Medellin was chosen by the Observatory for Decentralized Cooperation of the European Union and Lati

The achievements and progress of the city with the ACI were crucial to that determination.

Medellin being chosen as the host city is a tribute to the progress the city has had in managing international cooperation and international relations, an issue led by the Agency of Cooperation and Investment of Medellin and the Metropolitan Area - ACI. The Observatory for Decentralized Cooperation (ODC) endorsed the venue for our city, after the ACI presented to attendees Medellin's case. We were the only Latin American city as a speaker invited to the 2010 version of the Conference of the ODC, which was held on October 28th and 29th.

This announcement makes the ACI proud and satisfied, since it is the only Decentralized International Cooperation Agency of Colombia, and it has begun to transcend as another good practice today consolidated by Medellin Mayor’s Office as a model of good governance in Latin America. During the V Annual Conference of the Observatory for Decentralized Cooperation of the European Union and Latin America (ODC), held last week in Brussels, Belgium, the organizers announced that next year Medellin will host this conference that promotes the benefits that the management of decentralized cooperation can bring to local and regional governments in Europe and Latin America.

This year, Medellin was the only Latin American city invited to present at the V Conference of the ODC and after its achievements in this context, the ACI was the institution responsible for representing the city and to teach representatives from Governments and organizations of the European Union and Latin America, the progress and goals the ACI has achieved in eight years of managing international strategic alliances in the medium and long term. These alliances have allowed Medellin strengthen its process of internationalization and attract technical and financial resources, which have consolidated the purpose of the city to generate more social development and inclusion.

The Brussels Conference, which took place on October 28th and 29th, took up the challenges of applying the criteria of the Paris Agenda for the management and implementation of policies of cooperation on European and Latin American governments, and the consequences of the crisis that recently affected the budgets of these same actors; also, the encounter helped to analyze the need to establish a solidarity agreement, since the poorest and most vulnerable people are always the most affected after these sorts of crisis.

In such a scenario, Mónica Pérez Ayala, Executive Director of the ACI, was invited to chair the discussion panel called “Decentralized cooperation in times of crisis”, a space that, as its name suggests, focused on the analysis of management fundamentals of decentralized cooperation, emphasizing how this management should be exercised in the public domain during difficult situations, especially, during those the European governments had to face over the past two years.
In addition to Pérez, this debate was addressed by representatives of the Provincial Council of Barcelona, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP, Spanish acronym), the Association for the Promotion of Education and Training for Foreigners (Spanish Acronym: APEF, Wallonia - Brussels International) and the Municipalities Andalusian Fund for International Solidarity (FAMSI, Spanish acronym.)

At the closing event of the V Conference of the ODC, it was officially announced to Medellin, represented by the Executive Director of the ACI, that the Sixth Conference of the Observatory will take place in our city next year, thanks to the commitment the Mayor’s Office has had with the exercise of decentralized cooperation as a strategic issue for the government administration, a conviction which has enabled the institution an outstanding performance.

"Receiving the good news there, being the only representation of the municipalities of Colombia and Latin America was exciting, as well as satisfactory, because in some way being named the hosts is an international guarantee to all about what the city has achieved in terms of international relations and attracting international cooperation in the eight years of existence of our organization. We believe, it has also been an important contribution to the process of social transformation that the city has in place and, as Mayor Alonso Salazar said, it helps Medellin in its unstoppable aim of social and economic development," said the Executive Director of the Agency of Cooperation and Investment of Medellin and the Metropolitan Area - ACI.

The Sixth Conference to be held in Medellin in 2011, will be to provide foundations for local and regional governments of both regions to begin to build more constructive and technically viable proposals.

More about the European Union - Latin America Observatory for Decentralized Cooperation (ODC)
The ODC came into existence in March 2005 in response to the need to collect, organize, investigate, propose and disseminate data, concepts and practices of public decentralized cooperation between the European Union and Latin America.

This need, confirmed at the Conference on Local partnership between the European Union and Latin America, held in Valparaiso, Chile, in 2004, led to the European Commission to devise, within the framework of the URB-AL, the creation of an Observatory for Decentralized Cooperation between Europe and Latin America.

Journalists interested, please contact Daniel Vasquez at:
3811000 Ext. 108 / 315 472 3522 / comunicaciones@acimedellin.org