Capacity Development Program on the Design & Implementation of Complete & Green Streets

The Office for Agrarian, Land, and Urban Development (SEDATU in Spanish) has recognized the opportunity to strengthen the local capacity of medium-sized Mexican cities to design more habitable and livable streets and public spaces. There is a constant need to exchange experiences and knowledge between individuals who work in this field at different administrative levels, particularly in response to the work done in the area of ​​design, taking into account decision makers and promoters of constructions and interventions.

The Streets Course, prepared by Steer, focuses on providing technical support to the three levels of government, and locally, in four selected Mexican cities: Morelia, MICH; Mérida, YUC; Hermosillo, SON, and Tlaquepaque, JAL.

The main objective is to train local professionals and decision makers to improve the quality of life of their cities, as well as to reduce environmental impacts, through planning, design, execution and effective implementation of street design projects and public spaces that prioritize sustainable mobility. These strategies are of great importance to ensure that cities can adapt successfully to the negative impacts of climate change, such as heat islands and rainfall. The course includes 120 hours of continuous dedication of the participants, divided into face-to-face and virtual sessions for four thematic blocks: planning, design, implementation, and monitoring.

These courses began to be implemented in the four cities selected from May 2019 and will continue until November of the same year. A total of 36 days of face-to-face training plus an additional platform with more than 700 pages of content and different group participation and evaluation activities are planned.

Participants will acquire the knowledge and tools necessary to plan, design, execute, and implement successful pilots that prioritize sustainable mobility modes that will consequently promote the modal shift towards public and non-motorized transport, with accessible and safe infrastructure.

There are currently 27 project initiatives registered in the four cities, implemented by teams that make up a total of more than 100 trained participants.