SICI DOMINUS is present at the Forum “Cities and regions for development cooperation”, held on 4-5 February 2019 in Brussels, and organized by the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions. This forum aims to strengthen the dialogue between the EU institutions and Local and Regional Authorities from both Europe and partner countries.
The Forum is a space for dialogue between local authorities, institutions, academics and professionals to produce recommendations to the European institutions, to enrich their policies and programs; provide ideas for the proposal of the Annual Plan for Local Authorities in 2019 and identify current priorities, needs and challenges, as well as existing solutions and good practices.
The first part of the Forum will be organised around panel discussions, while the second part is built on an interactive “Open Space methodology”, clustered around the 5Ps of the New European Consensus, namely Partnership, Peace, People, Planet and Prosperity, where participants will discuss topics of their interest and generate insights and recommendations directed to the European institutions.
The New Consensus considers the Sustainable Development Goals to be closely dependent on the active involvement of the Regional and Local Authorities. This commits the European Union and the Member States to strengthen decentralized cooperation and twinning of cities through joint projects.
SICI DOMINUS has participated in the debates of partnership, planet and prosperity, contributing to outline the demands and solutions and potential partnership schemes
The role of SICI DOMINUS in programs of Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development, based in its experience in 22 Spanish cities, is of special interest for institutions and cities of third countries that seek projects and partnership.
Some of the topics discussed, concern local authorities to connect to the global agenda: the need for innovative funding mechanisms, creation of sustainable projects to maintain the population in the territories, the enhancement of the role of women in local development, the regions as a positive level of financial and political assistance or the need to create added value through public and private partnerships that serve as inspiration for other projects.
Other concerns are the sustainability, especially the management of waste in cities; the need to give regions and cities access to financial markets and identify sources of financing are other challenges in search of a response from institutions and the different States.
Access to the programs requires specific training at the local level that is sometimes difficult for certain agents to access. In this sense, SICI DOMINUS has maintained contacts with municipalities and associations of municipalities of America and Africa interested in projects in cooperation with Spanish cities, and will continue its commitment as facilitator to develop and implement quality projects in Spain and third countries, which contribute to improving the indicators of compliance with the Millennium Development Goals.
Related link: http://www.regiocitiesconf2019.eu/es/
