Both decentralized cooperation and, more specifically, intermunicipal cooperation are internationally recognized as important means for experience sharing and development promotion, either in the North and in the South. Under the form of town twinning or city-to-city cooperation, these are privileged relations with a tremendous, and still to explore, potential.
The number of national and international twinnings has increased in recent decades, as the nowadays interdependent world requires. However, in most cases, the capacity that they have to offer, both to organizations and communities involved, is not entirely deepen. Where to start? UN-HABITAT, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, suggests the existence of a common element between the cities of the North and of the South: the
Agenda 21 Localization.
Several issues on the
Agenda 21 – a document signed by nearly two hundred governments seeking to unite the environmental protection with the social and economic development – are related to local activities. Therefore, local authorities’ cooperation and participation is a key factor to the proposed objectives success: local authorities are concerned with the creation, operation and maintenance of economic, social and ecological infrastructures, with the establishment of local environmental policies and regulations, contributing to the national environmental policies implementation. Thereby, de 28
th chapter of the Agenda 21:
Local Authorities initiatives in support of Agenda 21invites each city to open a dialogue with its citizens, local organizations and private companies for the Local Agenda 21's approval.
Why not introduce city-to-city cooperation activities under the Local Agenda 21 context? A cities work within the LA21 allows communicating in the same language, exchanging tools, approaches and methodologies, setting priorities and identifying strategic activities likely to contribute to a more sustainable development and to create links with actors from both cities.
There are about 70 Portuguese cities already developing their Local Agenda 21. What about your city? And the cities with whom your city is twinned? Do they develop a Local Agenda 21?
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