Crisis responses
Partnership AL-LAS, international joint responses to global crisis
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a multidimensional global emergency due to its rapid spread in all regions of the world. In this context, horizontal cooperation, networks and solidarity are key elements to face the impact of this crisis. In this sense, the responsibility for establishing measures to prevent the spread of the virus, as well as for subsequent recovery, falls on local and regional governments.
The AL-Las initiative, led by the Government of the Municipality of Montevideo, was created in response to these objectives and consists of an alliance of cities and local government institutions in Europe and Latin America to promote a new form of international action and cooperation from the local level. The alliance seeks to highlight the role played by city networks, as well as their complementary potential in the international action of local governments.
The cities that make up this alliance are Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and the Government of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil; Lima, Peru; Madrid, Spain; Medellin, Colombia; Mexico City, Mexico; Paris, France and Quito, Ecuador, as well as the European networks of United Cities of France and the Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity.
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Challenges
- Responding to global crises, beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, requires joint and articulated international action by local governments.
- The COVID-19 pandemic demands that local governments increase their efforts to find responses to the crisis and to anticipate the consequences that are still unknown.
- Cities need to strengthen their strategies to cope with the impact of the crisis. To this end, international action is a key element in contributing to the recovery and subsequent development.
- In order to contribute to the fulfillment of local development agendas in the different territories, access to knowledge and the exchange of experiences and innovative practices that generate effective solutions is needed. This requires a dynamic of joint collaboration and cooperation between cities.
- The COVID-19 pandemic, although it began as a health crisis, has turned into a socioeconomic crisis. Among other consequences, this has resulted in an economic slowdown, as well as a drop in productive activity, employment and income. In Latin America, the World Bank estimates that up to 115 million people in the world will remain in a state of extreme poverty.
Learn more about the challenges being faced by cities and regions
Responses
Local governments have played a central role in the management of the pandemic through the use and application of resources, experience and capabilities. Some initiatives implemented at the international level include the following:
- Celebration of the Third World Forum of Cities and Territories of Peace in Mexico to focus attention on groups exposed to situations of vulnerability in the pandemic (women, children, youth, the elderly, people in situations of human mobility, etc.) and to establish a space for reflection to decide on actions for their protection.
- Rio+International against COVID-19: The Prefeitura of Rio de Janeiro launched the strategy “Rio+International against COVID-19”, with the objective of activating channels of dialogue with different cities at the international level for the exchange of experiences in dealing with the health emergency. Virtual meetings have been organized between Municipal Secretariats such as Health, Civil Protection and the Rio Operations Center with Asian, European and American cities.
- Belo Horizonte: the International Relations Department of Belo Horizonte prepared a document with guidelines, recommendations, experiences and references from governments around the world.
- Quito: the Metropolitan Municipality of Quito received international aid to manage the health crisis not only from cities but also from national governments, international organizations, and the private sector.
- Medellin: the Mayor’s Office of Medellin received $100 thousand dollars from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to increase its institutional capacity in the care and prevention of violence against women.
- Barcelona: the Barcelona City Council selected eight international projects to contain the coronavirus in different cities in African countries, on the Mediterranean coast and in South America.
- Cuenca: The Directorate General of International Relations of Cuenca organized the series of webinars “Cuenca in the networks of cities for the containment of COVID-19” on the response to the health crisis in which local authorities at the international level participated.
Learn more about other responses and initiatives in terms of Migration:
Towards the Pact
- In the face of a post-pandemic agenda, it is necessary to ask whether all local networks have the same agenda and what are the existing approaches to meet the challenges ahead.
- Decentralization of networks is a key element to face uncertainty, economic and social challenges, and ecological transition in a resilient way.
- Beyond the concrete agenda, a debate on principles and values that inspire the Agenda needs to be addressed.
- Looking to the future, it is necessary to move from contingency to the need to make policy by taking a long-term view and considering the concrete agendas of cities and their capacity to operate.
- In the short term, it is important to continue taking advantage of open spaces in the multilateral system and to influence other spaces of power (C2, Bretton Woods, etc.) to build alliances that can have an impact on the urban agenda. In this sense, it will be essential to create alliances with civil society, private organizations, national governments, academic institutions, etc.
Resources
For further information on the topic of Public Service Delivery and its impact on cities and regions, please refer to the related resources included below.
- UCLG’s Live Learning Experience page
- Metropolis’ Cities for Global Health initiative
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