Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona

Between 2 and 7 September, the management of the Public Spaces and International Cooperation services of the AMB visited the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador to take part in a series of activities as part of the Public Spaces Project as an integral element of the social and economic development of the Metropolitan Area of San Salvador to support social cohesion and civic harmony. This initiative, promoted by the Council of Mayors of the San Salvador Metropolitan Area and its Planning Office (COAMSS-OPAMSS), is being executed with the technical and economic support of the AMB as the result of a collaboration agreement reached between the two institutions in November 2016.

As part of the technical exchange programme, a team of architects from the Public Spaces service of the AMB gave a workshop to share their conception, projects, strategies and experiences of metropolitan management. The workshop involved personnel from the OPAMSS, technical officers from the fourteen municipalities that make up the AMSS and institutions from the Public Safety Committee of the Metropolitan Development Council (CODEMET). Field visits and meetings also took place with the COAMSS-OPAMSS team, the mayors and the team of architects to study the initiatives that will be carried out as a result of the project in the towns of Mejicanos and Ayutuxtepeque.

This collaborative action is being rolled out in a difficult social situation as violence has a significant impact on the whole of El Salvador's society. This is particularly the case in the metropolitan area of San Salvador, where population density is extremely high and social inequalities much more prevalent.

The figures illustrating the situation speak for themselves. According to data from the Public Prosecutor and the Institute of Forensic Medicine of El Salvador, in 2016 a total of 5,277 people died from violent causes in the country, of whom 524 were women. They also show that minors and young people are the population segments with the most deaths, and according to these official surveys some 90% of the population say they feel unprotected in public spaces.

By developing this project, AMB's Public Spaces and International Cooperation services are contributing to the process of drawing up a working methodology for public spaces in the metropolitan area of San Salvador, with a particular focus on human rights, gender, diversity, environmental sustainability and governability, the aim being to help instil an innovative conception of public spaces. To encourage the appropriation of public spaces, to improve security and to promote the inclusion of citizens in all their diversity, the methodology envisages architectural initiatives as the result of a participatory process and promotes them through social, cultural and socio-economic activities. This strategy is based on exercising the right to the city as a fundamental right.