On September 24, the Seminar-Meeting “Objectives and Challenges for the Sustainable Development of the Tri-national Basin of the Uruguay River” took place in Salto Grande (Uruguay).
More than 130 people gathered on 24 September at the Salto Grande Dam, a strategic enclave located between the Argentinean and Uruguayan borders, to discuss a joint roadmap to identify key areas of work at the triple border for the next two years.
The meeting was promoted by the Congress of Mayors of Uruguay with support from the EUROsociAL+ Programme and was attended by relevant national, local and civil society actors from all three sides of the border: Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina.
This activity is part of the EUROsociAL+ Programme’s support for the initiative, led by the Congress of Mayors of Uruguay, to channel development in cross-border areas with a basin focus, strengthening governance and empowering local and sub-national governments.
The meeting served as a framework for signing an international cooperation agreement between the Municipal Consortium of Concordia (Argentina) and the Committee for the Development of the Uruguay River Basin (CCRU).
In addition to raising the visibility of the institutional commitment of the main actors at the border, the seminar-meeting also served to share visions of the future to address shared challenges. The seminar received support from a European expert and two local experts sponsored by EUROsociAL+. These experts have been collaborating to facilitate dialogue between actors and to diagnose needs that were shared and added to during the seminar through plenaries and round-table discussions in two sector committees, one for productive development and strategic issues and another for social affairs, education, culture and health. There was also a round-table discussion on youth policies.
The result of the meeting and the continuation of the work is expected to be a useful roadmap for governance of the basin that encompasses the views of the actors involved and enables coordination to meet the challenges of the border area.
