What are the ingredients of a successful integrated urban development model? The training action of the MUDAR project was designed to display them during the three years of its implementation through six training cycles.
The hypothesis shared between two territories more than twelve thousand kilometers apart, Trento and Beira, is that the stronger the local administrative skills to apply urban governance methodologies and principles, the better and more efficient the services for citizens will be, especially for those living in the most fragile and informal neighborhoods, such as Macuti in Beira.
Local governments are irreplaceable actors in sustainable development, which implies, among other things, knowing how to respond to climate change and reduce its risks. They have the necessary proximity to provide public and social services that meet the needs of their communities.
The first training cycle started right here, in e-learning mode, delivered by the Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale and targeting the trainers of the Training Institute in Public Administration in Beira.
The cycle, completed by the trainers in March 2023, covered the topics of Sustainable and Inclusive Local Development, which were delivered by means of recorded video lectures and a variety of in-depth material.
Its three modules (i- sustainable development, ii-strategic urban planning and iii-inclusive participation) set up the theoretical foundations of the content of the entire training course, which is based on the territorial approach to local development (TALD).
This approach is in fact a policy, the main feature of which is the recognition of the special value of the specific comparative advantages of local authorities as key actors in the achievement of territorial development.
The economic thought still struggles to recognise non-economic factors even though the concept of local development (as a process of productive, employment, social and cultural development based on the territory’s vocations that are not fully exploited) is globally acknowledged.
Yet, the challenge of actually moving away from the developmentalist paradigm centered on economic growth processes is also global; there is an urgent need to take on a broader concept of local development that fosters greater bottom-up participation in decision-making processes. Attention must be paid to preventing social conflicts and seeking a fairer distribution of the fruits of development. It is about quality of life, environmental protection and the safeguarding of common goods.
Between March and April 2023, these and other aspects were elaborated and adapted to the local reality of Beira, by 6 IFAPA trainers who later structured a 3-day training for aldermen, executives and technicians of the Beira Municipality. The training ended with a visit to the Macuti neighborhood: an opportunity to use a different lens that puts the community at the center, that sees it as the protagonist of its own development, not just the passive recipient of its positive and negative effects.
While still in its beginning stages, this new experience of cooperation, training and relationships was welcomed with great enthusiasm, interest and satisfaction by all parties involved, creating high expectations for the next training cycles already under construction.
