Summary

The 2020-2023 Mandate Action Plan, or PAM 2020-2023, is the strategic document that outlines the main political objectives responding to the priorities of the Barcelona Provincial Council government and the lines of action to achieve them. To execute it, the corporation gathers and allocates all the resources at its disposal.

The PAM 2020-2023 updates and renews the corporation’s commitment to strengthening local autonomy, and aims to ensure that the Provincial Council remains a benchmark for municipalism and local policies, within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda.

Through this PAM, the Barcelona Provincial Council becomes one of the first administrations to concretize its institutional commitment to sustainable development and transforms the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda into its strategic objectives; to achieve them, it develops local cooperation instruments, transformative mandate projects, and budgetary sub-programs.

Approved in the midst of the pandemic, the PAM 2020-2023 aims to be a tool to offer comprehensive support to the municipalities and county councils of the province of Barcelona, so that they can address the social and health emergency caused by COVID-19, as well as the impact of the lockdown and the resulting recession. But, at the same time, the corporation wants to strategically guide this support to help us recover from the crisis in a sustainable way, from an economic, social, and environmental perspective, leveraging the transformative potential of acting locally to reduce inequalities, curb climate change, and build a green and circular economy.

This dual need to act locally to minimize the impact of the crisis we are experiencing and, at the same time, to look ahead to guide recovery towards a new development model, underlies the entire design of the 2020-2023 Mandate Action Plan.

Project Classification

Localization and implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the Local Entity.

SDG 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere.

SDG 2. Zero Hunger.

SDG 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

SDG 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

SDG 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

SDG 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

SDG 7. Affordable and Clean Energy.

SDG 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

SDG 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

SDG 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries.

SDG 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

SDG 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

SDG 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

SDG 15. Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

SDG 16. Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies.

SDG 17. Partnerships for the Goals.

 

Timing

2020-2023

Self-assessment block

PLANNING What were the objectives set in the project?

The main objective of the project has been to provide the Barcelona Provincial Council with a roadmap for the next three years, fully aligned with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, both strategically and operationally. The strategic framework of the PAM comprises the mission, vision, values, strategic objectives, the new architecture of local cooperation, and 19 transformative projects that must enable addressing the social and economic consequences of COVID-19, together with the Local Governments of the province of Barcelona, and moving towards sustainable development. All these elements establish the priority guidelines for government action during the 2020-2023 period. The operational framework consists of nine areas of action for public policies of the corporate areas of the Barcelona Provincial Council. Each area is specified in an ordered list of budgetary sub-programs and a selection of their main activity indicators. Both the strategic and operational frameworks have been aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adapted to the reality of the Local Governments of the demarcation and the Provincial Council.

IMPACT What are the positive impacts of the project?

Through the PAM 2020-2023, the Provincial Council adopts the United Nations 2030 Agenda, as well as its sustainable development objectives and targets. The integration of the Agenda into this instrument, which globally guides government action, has the following positive impacts and results:

1. Firstly, as already mentioned, the adoption of the SDGs as the corporation’s strategic objectives has served as a catalyst to align the corporate budget with sustainable development objectives and targets.
2. Secondly, it has also stimulated the local cooperation action developed by the Provincial Council, since it must be governed according to the guidelines of the Mandate Plan, to respond to this same purpose, with the aim of progressively advancing towards a network of municipalities transitioning towards inclusive urban habitats and sustainable territories, following the tenets of the 2030 Agenda and the Urban Agendas.
3. Thirdly, the Mandate Action Plan has also become a tool to advance towards the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies with transformative capacity, in accordance with the basic axes of public policies (i.e., programs capable of addressing the climate emergency or the increase in inequalities by working in networks within the specific areas of competence of Local Governments) detailed in the following section.
4. Fourthly, it inspires communication, participation, and training spaces, to be a joint framework for action for the institution, Local Governments, local public workers, and society as a whole.
5. Fifthly, it is a strategic planning instrument that demonstrates the Provincial Council’s willingness to align corporate policies with those of other public institutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, and Europe, through new multi-level governance spaces.

INNOVATION What are the most innovative aspects? What challenge/problem is addressed?

