[Technical cooperation in Colombia] First workshop on 20 and 21 May 2019

CODATU first workshop in Cali will take place on the 20th and 21st of May of 2019.

This workshop will address the legal, institutional and financing aspects of Regional Transport Authorities. It will aim to identify collectively the potential role, goal, operation and impact of implementing a Regional Transport Authority in the metropolitan area of Cali.

Objectives and participants

Mr. Gautier Mignot, French Ambassador in Colombia, and Mrs. Dilian Francisca Toro will open the workshop and officially launch the technical cooperation. The 2-days worokshop will then gather institutional stakeholders at local, national and international levels, which all play a role in the institutional organization of public transport in cities.

At local scale, representatives of the regional department of Valle del Cauca and the municipal governments of the 10 cities that constitute Cali metropolitan area will participate. These institutions will work together to define their common goals for regional mobility, the new distribution of competencies between the different transport authorities present in the territory of Cali metropolitan area (local governments, Ministry of transport, etc.) and identify the main steps towards the implementation of this new Regional Transport Authority.

The Ministry of Transport and the National Planning Department will present the national legal framework for the constitution of Regional Transport Authorities, currently under discussion at national scale. For these national entities, the workshop will be the opportunity to understand the proposals of local stakeholders for the constitution of such institutions. Indeed, stakeholders in Cali are pioneers in Colombia, as they are working to implement a Regional Transport Authority, whereas that legal has never been implemented in Colombia.

Finally, national and international Transport Authorities will be invited to share their experience and support local stakeholders in their process of constructing a Regional Transport Authority. Marc Le Tourneur, consultant in urban mobility, will present the evolution of the French model of transport authorities and share his experience in institutional and operational entities involved in the organization and development of transport systems in France. Additionally, the Metropolitan Area of Barranquilla will present its process of consolidation as a Transport Authority at metropolitan scale in the Colombian context.

Pablo Salazar Ferro, mobility senior expert for CODATU and Bertrand Depigny, Projects Manager of Governance of transportation at Cerema, will lead the 2-days workshop, introduce the concept and theoretical framework of transport authorities and bring international cases to the discussions. The French Development Agency and local researchers will also be invited to participate in the debates.

At the end of the 2-days workshop, our goal is that local and national institutions agree on basic principles around the constitution of this new institution and identify preliminary options for the structuration of this Regional Transport Authority (territory, competencies, resources).