At COP 25 the project was presented as a way to exchange experiences on mobility issues.
Madrid, December 19. How can cities be supported to take action to generate low-carbon mobility? Among the needs in Latin America, financing, the creation of alliances and the exchange of knowledge stand out.
The latter was the focus of the event “Community of Practice of EUROCLIMA+/MobiliseYourCity: Connecting people, exchanging experiences”, which took place on December 4 at the Action Hub of the Conference of the Parties (COP25).
What kind of knowledge and in what format do the cities and countries of the American continent need to generate sustainable mobility? The event presented the advantages of the Community of Practice, which will launch an online platform where key actors in mobility issues can share experiences and knowledge between local and global levels in Latin America.
In addition, thanks to the global MobiliseYourCity alliance, it will be possible to enable a dialogue with experts from other continents. In this way, a synergy can be generated with experts and people interested in the transport sector from various institutions, such as local and national governments, academia, implementing agencies, non-governmental organisations and civil society.
The dialogue was attended by Francisco Alonso, director of the University Institute for Research on Traffic and Road Safety (INTRAS) at the University of Valencia, who shared the experience of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan in the Dominican Republic, which was carried out with support from MobiliseYourCity and implementation by the French Development Agency (AFD).
In this project, he highlighted the technical support, the innovative methodology, and the financial support provided by the global alliance, which is often lacking in developing countries.
“Countries such as the Dominican Republic do not have sufficient funds to undertake such in-depth studies because they are very expensive. The fact that institutions favour helping from an economic point of view is fantastic because it allows this kind of development,” Alonso emphasised.
Kelly Camacho, Director of Development and Planning at EUROCLIMA+ and coordinator of the Public Bicycle System Pilot Project in Ibagué, highlighted four fundamental points in which the Community of Practice is benefitting the Colombian city:
- It leaves installed technical capacity within the city so that the people who are part of the public bicycle system can learn how the system works.
- It allows access to the experience of other cities that have implemented similar projects.
- It also allows Ibagué to share the experience, since it is the only city in Colombia that currently participates in the EUROCLIMA+ programme and it is also a member of MobiliseYourCity.
- It allows access to technical information for constant improvement in sustainable urban mobility projects.
Also present at the event was Michael Engelskirchen, coordinator of the Urban Mobility component of EUROCLIMA+ from German Cooperation for Sustainable Development (GIZ), who explained that with the Community of Practice “we plan to transfer experience, knowledge, and lessons learned from local and national levels at the project level”.
“The platform is based on several pillars: networks, participants, decision makers, alliances and people working on mobility issues. Capacity building will be achieved through seminars and webinars”, he added.
Finally, Vincent Larondelle, head of Monitoring, Evaluation and Communication at MobiliseYourCity through the Cooperation for Urban Mobility in the Developing World (CODATU), spoke about the good practices of this organisation. “It is an objective of CODATU to improve access to knowledge, which is necessary to face the challenges of sustainable urban mobility,” he said.
You can see the full video of this event at the following link: https://bit.ly/2DIb7YG
About EUROCLIMA+
EUROCLIMA+ is a programme financed by the European Union to promote environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient development in 18 Latin America countries, particularly for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations. The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), French Development Agency (AFD), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Expertise France (EF), International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), the German society for international cooperation (GIZ), and UN Environment.
For more information about the EUROCLIMA+ Urban Mobility component, contact Ana Alcántara This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.