In addition to what has already been pointed out about the consideration of the SDGs as the strategic objectives of the PAM 2020-2023, a singularly innovative aspect is the transformative projects, which are a set of 19 innovative and transversal public policies that must pave the way for the transformation of local public action in the province of Barcelona, in the spheres of people, planet, prosperity, and partnerships:

People. This involves addressing three major deeply interrelated challenges. The first, the challenge of gender equity, the right to sexual and gender diversity, and a life free from sexist violence. The second, the challenge of equal opportunities. And the third, the challenge of social inclusion, which is situated in a community dimension, fundamental today for designing transformative policies that foster cohesion and social integration from proximity. The transformative projects related to the sphere of people are:

• New educational opportunities 04-10: Support and new educational opportunities to combat early school leaving. New educational opportunities must be promoted in the fight against early school leaving, through a support system, with shared technological support, that structures and universalizes information for the young population at a local level.
• Childhood and adolescence program: from risk to equality, health, and well-being. Empowers children and adolescents in the responsible use of ICTs and promotes social skills and healthy habits.
• Sporting youth, active society. Incorporates the figure of the sports educator into municipal personal care services, accompanying adolescents and young people in sports and recreational activities.

Transformative culture. Promotes cultural actions aimed at raising awareness, training, and empowering professionals and citizens, for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through innovative and creative methodologies in a collaborative environment.

CulturaMENT. Provides municipalities with resources, tools, and cultural content to help them promote cultural projects that foster the well-being of people suffering from mental illnesses and their integration into the municipality’s cultural offerings.

Network of territories free from sexist violence. The Network of Territories Free from Sexist Violence works in an integral, multidisciplinary, and intersectional way on a forceful shock plan that guarantees the fundamental right to live free from violence.

Neighborhoods and communities. Drivers of social transformation. Promotes actions to combat poverty and exclusion in vulnerable neighborhoods, through community strengthening, neighborhood empowerment, and the reinforcement of social alliances.

Prosperity. This involves striving for all people to enjoy a prosperous life and making it possible for economic, social, and technological progress to be in harmony with the natural environment. The Barcelona Provincial Council aims to promote smarter, more environmentally sustainable, and more socially inclusive economic development in towns and cities, through actions that modernize the productive fabric, the tourism sector, and local urban commerce, and through policies that promote environments favorable to innovation, people’s employability, entrepreneurship, and the social economy. The transformative projects related to the sphere of prosperity are:

• Markets 2030: spaces of opportunity. Revitalizes municipal markets, introduces local and proximity products, gives new uses to empty or available spaces, and positions them as a public service, integrated into online distribution digital platforms.
• Work, talent, and technology. Improves the digital skills of unemployed, employed, or inactive people, and increases the participation of vulnerable groups (women, youth, long-term unemployed) in industrial, scientific, and technological occupations.
• Barcelona is much more: a sustainable tourist destination. Extends the culture of tourism sustainability to local and regional destinations, as well as to tourism companies and services, within the Biosphere distinction.
• Barcelona Greenways. Rehabilitates the riverbeds of the Llobregat, Cardener, and Anoia rivers as they pass through the Barcelona demarcation, to make them passable while respecting biodiversity.
• Fiber optics in the road network. Facilitates broadband communications access for the population, promotes economic activity, and improves competitiveness.

The planet. This involves our towns and cities transitioning towards inclusive habitats and sustainable territories. In this regard, the Provincial Council will especially support the commitments made within the framework of the Urban Agenda of Catalonia, a participatory tool promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya, to enhance opportunities and address the challenges posed by the country’s growing urbanization, within the framework of the principles of the New Urban Agenda. The transformative projects related to the sphere of the planet are:

• Promotion of local urban agendas. This project consists of accompanying municipalities in defining local action plans aligned with the criteria of the Urban Agenda, but adapted to local reality, aligning local public investments, and providing corporate resources to achieve this.
• Renewables 2030. This project consists of massively implementing renewable energies in the energy consumption of local entities and creating different models of energy communities, in order to advance towards a decarbonized and less delocalizable economy.
• Energy and climate action plan. This program aims to decarbonize the direct activity of the Barcelona Provincial Council and that offered by the corporation to municipalities, in order to exceed the objectives established by the European Union for 2030 and 2050 emission reductions, and to include adaptation measures to the impacts of climate change.
• Partnerships. This involves having public administrations with efficient and sustainable facilities and services, as well as human, organizational, and technological capital that is at the European forefront; administrations more capable of growing through knowledge, and more willing to work transversally and join forces with other administrations, companies, and universities. The transformative projects related to the sphere of partnerships are:

