Under the slogan "Looking at the past. Understanding the present. Planning for the future", the community renews its vision and model for the coming years.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 5, 2023 - The Community of Practice "Sustainable Urban Mobility Platform in Latin America" held a face-to-face meeting with a view to building a new development cooperation model for the coming years.
Held between March 27 and 29 in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro and under the slogan "Looking at the past. Understanding the present. Plan the future", this meeting brought together the institutions that make up the community with the aim of strengthening synergies, building a joint reflection and a collaborative environment that allows the restructuring of the governance scheme and the work plan to strengthen the development of sustainable urban mobility on a regional basis.
In 2018, the Community of Practice "Sustainable Urban Mobility Platform in Latin America" was created in the framework of the EUROCLIMA program to foster collaboration, synergies, knowledge exchange and capacity building among key actors and institutions for the implementation of climate actions in the transport sector.
Participants included the EUROCLIMA program executing agencies: GIZ, AFD and ECLAC; SLOCAT, Despacio and Asociación Sustentar as allied institutions; as well as EUROCLIMA program counterparts in the Community of Practice.
The national governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia, as well as the municipal governments of Curridabat (Costa Rica), Córdoba (Argentina) and La Paz (Bolivia) participated as counterparts. They were selected to join the community committee after an internal call for applications based on the criteria of regional diversity and governmental scope.
Consolidating the value of community
"How did we get here?" was the opening question of the meeting. Through a guided exercise, participants made an individual and then collective reflection on the results achieved so far in the framework of the Community of Practice, as well as the potentials and limits to achieve a regional work for sustainable urban mobility.
Another exercise was the review and consolidation of the values that define the community: cooperation, community, adaptability, commitment, leaving no one behind, trust, innovation, and co-creation. This led to the construction of a vision to guide the initiative over the next two years, which will also guide the new action plan currently being developed.
The new vision built collectively was reviewed throughout the meeting and, after validation by the different actors that are part of the community, it will be shared with the public and will guide the activities and actions to be carried out until 2024.
A new governance model
As part of its restructuring and reconsolidation, the event included the presentation of the work axes that will guide the Community of Practice:
- Strategic dialogues: Exchanges between beneficiaries, partner institutions and strategic actors will be promoted to expand synergies and opportunities for cooperation.
- Replicable actions: Visibility and support will be provided for the implementation of projects and the conversion of actions into public policies, seeking tools that promote replicability, scalability, and greater local impact.
- Capacity building: Support will be provided for capacity building and exchanges that favour peer-to-peer exchange.
- Transformative communication: We will increase the visibility of mobility actions with different audiences through the promotion of events, dissemination of publications, virtual exchanges, etc.
These axes guided the prioritization of strategic issues to be addressed through the community, such as governance and sustainability models; equity, inclusion, and wellbeing; institutionalization of urban mobility; transport-oriented development, among others that allow the strengthening of strategic regional action and support capacity building.
On the second day of the meeting, the Community of Practice hosted three Brazilian organizations that shared their governance models for communities and networks of organizations cooperating in the urban mobility sector.
Participating in the activity were Casa Fluminense, an organization that works in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro for the collective construction of public policies and actions; Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS), which promotes the performance of Brazilian organizations, including in the field of urban mobility and climate change; and Rede Mulheres em Movimento (WiM), which makes visible and strengthens the leadership of women in the sector and mainstreaming the gender approach in urban mobility.
The three experiences inspired and provided inputs for the review of the community governance model and the different roles of each institution, contributing to a fruitful dialogue.
Next steps
On the third and last day of the meeting, a review of everything that had been developed during the event was carried out. This made it possible to identify important questions to be answered before the closing and necessary directions, an exercise that allowed for further reflection on the governance model, role of the different actors, participation, and work format, etc.
After the meeting, among the stories sent by the participants, there was enthusiasm for strengthening regional collaboration within the framework of the Community of Practice.
"Thank you for this wonderful meeting, full of learning and drive to continue with passion and dedication to this community ecosystem," said Paula Minilla, from the Colombian Ministry of Transport.
Among the next steps after the meeting is the formulation of an Action Plan and the detail of the different roles to be played by the agencies, partners, and beneficiaries of the EUROCLIMA Program that today make up the Community of Practice, as well as strategies for long-term growth and sustainability, both activities that will be supported by GIZ.
About Euroclima
Euroclima is a program funded by the European Union and co-financed by the German federal government through the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as well as by the governments of France and Spain through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation.
The Program's mission is to reduce the impact of climate change and its effects in 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean by promoting mitigation, adaptation, resilience, climate investment and biodiversity. To this end, it is implemented according to the "Spirit of Team Europe" under the synergistic work of seven agencies: Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), AFD Group: Agence Française de Développement (AFD)/ Expertise France (EF), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
For more information:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.euroclimaplus.org
https://www.euroclima.org/en/mobility