Puerto Rican towns to benefit from Municipal Innovation Lab

Puerto Rican towns to benefit from Municipal Innovation Lab The Puerto Rican towns of Aguada, Barceloneta, Gurabo, Hormigueros and Florida will be the first to benefit from the Municipal Innovation Laboratory, a program launched by Liga de Ciudades de Puerto Rico last week. Cristina Miranda-Palacios, founding director of Liga de Ciudades de Puerto Rico, announced the program, which includes a one-year training cycle to help improve municipal teams’ effectiveness in local government management. In an interview with News is my Business, Miranda-Palacios said the program’s realization was thanks to funding from Magic Cabinet, PolicyLink and the Ford Foundation, totaling $3.6 million over four years. “The Municipal Innovation Lab is an initiative that is more like a journey that will comprise a deep dive look into the municipality with a municipal innovation assessment we have designed with some of our partners,” Miranda-Palacios said. “It includes 10 indicators, and we will assess where the municipality stands in relation to those 10 indicators.” She explained that the program includes designing a Municipal Innovation Plan with mayors and municipal teams. “The second phase of the Municipal Innovation Lab is the phase of co-creation and co-designing,” Miranda-Palacios continued. “We will visit municipalities and create this ecosystem table where a situation is going to be identified and a solution is going to be co-created following a methodology of nine steps that we have also designed.” She explained that the third phase involves how the “co-created, co-designed solutions that the communities need” are funded. “So, the third step is to actually fund those initiatives.” Liga de Ciudades de Puerto Rico is a nongovernmental organization that focuses on the impact of local governments on residents’ quality of life “as a municipal agenda.” “The Municipal Innovation Lab is the result of discussions on the role of local governments in ensuring a fulfilling life for their residents and an analysis of what is needed for these municipal governments to become stronger,” Miranda-Palacios added. Jerry Maldonado, vice president of programs at PolicyLink, said: “We at PolicyLink are thrilled to support Liga de Ciudades in its work to advance equity-focused, community-led change in collaboration with municipalities across Puerto Rico.” “We believe the Municipal Innovation Lab is important for the people of Puerto Rico, and a special opportunity for mayors to develop and strengthen skills in community power, transparency, fiscal responsibility and economic well-being,” he said. “It is also a special moment for us as we welcome Puerto Rico and Liga de Ciudades to our portfolio of locally based initiatives dedicated to promoting equity for the 100 million people living at or near poverty levels.” Christina Engel, chief executive officer of Magic Cabinet, stated, “We are committed to supporting Liga de Ciudades with this municipal agenda, which is a forward-looking agenda for development.” “Philanthropy brings a very important tool, which is resources,” Engel said. “We provide resources in the form of funds, as well as through partnerships and collaborative efforts in order to make them more successful in an authentic way.” Hormigueros Mayor Pedro García highlighted the importance of empowering local governments to address key issues such as health, planning, education, environment and welfare. “Municipalities are the structure closest to the citizenry,” García said. “They can provide services, empower residents and build healthy coexistence. Most municipal teams already have an intuition of this; they just need support and resources to transform themselves in this direction.” Barceloneta Mayor Wanda Soler added, “The Lab will allow us to introspect the services we offer on a daily basis and identify weaknesses to turn them into strengths. At the same time, to maximize the services we provide. Having a group of experts such as those from Liga de Ciudades will give us a different perspective regarding our administration.” Gurabo and Barceloneta have already started the process with an analysis of their government structures and systems. Once the training cycle is completed, the municipalities will receive further support from Liga de Ciudades, including additional programs such as the Municipal Training Institute and La Constructora. The latter is a new initiative that encourages citizen participation in identifying problems and solutions. It also supports the search for external funding.