International Cooperation

United Nation’s Global Compact is an initiative that has the purpose of making business leaders, labor organizations, civil society organizations, and governments to commit to the Ten Universal Principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. With this agenda, the Global Compact seeks to provide long-term solutions to the planet’s greatest challenges with a 2030 horizon; the term set forth in September 2015 by the United Nations’ General Assembly for the compliance of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Argentine Network for the Global Compact is the country’s largest corporate social responsibility initiative, with over 800 participants from 20 provinces. 47 companies from our city are a part of this initiative. 

The Municipality of Rosario joined in December 2015, and duly submitted its first commitment report for the 2015-2017 period. 
In 2020, during Mayor Pablo Javkin’s administration, the focus shifted to the General Chief of Staff, to provide the public policies with a cross-cutting perspective, with the purpose of integrating the diverse areas of local management and aligning the city’s government plan to the Ten Principles of the Global Compact and to the 17 SDGs for the UN’s 2030 Agenda. 

In October 2021, the Municipality submitted its second Communication on Engagement (COE) for the 2017-2020 period, confirming its commitment to the initiative.
 

With the objectives of promoting, organizing, raising awareness, and launching cooperation and exchange activities between local governments involved in Mercocities, this program has a horizontal peer-exchange perspective that prioritizes a qualitative impact with a regional perspective.  

In 2018, Rosario was selected to coordinate the project “Urban Heat Islands: Impact on Planning and Urban Design Policies. Potential Adaptations and Reducing the Effects of Climate Change.” This project has the objective of training and exchanging knowledge and experiences in the development of policies to adapt to and reduce the effects of climate change, as well as the incorporation of specific software to the urban planning of the involved cities, in order to consider the effect that human actions have on the urban climate. 

Fostering cooperation between European and Latin-American cities, this program has the objective of enforcing the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, that Rosario adhered to, as an instrument to comply with the Paris Agreement.

Rosario is part of two ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) projects, supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI):

• Ecologistics has the objective of creating a strategy for reducing carbon emissions in the sector of urban cargo. It has been a part of the city’s planning for 4 years, since 2018, and is a part of the Local Climate Action Plan, developed by the Local Task Force, as the Low-Carbon Logistics Plan for Rosario.
• 100% Renewables is a program for the 2020-2023 period, which will help the city’s planning process for transitioning into renewable energies. A Local Task Force, including representatives from public and private institutions, as well as scientists specialized in the topic, was created for the implementation of this program.

The Municipality of Rosario is a partner for the design and implementation of the project TRAMA, a network for sustainable inclusion funded by the European Commission, that has the Fundación Sol Naciente as primary requester.

This project has the objective of contributing to the labor inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the city of Rosario.
 

In 2020, Metropolis (a global network of major cities and metropolitan areas) made an open call for pilot projects for the 2021-2023 period, and the proposal presented and led by the city of Rosario “Co-Creation of a Sustainable Model for Metropolitan Solid Waste Management” has been selected for funding and implementation starting on 2021.

The partner cities and members of Metropolis supporting this project are: Turin (Italy), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and, as collaborating city that is not a member of Metropolis, Santa Fe (Argentina).

The National University of Rosario is also supporting this project.
The project has the objective of teaching and training policy makers, local technical teams, and other decision-making actors in the development of instruments and tools for the integral planning and coordination of solid waste management, through the implementation of technologies for the generation of sustainable energy.
 

With a special project that started in 2014, Rosario made several cooperation agreements with Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). 

There are two technical cooperation programs: the Knowledge Co-Creation Program (KCCP) and the Expert Volunteers Program.
 

This program is one of the technical cooperation frameworks from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) of Japan, and has the objectives of training key human resources to strengthen their institutions and contributing to solving each city’s and each country’s specific problems. 

Under this program, a number of civil servants from the Municipality of Rosario have been trained in Japan in Integral Waste Management and Urban Management for a Sustainable Urban Development.

This is a technical cooperation program that is a part of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), and has the objective of sending Japanese experts with the experience, skills, and appropriate knowledge to different countries to help with their assistance requirements.

The main theme areas are: quality and productivity improvement for small businesses, foreign trade, risk management, environmental education, information technology, agricultural development, among others.

The Municipality of Rosario has received several expert volunteers in risk management, who have contributed to the area of Civil Defense.