Forum on the field-city relationship in times of pandemic

On July 2, the forum "Integral rural development: tools for rural-city articulation" was held, organized by the National Council of Rural Parish Governments of Ecuador (CONAGOPARE) and the Institute of Studies of the Sectional Regime of Ecuador (IERSE) of the University of Azuay.

CONAGOPARE is currently conducting a cycle of virtual forums to reflect on and land proposals that demonstrate the lessons learned from the pandemic and that should lead to a reorganization of priorities at the national level, including reducing country-city gaps, guaranteeing food sovereignty and create an environment that reactivates the local economy.

The University of Azuay contributes to this initiative from the IERSE and its recently started project "Analysis of the capacities of the Autonomous Decentralized Rural Parish Governments of Azuay for the territorialization of the Sustainable Development Goals linked to their competences", which recognizes the importance of generate reflections that go beyond the urban vision and recognize gaps and opportunities of rurality.  

The teachers participating in the event were Omar Delgado, Director of the IERSE, Juanita Bersosa, professor of the chair of Public Policies; Cristián Castillo, researcher of the project and teacher of the Chair of Organizational Communication, and María Cecilia Alvarado, researcher of the project and former Vice-prefect of Azuay. 

"The call was successful, we had 272 connected at the peak of the forum, and we closed with 158 connected people, from all over the country," Alvarado said, adding:

“This type of event is important because the learning from the pandemic cannot be read only from the reality of the cities, it would be again not having learned the differences of the territory and the different impacts; the pandemic should leave us a clear learning about the need to look at the territory in an integral way ”.