1. Networking agreements. This project consists of facilitating that the corporation’s local cooperation action adapts more and better to the needs and expectations of local entities, according to criteria of greater transparency, justice, and territorial equity, moving beyond welfare action in favor of supporting Local Governments and their empowerment.
2. Modernizing the internal management of Local Governments through technological, digital, and organizational transformations. This project consists of including the promotion of public innovation and the adoption of a strategic planning tool in the corporation’s programs, dedicated to strengthening the internal structures and the digital sphere of Local Governments, in order to contribute to modernizing internal management.
3. Analysis Center for Local Governments for territorial cohesion. This project consists of creating the Analysis Center for Local Governments for territorial cohesion, in accordance with the role of the corporation in promoting the balance and territorial cohesion of small municipalities.
4. Professional and digital DIBA. This project consists of addressing various challenges faced by the Barcelona Provincial Council in human resources and organization, such as the structural interim nature of part of the workforce or the need to address intergenerational turnover.

METHODOLOGY What methodology was followed for its implementation?

The PAM definition process has been based on political leadership regarding the establishment of its strategic framework (mission, vision, values, strategic objectives, and transformative projects), and has also involved the active participation of all corporate areas at a managerial and technical level in the design of its operational framework.

CONDITIONING FACTORS What conditions must be met for the project to be successfully replicated (in a similar context)?

We believe that the 2020-2023 Mandate Action Plan of the Barcelona Provincial Council offers an experience of aligning the 2030 Agenda and sustainable development objectives and targets that would be replicable by any other public institution, although the methodology and specific application we have developed can be integrated more easily into local governments similar to ours, such as other provincial councils and even medium and large municipalities, provided they meet the conditions we outline in the following section.

REPLICATE/SCALE/TRANSFER What elements should be considered for the project to be replicated in another Local Entity? What resources are needed?

For the project to be transferable to another Local Government, it should meet three important requirements: 1) strong political and managerial leadership linked to the localization of the Agenda; 2) a strong innovative vocation in the field of public policies and, if possible, transversal working spaces; and 3) a program-based budget that allows for operational alignment and, with it, the allocation of the organization’s economic and human resources to specific objectives/targets. In the case of the Barcelona Provincial Council, the development of the Mandate Action Plan also involved a unit specifically dedicated to it, as well as the collaboration of the management and technical teams from the different corporate areas.

INVOLVEMENT OF STAKEHOLDERS Which local stakeholders have been involved in the project (citizens, third sector organizations, private sector, academic sector, etc.)? How was this involvement achieved?

The project has been developed mainly internally within the corporation, without prejudice to the fact that the definition of new policies linked to the localization of the 2030 Agenda (and, in particular, the transformative projects) has incorporated networks of public and private stakeholders according to their nature.

INTERNAL COORDINATION How has the project been coordinated internally within the Local Entity?

The project has been technically coordinated by the Planning and Evaluation Service, a unit integrated into the Coordination of Corporate Strategy and Local Concertation of the Presidency Area. At the managerial level, the methodological proposal, as well as the progress of the work to develop the Plan, have been reviewed and coordinated within the “Coordinators’ Commission,” which is the highest collegiate body of the Corporation’s senior management. This body, finally, was responsible for elevating the Plan proposal to the political groups and, ultimately, to the Local Government Board for its approval and for subsequent accountability to the Plenary.

PARTNERSHIPS Have other institutions been involved in achieving the set objectives?

As already mentioned, an innovative aspect of the 2020-2023 Mandate Action Plan is that it integrates the Provincial Council’s local cooperation policy, with the aim of stimulating the localization of the 2030 Agenda in the Network of Local Governments of the province of Barcelona.

RESULTS/MEASUREMENT Have the project results been measured based on local indicators?

