On May 27^th the university held the workshop titled "Local sustainable development and technical guidelines to devolve competencies" which was organized by the university's Management of Local Sustainable Development major, the National Board of Competencies (CNC), the Consortium of Municipalities from the Amazon and Galapagos (COMAGA),  the Ecuadorian-Peruvian Bi-National Plan and the National Secretariat of Planning and Development (SENPLADES).

Around 130 people attended the event, there were mayors, councilmen, department directors and technicians from 46 municipalities, representatives from the Ministry of the Environment, the Risk Management Secretariat, the International Cooperation Secretariat (SETECI) and the National Transit Agency.

UPS President Javier Herran welcomed all the participants to the event and talked about the research and education initiatives the university has regarding local development. Saul Cardenas, Mayor of Sucúa and president of COMAGA, reaffirmed the commitment municipalities have to strengthen their technical capabilities and respond to needs of citizens.

"We have to better understand what local development means in a plurinational State and strengthen inclusive societies. We clearly cannot continue reproducing the conventional paradigm of development based only infrastructure and income indicators" said Pablo Ortiz, director of the Local Sustainable Development major.

Maria Caridad Vásquez,  the executive secretary of CNC, spoke about the process of decentralization, multilevel governance and the need to articulate and coordinate the management of territories in the different national and local bodies. She highlighted the need to speed up the transference and regulation of exclusive competencies of the Autonomous Decentralized Governments which are set in the Constitution and the Organic law of territorial organization, autonomy and decentralization (COOTAD). ""CNC is committed with local governments to encourage actions that will strengthen their institutions by coordinating and implementing education, training and technical support for each one of the competencies" said Vasquez.           

They also discussed the technical guidelines of competencies regarding transit, ground transportation and safety, management of international cooperation, fire prevention and exploitation of aggregates and stone materials.