Through the IUC programme, cities and regions across Europe have entered into partnerships on sustainable development with counterparts from around the globe. For a full list of city pairings so far, see the table below:
The Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara, Jalisco (MAG) is collaborating with Hamburg, Germany on solid waste management and citizen participation. The Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara includes nine municipalities that together represent 5 million inhabitants and generate 70 percent of the Solid Urban Waste (SUW) of the state.
In some cases, parts of the municipal service are outsourced to a private contractor; in other municipalities the SUW management services are operated partially or in its entirety by the public sector. Regardless of the public or private management system, having an integral management plan is essential for the MAG.
Hamburg is interested in learning from the MAG on how to improve and incorporate citizen's participation models by using new technologies in public administration and in public services.
The city pairing is currently working on a strategy to improve the efficiency of local and regional solutions for waste separation and to strengthen the development of a circular economy. The idea is to apply selected best practices from Hamburg and the MAG.