Bogotá, which currently serves as vice president of the Ibero-American Center for Strategic Development (CIDEU), joins the compromise of the CIDEU member cities embodied in the Ibero-American Declaration 2020. In this Declaration, local governments are urged to generate debates, join forces, involve citizens to work together and direct the course towards the “new cities”.
Bogotá has implemented projects with a strategic urban vision to generate a greater well-being in citizens, and to be able to turn obstacles into opportunities. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the city has sought to mitigate the consequences of COVID-19, placing the well-being of the public as a central axis, through intersectoral strategies that seek to create a new social and environmental contract.
Due to the crisis, the city implemented contingency measures to prevent a collapse of the medical system. First, the city purchased Intensive Care Units (ICU), increasing the capacity from 935 to more than 2,100 units. On the other hand, the capacity to process PCR tests was increased from 200 to 15,000 a day, all with the purpose of strengthening the strategy of identification and tracking of cases in the city. Finally, the training of medical and assistance personnel was carried out.
To address the social problems that were deepened with the pandemic, for the first time in the history of Bogotá the Basic Income Program was implemented, supporting 712,000 poor and vulnerable households in a population of 8 million inhabitants.
On the economic side, Bogotá has advanced projects such as Bogotá a Cielo Abierto, an economic reactivation initiative where from Thursday to Sunday restaurants, market places, artisans and gyms can carry out their outdoor activities in areas closed by the mayor's office. In the first three weekends of the implementation of these measures, 6,500 establishments and 117,000 jobs were reactivated. Bogotá a Cielo Abierto was recognized internationally for promoting economic reactivation without compromising the health of citizens.
Finally, Bogotá continues to bet on a sustainable urban strategy through projects such as the Carrera Séptima Green Corridor, one of the main roads that connects the city from south to north. This project was approved by the City Council and is being built with the participation of all citizens through the Open Government platforms. Within this project, the development of routes for the use of bicycles is also contemplated, which was promoted during the pandemic as a biosecure and sustainable method of mobility. Many of the strategies that have been developed, on the occasion of the pandemic, will remain when the health crisis is overcome. In the long term, these initiatives are expected to generate benefits in terms of sustainability, mobility, health and well-being in the city.
After the Assembly on the 8th of October, in which Bogotá was appointed vice president, CIDEU launched the 2020 Ibero-American Declaration, a document that had as its central theme the importance of defining a long-term city model that integrates technical and scientific knowledge with the experience of citizens in strategic urban planning, to attend the turbulent times that we as a society live. This declaration reaffirms the importance of humanizing urban strategies, in order to give greater value to public health strategies, reduction of social inequalities and the search for sustainability in managing the challenges generated by the COVID19 crisis.
With the implementation of these measures, Bogotá reaffirms its commitment to the compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and urban strategies that lead Bogotá to become an example of equitable, fair and sustainable development.
