Background and Objectives:
This venture is the second phase of project AS/ECU/94/005, focusing on the new priorities of the municipal administration, which took office in 2000. These new priorities include implementation of mass urban transportation programmes and initiatives (Metrovia); social development initiatives in poor neighbourhoods; and continued modernization of administrative procedures at the municipality. The objectives are to finalize the implementation design for three mass transport corridors and to track its operations; to design and implement a municipal Geographical Information System (GIS) -based system to monitor urban development; to optimize internal procedures vis-à-vis the internal and external public; to design and implement an internal system to follow up Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the local level; to prepare a municipal strategy for disaster prevention and mitigation; and to consolidate inter-municipal exchanges with local governments in Ecuador and other Latin America and the Caribbean Regions (LACs).
Activities:
The main activities include:
- Recruiting national and international consultants in all topics.
- Improving diagnosis of urban transportation conditions and possible improvement with public-private partnership.
- Training of municipal staff on Millennium Development Goals, urban indicators, project preparation and management, fund-raising, and inter-institutional partnership arrangements.
- Designing and building of social and economic indicators, including analysis and draft proposal of key policies and strategies.
- Quarterly backstopping missions from Regional Office in Latin America and the Caribbean (ROLAC) to provide direct technical assistance to the municipality and its partners.
Results:
- The municipal organizational chart re-organized to better manage mass urban transportation issues, including a public-private Municipal Foundation as the main operator of the Metrovia System.
- The first mass transportation corridor implemented in July 2006.
- Critical issues on municipal action for disaster prevention assessed.
- Municipal GIS-based system for downtown area implemented.
- Initiatives based on Millennium Development Goals criteria to strengthen urban and social planning processes agreed upon.
- New technical cooperation initiatives for funding (EC and the World Bank, for instance) prepared and submitted.
- Distant national education programmes aired by open TV on specific themes such as safe preparation of food, opening and managing micro-enterprises, health-care of small children, among others.
- Schoolbooks distributed to all children enrolled in public schools.
