Database instructionsThe search engine for this Database provides 2 types of search: Relationships and Institutions, understanding that they are linked to each other.
If a search is carried out on relationships, series of actions will be found between distinct sub-national governments or authorities. At the moment the search is launched, geographic (recommendable), thematic or territorial scope filters can be established. Thus the search can be limited to the relationships between one and another specific country in a specific sectorial theme, and can even search the database for information on the relationships of a specific administration or municipality (town).
To achieve this flexibility in consultation, the Observatory has aggregated the territories of all the countries of the European Union and Latin America working with 3 administrative or sub-national government levels: regional, intermediate and municipal. In this way, each municipality is related to its province and the province with its region. On the same lines, each territory has been classified according to the level to which it belongs. This division between levels has been made based on shared characteristics of the territories or institutions that govern them. In the case of the EU information has been used from
Eurostat, and for Latin America the information has come from the National Institutes of Statistics and the Associations of Municipalities. Not all the countries have 3 levels, and when they lack a regional level they have been called “País STR” (Country without regional type), whereas if they lack the intermediate level they are called “País STI” (Country without intermediate type).
The aim of this classification is to be practical in the work that the Observatory undertakes and intuitive for the users of the Resource Centre, without the desire to formalise a territorial and administrative structuring of the LA and EU countries.
As a result of the search for relationships, 4 types of actions appear: Bilateral Relationships, Projects, Networks and Programmes, the definitions of which can be found in “
Practices of Decentralised Cooperation”.
In the list of results will be found all those actions in which at least one of the participating institutions coincides with the search criteria set. For example, if looking for relationships in which institutions from a specific country take part, the networks that have some member of that country will be shown. In the case of the programmes, it will show those that have promoted or strengthened an action of an institution of this country. And from the list, one can open the profiles of each action.
