October and November have been turning points for the AEBR Global Initiative, with many updates concerning old and new projects.
Starting from South America, last 21 October the project “Fortalecimiento de capacidades locales en innovación territorial para la mejora del impacto de la cooperación al desarrollo en la frontera colombo-ecuatoriana” (in English: Capacity building and territorial innovation to improve the impact of development cooperation on the Colombia-Ecuador border) – funded by the Extremadura Agency for International Development Cooperation (AEXCID) – has launched its activities with an online forum.
The event, titled “Cross-border cooperation in the Pacific Region of the Ecuador-Colombia Border Integration Zone: For a joint response to overcome the COVID-19 crisis”, was attended by around 40 people, including the Secretary General of AEBR, representatives of the Cross-Border Commission of Colombia and Ecuador; the Vice-President of the province of Esmeraldas, and some representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from both countries.
After the opening with the institutional greetings, the experts Ainara Aguirre of the AEBR office in Brussels and Pablo Rivera from the EGTC Eurocity Chaves-Verin, presented their experiences on European multi-level governance and local responses against Covid-19.
The second part of the online forum was structured in the form of a workshop organised by the Pacific Cross-Border Commission to analyse the Cross-Border Cooperation for the strategic development of the Colombian-Ecuadorian ZIF (2019-2024) and to plan the work for the next few months.
In the near future, other European experts will provide technical assistance and online advice that will culminate in a 10-day study visit to the city of Esmeraldas (only if the sanitary and security conditions will allow it) to monitor the implementation of the planned strategies for cross-border cooperation in the area.
Going further, in the past weeks, the AEBR Global Initiative has had an active role also concerning the development of a training programme for the Binational Autonomous Authority of Lake Titicaca (ALT).
Aim of the programme is to articulate the policies of Bolivia and Peru for the management of the water resources of the lake. In this context, AEBR is providing advice to define possible training actions and by sharing best practices. To do so, several seminars were organised between October and November to cover the following thematic areas:
Cross-border cooperation (Chema Cruz)
Cross-Border Governance (Daniel Bentancur, Ainara Aguirre, Chema Cruz)
Cross-Border Cooperation and Watershed Development (Joao Martins)
Value chains (Caf, Nahuel Odone, Jimmy Larico, Pablo Soria)
Finally, a remarkable achievement has been accomplished in the framework of the EUROsociAL programme.
AEBR has reached an agreement with the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) to support the implementation of the territorial cooperation line of the European programme for social cohesion in Latin America (EUROsociAL)
Under this agreement, AEBR will offer technical assistance and advice to cross-border process in South America, Central America and the Caribbean between November 2020 and October 2021. In one of its first intervention, AEBR will support the transfer of European experiences in cross-border patient mobility and healthcare management to MERCOSUR
Upcoming events
CCRU 10th Anniversary Event
The 20 November marks the 10th anniversary of the Uruguay River Basin Development Committee. An event will be held to review the efforts of local governments to foster cross-border cooperation. During the event, Mr Marc Daniel Heinz – Manager of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine River – and Uxío Benitez representing the EGTC River Minho, will present the experiences of their European regions.
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