ESPAÑOL / ITALIANO

Reccommendations contributed by the Working Groups 

Group B: Optimization of Knowledge Networks to Strengthen EMS activities
Carl Bartone, Chantall Fortin, Álvaro González, Enrico Gotti, Domenico Iarossi,  Claudio Langone, Franco Micieli de Biase, Giuseppe Magnaghi,  Juan Manuel Salazar, Ricardo Sánchez, Walter Ubal
Initial basis for the network
The knowledge network to be developed from the present structure of EMS must coordinate its actions with horizontal cooperation networks and municipality associations. To this end, we propose to move on with the present working agreement with the MercoCities Network, as well as to extend activities in the Central American region in coordination with the FEMICA network. In addition, the network will have –in the short term-- to define a working strategy with associations of municipalities in Andean and Caribbean Countries, as well as with city networks in Europe and Canada.
1.	Conceptual bases in the promotion of the EMS knowledge network:
	Users and participants: primary users are local governments in small and medium-size cities; it must be pointed out that EMS knowledge network eventual participation in the global market may imply the integration of larger cities. Benefit: it allows for local government capacity-building in order to develop sustainable environmental policies via a working modality that is cost-effective and implies development, dissemination, training-activity uses, and public communication of knowledge.  Main management values:
	i.	it must provide the broadest and easiest understanding and participation of all citizens and to this end it must be provided with instruments;
	ii.	it must protect the identity of the different cultural groups in each community;
	iii.	it must provide institutional and professional training of local governments and the environmental education and communication of all social actors;
	iv.	it must tend to facilitate articulation of local governments with regional, national and supra-national governments;
	v.	it must be open to new actors that express their interest in its further development and seek governmental decentralisation;
	vi.	it must play a proactive role in the integration of governments of small cities that are not themselves capable of absorbing and disseminating knowledge in their fields of intervention;
	vii.	it must promote connectivity and cooperation with other networks and issues related to governance questions; prevention of climatic environmental risk; health; environmental deterioration due to water pollution; desertification and global change;
	viii.	it must provide itself and use assorted instruments that allow for a broad dissemination of knowledge in environmental education and communication at the level of schools, religious groups, professional associations, consumer leagues, etc.;
	ix.	it must foster participatory initiatives that facilitate joining efforts that result in benefits for all citizens;
	x.	it must give priority and foster the production and access to knowledge necessary for local action in relation to the wider scope of global issues;
	xi.	it must give priority to initiatives that facilitate economic efficiency at the level of municipal action; tapping and enhanced usage of resources involved in municipal management.
	Management: EMS staff will be responsible for drawing a strategy and activity plan to ensure financial self-sustainability of the network, incorporating the contribution of its users, members, donors, foundations, etc.
2.	Integration of the EMS knowledge network
	The network to be created will have the local governments as the core of action; as part of its activity in the promotion of exchanges and communication, it will relate to:
	i.	Active university networks, research centres, professional associations, specialised data banks, etc., that generate specialised knowledge to be used in the management at the level of local government.
	ii.	Training centres that specialise in municipal management.
	iii.	Active networks in agencies that specialise in the universality of local government knowledge so that it may be used at the global level.
	iv.	Organisations that act as network facilitators and help maintain the actions and interests of a wide range of stakeholders in a continuous way, thus facilitating discussions, fora and meetings.
	v.	Service consortiums, environmental licensing and certification units.
	vi.	Associations and Federations of Municipalities.
	vii.	Central and regional government agencies in charge of promoting decentralisation, "municipalism" and sustainable urban development management.
	viii.	Private sector acting in the area of environmental services and production showing their endorsement to sustainable environmental management principles.
	ix.	Consumer defence groups.

3.	The EMS partnership strategy in building the knowledge network
	The EMS must integrate the following stakeholders as partners at different levels, either sporadically or on a permanent basis: local governments, private sector, civil society through NGOs and communities, research centres, training centres, centres for the universal dissemination of knowledge, funding and development agencies, professional associations, federations of municipalities, support foundations, regional and national governments whose strategic objective is decentralisation.
4.	Identification of specific actions to strengthen the EMS specialised knowledge network.
	The World Bank expresses its determination to maintain its cooperation with EMS in the search for opportunities to coordinate and develop the Network.  The Inter American Development Bank reasserts its interest to keep on cooperating with EMS in the development of the Network. The European Commission offers (proposes) its linkages with science and technology regional cooperation programs focused in the urban environmental and governance problems at municipal level, as well as to build a coordination strategy with the second phase of the URB-AL Network, financed and managed by the EC. The United Nations Development Program - UNDP expresses interest in the integration and use of different programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, namely:
	-	Training in the application of cost-benefit analysis.
	-	Connection and connectivity with other networks, especially with SDNP and SISNET.
	-	Promote popularisation of the network’s knowledge through instruments based on the "Tierramérica" model.
	-	Identification of funding modalities in local environmental management actions.
	The United Nations Environment Program - UNEP for Latin America and the Caribbean offers the EMS to start with the development of the network through its integration in the following activities:
	-	UNEP-UNDP Programme on changes in consumption trends in the society
	-	Global Plan to control marine pollution sources, relative to improving alternatives in sewage management.
	-	Environmental Technology Centres. Dissemination of experiences in local environmental management in Latin America and the Caribbean.
	-	Wider dissemination of the Global Environmental Panorama bulletin throughout cities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
	-	Participation in the Regional Environmental Forum of Ministers and its preparatory meetings.
	-	Development of the Urban Environmental Training Network
	The Piemonte Region - Italy, proposes that the EMS should either become a link or establish cooperation mechanisms between the Merco-Cities Network and the Piedmont Region. The Lombardia Region – Italy offers the possibility of integrating the Network to its Observatory experiences and to share its experience and knowledge in the field of land management and water resources. Both regions express their will to cooperate with the EMS in the dissemination of the relationship method between the private and public stakeholders. CISPEL of Italy expresses its will to explore avenues that promote joint action with the EMS at two levels: a) institutional, in favour of modernisation processes in the environmental services provision sector at the municipal level, and b) through the promotion of proposals for pilot projects that facilitate links between Italian and Latin American companies. In this regard, CISPEL invites EMS to join in the organisation of Regional Workshops to be held throughout the year 2002 in three countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Within this framework, coordination is envisaged through a network that will:
	-	coordinate a presentation of the Italian experience and any other elements that may be of interest to Latin America.
	-	identify pilot project hypotheses that may be implemented through cooperation agreements in three Latin American countries where workshops are held.
	-	Involve local and national governments of the three countries where the 2002 seminars will be held –as well as multilateral organisations—in the process to define regulations and methods.
	The three workshops will set the bases for the definition of the following stages of cooperation between CISPEL and EMS.

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