Debate in the Seixal Municipality – Local Authorities: a focal point for development

Another debate Local Authorities: a focal point for development took place, this time in the Seixal Municipality, promoted within the Cycle of Debate* planned by the project Networking for Development.

Another debate Local Authorities: a focal point for development took place, this time in the Seixal Municipality, promoted within the Cycle of Debate* planned by the project Networking for Development. It was attended by the City Councillor responsible for the Human Resources, Administrative Modernization and Social Action areas, Corália Loureiro, and Migration and Cooperation, Social Action, Health and Housing Heads of Departments and Technicians. The conversation focused, as the cycle of debates designation inspires, in the municipality’s role in cooperation for development and in the potential of activities carried out in partnership. The interventions suggested that a joint work ensures a greater project’s sustainability and that local authorities have a key-role in cooperation: by developing relationships with other local authorities in developing countries, with whom they share the same language, being more sensitive to strengths and difficulties. The city councillor Corália Loureiro, by referring the municipality’s long experience in the cooperation area – mainly with the Boavista island, in Cape Verde, and Lobata, in São Tomé and Príncipe, with whom established twinning relationships -, acknowledged the difficulty of carrying out isolated efforts, highlighting that a work in partnership allows “to do more and better”. The councillor also reinforced the municipality’s total availability to engage in the Networking for Development project and in new cooperation projects, both with Local Authorities and Non State Actors.