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Knowledge Networks Seek Out Sustainable Development |
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By Marcelo Jelen*
Towns
and cities in Latin America are building direct links with resource
supplies. The result is the decentralization of international cooperation.
MONTEVIDEO - As the 21st century gets underway,
there seems to be widespread agreement that the world's wealthier
countries must help the poorer countries to achieve higher levels
of development without jeopardizing the environment. The big question
is: How?.
The search for answers has led to proposals
such as ''knowledge networks'' for sustainable development, a concept
interpreted in Latin America as a mechanism for decentralizing international
assistance.
The networks function by linking local governments
with civil society, academic institutions, multilateral credit organizations
and with donors from the industrialized world.
These networks help coordinate actions, especially
efforts toward improving environmental management and protection,
concluded a forum that evaluated sustainable urban development initiatives,
held in the Uruguayan capital.
The theories that support the knowledge networks
project have already been brought into practice. In El Salvador,
for example, where towns are seeking alternatives for fund raising
to help in rebuilding efforts following the devastating earthquakes
in January and February of this year.
The mayor of Apastepeque, Miguel Angel Gómez,
explained to Tierramérica that the centralized nature of international
aid was complicating relief efforts. ''They sent fewer resources
to the municipalities, like ours, that are held by the political
opposition,'' he pointed out.
The local leaders in El Salvador reacted by
creating a Municipal Solidarity Network, which bypassed the central
government in its requests for international assistance.
''In seven days, the donations were handed
over at the airport directly to the municipalities' representatives,''
Gómez said.
This was possible thanks to the close coordination
between local governments, El Salvadoran non-governmental organizations,
international groups and the press, he told Tierramérica.
Teresa Serra, a World Bank expert, stressed
that harmonizing local policies with national and regional policies
''is extremely difficult,'' as is making ''national agendas compatible
with those of international agencies''.
Participating in this form of ''decentralized
cooperation'' are not only the municipalities, but also ''universities,
non-governmental groups, associations and businesses,'' reported
Isabelle Hentic, representative of the Canadian International Development
Agency.
In these networks, the development of projects
is just as important as disseminating the results afterwards, Hentic
pointed out.
Gómez, Serra and Hentic took part in the International
Forum on Managing Sustainable Urban Development in Latin America
and the Caribbean, held in Montevideo in February.
One of the objectives of the conference, organized
by the Environmental Management Secretariat for Latin America and
the Caribbean (EMS), was to draw up mechanisms to cover the demand
for environmental and social policies created by the concentration
of economic activities in the region's cities.
''Environmental management linked to the growing
presence of informal and unregulated settlements around the cities
is one of the central points of interest in the projection of a
sustainable development model,'' states the text that served as
the basis of discussion at the forum.
Environmental degradation in the cities forces
local and regional governments to perform - with their limited budgets
- functions that were previously covered by national governments.
This creates a challenge for towns and cities
to form more direct relationships with donor nations and international
aid institutions.
Some 380 million people live in Latin America's
cities, half of whom live on less than two dollars a day, according
to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean,
a United Nations regional agency.
''Environmental conditions continue to worsen
despite the technological advances and warnings from scientists
and international organizations. Sustainable development is still
a distant aspiration,'' said Adolfo Pérez Piere, interim chief of
Montevideo's local government, in his presentation before the Forum.
* Marcelo Jelen
is an IPS correspondent
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