Local Authorities must face new problems that affect citizens, as climate change and other environmental challenges that have a direct effect on the quality of life. Local authorities, as the ones which are closer to the citizensÕ needs, must assume new deals, and thus, similar difficulties, no matter their size and their features.
Networks of municipalities address the search for solutions to common problems with few resources. The debate and the exchange of experiences help to find new ideas. Environmental problems transcend the local level and are global, but often require local and regional action to find effective solutions. That is why networks are a good formula to cooperate and foster joint actions.
Therefore in 1997 the Network of Towns and Villages towards Sustainability (from now on the Network) was created by 118 municipalities, it was inspired by other international networks such as ICLEI.
Diputaci— de Barcelona became its Coordinator. The Network is an association of Towns and Villages committed to work for sustainable development and from the beginning the Network works in a participatory way which is the key of its success.
Nowadays the Network has become a cooperation and exchange platform, where Local Authorities have the appropriate framework to discuss their problems, needs, and worries, to share their experiences, to promote and carry out projects of common interest and to lobby public administrations or other supra-municipal entities and thus influence on supra municipal policies.
The Network main features are adaptation and flexibility. It is a resilient Network which adapts to the needs of its members and changes its operational structure according to the Local authoritiesÕ demands. That is the main reason why the Network has grown and evolved, adapting its activities and aims which always must respond to the main goal: to reach a more sustainable scenario and guarantee a good quality of life to all citizens. During the last 20 years the Network has assumed the Aalborg Charter, the Covenant of Mayors and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Network began with 118 municipalities from the province of Barcelona and 20 years later there are 290 members, 252 municipalities, 17 supra local Authorities and 21 Observers (which are non-Local Authorities like the Catalan Government or Consortiums or Associations).
There is more information on the Network here: https://www.diba.cat/en/web/xarxasost/presentacio
The Network has become a space to share common challenges but also to learn and to develop capacity building among Local authorities so they can make more effective local policies on sustainable development. The growth of the Network (both in members and in expanding its influence beyond the province of Barcelona) is a proof of its success. Every year different activities, meetings, and products for Local Authorities are developed.
The Network began as a dialogue between Local Authorities, but every year more supra local Authorities, including the Catalan Government, have become members and observers. Once in the Network, Local Authorities can express their needs and their worries in an open forum, where they feel listened to and where solutions are sought through participatory, peer to peer and bottom-up approaches that are the key to success since it allows adaptability and flexibility.
All Governance levels are part of the Network which has become a model of multilevel environmental governance in specific policies such as the Covenant of Mayors and the fight against climate change, environmental awareness, communication and education, waste prevention, etc.Éand that has resulted in a better coordination between different Authorities, optimization of resources and guaranteeing that citizens from small villages benefit from sustainable policies and actions the same way as those who live in towns or cities.
For instance not only Barcelona and the towns from the metropolitan Area are active members of the Covenant of Mayors and have developed their energy and climate plans but municipalities such as lÕEstany or Aviˆ (with less 1.000 inhabitants) have their own plans and have become an example of carrying out sustainable energy measures (lÕEstany was the first Spanish municipality which renewed its whole public lighting and introduced LED technology and Aviˆ was the first Spanish municipality contracting green electricity and is a Wellbeing City award finalist)
