The Permanent Forum of Local Development Agencies constituted
The permanent forum will hold intermediary seminars in Córdoba (Argentina) and Porto Alegre (Brazil) until the venue of the second edition of the World Forum of Local Development Agencies is confirmed. The First World Forum of Local Development Agencies was closed in Seville with institutions and governmental representatives from 47 countries.
The Permanent Forum of Local Development Agencies is an unprecedented working tool. Its technical secretariat will be assumed by the Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI), with the participation of the Regional Government of Andalusia (Junta de Andalucía), by means of the Andalusian Employment Service, and the United Nations Development Program, through the ART PNUD Initiative, the three organizing entities of the First World Forum of Local Development Agencies. “Territory, Economy and Local Governance: New approaches for Times of Change”, held in Seville in October 5th to 7th.
Besides the technical secretariat of the permanent forum, considered as a working place open to new incorporations, there are three institutions which will direct the working process until the second edition of the Forum, whose venue will be moved to a Latin-American country in 2013. Those three institutions are: the Brazilian municipality of Porto Alegre, the Argentinean municipality of Córdoba and the Paraguayan-Brazilian bi-national company ITAIPU, which manages the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam.
The constitution of this permanent forum is the result of those debates, panels and workshops carried out during the First World Forum of Local Development Agencies held in Seville. This forum gathered local development experiences from Africa, America, Asia and Europe, and paid a special attention to the responses to the crisis offered by local development, work from the territory and collaboration between local actors, private sector, governments, international organisms and international cooperation. In order to create human development processes, the forum has stressed the importance of linking local, regional and national governmental levels, creating territorial development strategies with the participation of the citizenship and assuming the basic principles of governability of the territory. All these factors are key elements of a concept of development that goes beyond the economical field in order to create development processes with an economic profitability and the capacity of job creation, and paying a special attention to the criteria of gender equality, social inclusion and environmental protection.
The First World Forum of Local Development Agencies gathered more than 1.300 participants and delegations from 47 countries, more than one hundred speakers and a wide representation of international high-level participants. The participation of Diego López Garrido, the Secretary of State for the European Union, Antonio Toro, the National Director of the National Public Service of Employment, Manuel Recio, the Regional Minister of Employment and Pedro E. Gracia, manager of the Andalusian Service of Employment, has reinforced the national and regional support of the administrations towards this event, an event conceived as a space for debate and thinking on the key role of territories in managing human development processes offering alternatives to the changes provoked by the current world economic situation.
The City Council of Seville, represented by the delegate of Employment, Festivities and Tourism, Gregorio Serrano López, and the Provincial Council of Seville, represented by its vice-president, Dolores Bravo, were also present at the forum. Both institutions participated as collaborating entities.
The City Council of Seville, represented by the delegate of Employment, Festivities and Tourism, Gregorio Serrano López, and the Provincial Council of Seville, represented by its vice-president, Dolores Bravo, were also present at the forum. Both institutions participated as collaborating entities.
The constitution of the Permanent Forum of Local Development Agencies starts with the representation of the 47 participating countries, but it constitutes a pioneering initiative in the international sphere, which is open to the incorporation of new countries and associated entities. The objective is to promote studies, thinking, exchange of experiences and the creation of local development strategies in order to face the new paradigms of change and the demands of the citizenship all over the world.
The video recordings are at your disposal for watching all the workshops and panels of the forum
If you missed any of the workshops or panels of the forum, or you would like to watch once again any of the interventions, you can do it by entering on First World Forum of Local Development Agencies. This site includes all the video recordings of the different sessions of the forum.
All the documents of the forum can be consulted and downloaded at the website
All the interventions of the different panels and round tables, as well as the thematic reports, the newsletter and the Final Declaration of the First World Forum of Local Development Agencies are at your disposal in this website. You can access them by clicking in the section Document downloads or in the following links:
Declaration of Seville
Forum Newsletter
Reports of the panels, round tables and thematic workshops
Presentations of the open workshop
Headlines of the forum
The First World Forum of Local Development Agencies gathered in Seville more than 1.000 participants coming from 47 countries and more than 100 speakers. These are some of their contributions:
The Secretary of State for the European Union of the Government of Spain, Diego López Garrido, stated that the forum “is the expression of the society and the institutions towards the crisis”, and added that “we need to keep alive the action of the cities in order to reinforce social policies”. “In periods of crisis”, he added, “cooperation is the main policy”, so “despite critical voices, we keep this expense” since “for fighting against poverty we need 300 thousand million euros”.
The Minister of National Administration of the Republic of Mozambique, Carmelita Rita Namashula, chaired the opening panel of the Forum, focused on “Crisis, Local Development and Territory: new approaches for times of change” and opened the session with a petition. “We demand more funding for the institutions supporting local development”. Later, she added “we, those from the South, must look at ourselves and focus on our own development”.
The Chief of the Division of Administrative Coordination of the General Direction of Local Collectivities of the Ministry of Home Affairs of Morocco, Mohammed Hamimaz, pointed out that “this is not a crisis of the territory but a crisis of the State”, and in order to improve the quality of public services in Africa from the local sphere “we must change the relationship between the State and the region”.
The Secretary General of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, Carl Wright, considered that it is necessary to “provide and qualify a territory in the local sphere in order to attract investments”, and was in favor of the fact that “the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank must support a tax, the Tobin tax, on financial transactions”.
The Secretary of International Relations of the State of Rio Grande do Sul of Brazil, Tarsón Núñez, stated that “the economic development, considered in terms of globalization, must try to promote equity”. This is the reason why “we do not want investors at all costs, we want investors which reinforce our production chains” and “we must work for breaking private traditional culture. Business is defensive and hinders the approach based on alliances”.
The Representative of UN Women, Rita Cassisi, stated that this agency “considers as a priority the economic development policies based on women empowerment” because “economic growth does not overcome by itself inequalities and gender inequalities” and “productive women need strategies for coordinating with other political, economic and social actors”.
The National Director of Regional Development of the Ministry of Industry of Argentina, Rodolfo Games, asked: “what development we do not want?” and answered that “the one that does not create governability, sustainability and citizenship”. He also asked: “what context is necessary for development?” and his answer was that we need “a new role of the State, of the municipality and of public policies”.
The Director of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Program on Crisis Response and Recovery, Alfredo Lazarte, pointed that “the aim of our development is to recover the local market's purchasing power" and added that "if there has been a destruction process it was not because of a bad behavior of nature, but because our development model did not protect us".
The Forum followed through the social networks: Twitter and Facebook
The social network Twitter has been another option to follow the Forum. By following the profile @ForoMundialAdel and the hashtag #ForoADEL, you can find fragments of the plenary interventions and round tables, as well as statements by the participants.
The Forum was also followed in Facebook and Flickr, where you can find a selection of images.
