualification offers and the organizations / institutions
/ universities associated with the offer, specially using Chapter I of the Guide of
Qualification Offer and Demand.
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C. Training demand in one of the themes established1 by the project (3
slides)
Description of the diagnosis process of the existing demand carried out among
the potential participants of the training: a) civil servants, b) segments of the civil
society, c) citizen councils and committees, d) other local actors.
That
corresponds to the Chapter III of the Guide.
D. Recovery of the successful case studies (3 slides).
Presentation of successful case study (ies) carried out within the framework of its
participation in the URBAL project and of the recommended use in the Training
System. It corresponds to Chapter II of the Guide.
E. Preliminary proposal of the Training Module in the theme of its
specialty2 (4 slides)
To resume the training objective explaining why it was the theme selected and
briefly detailing its methodological proposal. To present the Local University
associated to this training and its future plans. To guide your presentation,
consider Chapter IV of the Guide.
F. Conclusion Slide (1 slide)
The training contributions in the participative local planning and management.
1
2
See Table 1 – Architecture of the Qualification System
See Table 1 – Architecture of the Qualification System
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G. Recommendations and/or proposals for the future (1 slide)
Contributions and expectations for the future stages of the project.
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