City Development Strategies for the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina

13. Objectives - This proposal's overall objective is to design and apply replicable processes to elaborate Action Plans for Economic Reactivation at both municipal and provincial levels. The specific objectives are first to carry out three City Development Strategies (CDS) in three representative municipalities, Florencio Varela, General Alvarado, and La Costa, identifying in each case the sectors with greatest potential for sustained economic growth, for employment generation and for poverty reduction, as well as the principle obstacles to development. The Development Strategies should lead to Municipal Action Plans indicating costs, timing and sources of financing for structural and non-structural measures to facilitate investment in 'key drivers of growth.' The second specific objective is to create a dialogue among local authorities and the provincial authority to identify measures which require support of the provincial government, and which contribute to economic growth of a significant number of municipalities in the Province and thus to develop a Preliminary Provincial Action Plan. This proposal builds on the work of different donors, thus building a partnership which can frame future work by the FAM, the Province and the municipalities. The World Bank is currently supporting an investment project in trunk infrastructure as part of a sequence (APL) which will lead to a follow on investment project for municipal infrastructure. At the same time, the GFDRR has approved financing on the order of US$800,000 to analyze increasing vulnerability to environmental fragility from climate change in the same regions and cities and to recommend mitigation strategies. Finally, UNEP has also signed an agreement with the Argentine Government to offer training and support in evaluating and planning for the impact of climate change. The proposed CDS will offer a platform to bring these analyses together for consideration at the municipal and provincial levels, integrating their results. Not only will this be the first engagement of municipal level stakeholders in such long term considerations, it will also serve as a model for provincial planning in the rest of Argentina. The ultimate goal of this activity is the design and application of a replicable process to develop Economic Recovery Action Plans at the municipal and provincial levels. The specific objectives are as follows: i) implement the development strategies of three selected representative municipalities from the Province of Buenos Aires, namely Florencio Varela, General Alvarado, and La Costa, and identify the sectors with the greatest potential for sustainable growth and employment generation and poverty alleviation, as well as the main obstacles to investment in these sectors; ii) define three Municipal Action Plans that outline local structural and non-structural measures aimed at reducing obstacles and stimulating investment in the aforementioned sectors; and iii) develop a basic Preliminary Provincial Action Plan in consultation with the other municipalities and the government of the Province, in order to provide provincial-level measures that support the key sectors, local investment, sustainable economic growth, employment generation, and poverty reduction at the municipal level.