The measurement of results, related to the 2020-2023 Mandate Action Plan, is carried out using a dual methodology associated with the measurement of results and impacts, respectively:

1. Regarding results, logically linked to the degree of contribution that the PAM makes to the 2030 Agenda and, specifically, to the Sustainable Development Goals, it is planned to periodically measure the degree of execution: (a) of the transformative mandate projects, whose objectives and planned activities are subject to semi-annual monitoring, and (b) the budgetary programs, which are subject to annual monitoring, linked to the execution of the corporate budget and the achievement of the management indicators of each program. Through the PAM monitoring system and the various activity indicators it integrates, the degree of contribution of corporate action to the SDGs that are priorities for the institution can be determined.
2. On the other hand, the Barcelona Provincial Council has also defined a battery of indicators of the social, economic, and territorial reality at the municipal level associated with the sustainable development targets and objectives, in order to periodically evaluate the impact of the 2020-2023 Mandate Plan and the mandate plans that may be promoted in future mandates in advancing towards sustainable development.

RELEVANCE What is the adequacy of the objectives and results? Is there coherence between the objectives set and the results obtained?

This type of assessment should be carried out based on the annual monitoring and balance reports, which are prepared with the aim of understanding the results of the PAM, as well as the improvements and updates that must be made to maximize the achievement of the SDGs. At present, the First Annual Monitoring Report is being prepared, and for this reason, it is premature to answer this question. It can only be noted that mechanisms have been foreseen to progressively strengthen this coherence between objectives and results.

TRIPLE IMPACT: Is the project sustainable from an environmental, economic, and social point of view?

These three dimensions of sustainability have been taken into account, both in the development of the PAM 2020-2023 and in the alignment work carried out to link its transformative projects and budgetary programs with the 17 SDGs. This work has allowed us to conclude that the Provincial Council primarily contributes, through its government action, to 16 SDGs (i.e., all except the “life below water” SDG).

We highlight the preponderance of the two objectives linked to the Provincial Council’s raison d’être, which are to cooperate with the other Local Governments of the province of Barcelona to promote institutions and local policies that create public value (related to SDG 16 on peace, justice, and strong institutions) and to structure an inclusive, safe, and resilient Network of Local Governments (related to SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities). These two strategic objectives bring together a large number of transformative projects and budgetary sub-programs and aim to strengthen the Network of Local Governments in the demarcation, based on a broad and rebalancing territorial vision that ensures equitable access of citizens to local services, regardless of where they live.

Also important are the objectives of promoting sustainable economic growth, with a particular focus on job creation (related to SDG 8, decent work and economic growth); reducing inequalities between people and between territories (related to SDG 10, reduced inequalities); and strengthening local public health strategies (related to SDG 3, good health and well-being).

All these objectives are reinforced by others such as promoting the resilience and innovation of the industrial fabric (related to SDG 9), ensuring inclusive public education (related to SDG 11), and, naturally, achieving gender equality as a transversal element that must guide the actions of all areas (related to SDG 5).

The central role of environmental sustainability should also be emphasized. The importance that the 2030 Agenda places on environmental issues means that actions in this area are distributed among several SDGs. In this field, the management of natural parks, the promotion of renewable energies, and the sustainable management of water and sanitation play a central role.

OBSTACLES: What were the main obstacles encountered in all phases of the project?

During the development process of the PAM 2020-2023, no significant obstacles were encountered for its promotion and approval. During these first months of its implementation, a major obstacle to its execution has been motivated by the global COVID-19 pandemic and the need to dedicate a significant amount of corporate resources of all kinds (economic, human, organizational, and technological) to guarantee public health, to strengthen social cohesion in the face of the economic crisis derived from it, and to contribute to mitigating its effects on the productive system. Although this reorientation of priorities, difficult to foresee just over a year ago, has not questioned the Barcelona Provincial Council’s willingness to promote sustainable development, there is no doubt that it has temporarily mortgaged the development of some innovative initiatives. It remains to be seen whether, through the extraordinary Next Generation EU funds, as well as through the return to a new normality, they can be resumed in the coming months.

CONCLUSION. Project impact and usefulness.

Basically, it is an integral project to position the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs as a strategic aspect for the future of our society, to facilitate their localization in our institutions at all levels, and to re-examine what we do and the policies and services we carry out through the lens of sustainable development.

Information block

FURTHER INFORMATION

All information on the 2020-2023 Mandate Action Plan can be found on the website https://www.diba.cat/es/web/pam-2020-2023

This website includes a link to a “site” dedicated to PAM monitoring, through an accessible electronic viewing platform here: pam.diba.cat

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