Master plan for international cooperation and solidarity 2006-2008

For practical purposes, a Master Plan shall possess three basic elements, namely: a) Januaryal orientations, values and principles; b) strategic goals, and c) modalities of action.

Afterwards, these three elements allow the establishment of priorities, instruments of action and the budgetary horizon, both Januaryal and specific for each of the modalities.
Specifically, the Januaryal orientations, values and principles are philosophical support and the normative foundation that inspire the strategic goals and lines, and the modalities of action. Their importance does not end here, however: they should also be kept closely in mind when programming each year the specific actions in the framework of the Plan, as well as the resources that are assigned and the rules that are derived from it.

This Master Plan, in accordance with the framework of reference described above, establishes two main types of Januaryal orientations, values and principles: Januaryic (pertaining to development cooperation and solidarity), and specific (which are derived from the local and municipalist nature of the commitments and history of the city).

3.1. Januaryic values and principles

The development cooperation of the city of Barcelona, understood as a facilitating element of development processes, will always be guided by the following principles and values:

1. A respect for the commitments, doctrine and best practices agreed on in a consensuated way by international society and/or arising from the development community. Specifically, considering their relevance for development and development cooperation, special consideration will be given to the commitments of Copenhagen on social development (assistance to less advanced countries and the 20/20 commitment), of Beijing (on equity between men and women and the gender perspective), and of Cairo (on population and sexual and reproductive health).
2. A focus on persons and on the needs and welfare of human beings and, consequently, a preference for programmes and actions that are concentrated on the development processes, with particular attention to the most vulnerable groups and areas and to the quest for impact.
3. An orientation towards satisfying social, institutional and democratic capacities, with particular emphasis on local institutional capacities and on support for the self-determination processes of peoples and communities.
4. A conception of development cooperation as an integrating and harmonising public policy based on the application of the principles of initiative of the South, subsidiarity, association and concertation of development cooperation. Thus, as a policy that does not seek to be substitutive of the various roles, tasks and responsibilities of the private and public actors.
5. The fostering of sustainability, empowerment, good governance and the quest for equity between men and women, through the most usual international focuses and methodologies, specific work with women’s groups and gender transversality in all processes of human development.
6. The use of procedures that will assure transparency, information, concurrence, participation and mutual trust between actors, as well as accountability and assessment.
7. The promotion of sustainability of actions. That is, the fostering of actions apt to maintain themselves with the highest possible probability, once the external support provided through development cooperation comes to an end.
8. Coherence with respect to municipal policies, within the framework of the commitments, goals, milestones, orientations, agenda and doctrine prevailing in the conception of development and development cooperation.

3.2. Specific values and principles

Considering the specificities of the vision and mission of Barcelona, the development cooperation promoted by the city (understood as a facilitating element of the development policies) will always be guided by the following specific values and principles:

1. Municipalism and local democracy: The priority goal of municipal cooperation is to strengthen the capacities of the local governments to cope with the needs of their citizens, in accordance with the principles of autonomy and local democracy since, in both the North and the South, capable transparent and efficient city councils are the best instrument for solving the everyday problems of citizens.
2. Transversality and solidary use of the accumulated practice: The experience accumulated over the course of recent years in municipal management in many areas, which is recognised internationally as a reference in the urban sphere, allows the globalisation and transversalisation of best practices, as a process of learning and of the socialisation of knowledge. It is precisely the best of this experience that can be offered to countries of the South in order to progress more quickly in the quest for their own solutions.
3. Concertation: Beyond the financing of initiatives of the NGOs of the city, the development cooperation of the city of Barcelona will also seek to create spaces of concertation with the fabric of solidarity in order to create synergies and complementarity, and to contribute to improving the capacities of all the development cooperation actors present in the city and, therefore, to achieving the international goals. Accordingly, whenever possible, it will be sought to establish local cooperation between cities and not just between city councils.
4. Creation of networks with other cities: Beyond the concertation that is sometimes obliged by the international financing programmes, Barcelona has also been committed to joint, concerted and networked action with the rest of the cities of the world in order to carry out cooperation projects. In accordance with the aforementioned values and principles, these concerted actions will seek to favour local autonomy or the creation of lines of financing for the international bodies that will allow pressing urban problems to be approached.
5. Support for the multilateral system. In the global world in which we live, it is indispensable not only to strengthen the role of the local governments and to foster proximity solutions, but also to strengthen the multilateral system of good governance that is represented, above all, by the United Nations. Accordingly, the cooperation of the city will seek to support the multilateral system.