Puglia Region. Embarking on Hub&Spoke System Laboratories

In February, the Puglia Region embarked on the activities envisaged by the Project Hub&Spoke System. The latter has been realized by means of a system action directed to capacity building and to the development of instruments, in order to guarantee a “structured” and “aware” participation in international cooperation interventions to the beneficiary administrations.
In this regard, on 16 and 24 February the initial laboratories took place to the Municipality and Province of Lecce respectively, during which the objectives and the key content of the initiative were presented. Furthermore, the priorities to be developed in consistency with the Institute’s concrete needs were discussed with the participants.
By considering the different institutional roles, both the Province and the Municipality may boast strong experience in terms of international cooperation, in particular through the management of “Interreg” projects. From some of the functionaries who attended the meetings, it emerged that the key competence developed in this regard was administrative project management, while difficulties have been encountered under the planning activities.
Hub&Spoke teaching path will exactly focus on empowering these skills. The project will dedicate particular attention also to the problem of communication between various administration bodies and to the visibility of the projects realized. Further meetings will also concentrate on the motivational and strategic aspects of the international activities, through the elaboration of a specific plan for each local agency which will allow for the definition of areas of action and sectors of intervention, in agreement with the policies finalized by the administration.
So far, the most important initiatives conducted have been those on town-planning, in view of the need to enhance the artistic heritage of Lecce’s Baroque , of the environment, and in the case of the Province, also of the healthcare sector. From a geographical point of view, liaisons have been developed with the East Adriatic, including Greece, and with South Mediterranean countries and Syria.
The attentive participation and the consolidated practice of the Province’s partnerships management, allow for the creation of concrete occasions for an institutional “Province-Municipality” liaison also beyond Puglia’s borders. The Province and the Municipality of Cosenza may also be involved in the empowerment path which will allow to establish a laboratory for experimenting the potential benefits deriving from the institutional Province-Municipality liaison between two relatively close geographical contexts such as Lecce and Cosenza , and will be able to provide a model which may be repeated in the future.