The program aims to ensure that vulnerable individuals and families have access to basic services (food, housing and utilities). A total of 20% of the Catalan population live at risk of poverty and 30% of minors under the age of 16 live at risk of poverty or social exclusion (Catalan statistics institute, 2017).
The project was fully implemented from 2016, when it was detected that, due to economic crisis, there had been an increase in requests for the provision of urgent assistance by municipal social services so that families could meet the cost of mortgages or rent, utilities and food.

The project responds to the 5 "p" or key points of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by putting everyone at the centre (giving opportunities to People), fighting against climate change through the Audit Program (taking care of the Planet), improving the quality of life of people at risk of social exclusion (working for Prosperity), with direct effects on citizen coexistence (promoting Peace in local communities) and in close collaboration with the actors involved, both public and private (creating new Partnerships).

The objectives are:

• To give a response to the increased pressure on municipal councils, who experience greater difficulty in meeting the basic needs of the population and coping with the growing number of households affected by poverty. Basic social care and cover for urgent social needs are the responsibility of municipalities, specifically basic social services. Municipalities thus play a key role in achieving SDG 1, in particular target 4, that of guaranteeing access to basic services, and also Goal 10- “Reduce inequality within and among countries”. As a result of the recession, since 2008 the number of people using municipal social services has grown considerably,and today accounts for 15% of the population in the Barcelona province. In view of this situation, Barcelona Provincial Council decided to intervene to help municipalities respond to these demands.

• To provide a comprehensive programme to cover people’s basic needs in order to combat poverty and debt, because when basic needs are not covered it is difficult to implement processes to encourage social inclusion and access to work, in addition to the fact that this constitutes a risk for health and creates more inequalities.

• To adopt a multi-dimensional approach to poverty, including social, economic and environmental aspects, and give a coordinated response.

The project consists of three programmes with different, but related, objectives, aiming a social, inclusive, cohesioned and sustainable society where no one is left behind and everybody has equal opportunities:

• The Home Debt Intermediation Service (SIDH) offers free information, advice and mediation with financial entities and large property owners for individuals and families at risk of losing their home because of difficulties in meeting the cost of mortgage repayments or rent, with the aim to prevent, as far as possible, families losing their homes.

• The social cash card is a debit card that local social services give to socially vulnerable people with the aim that they can buy food and other basic necessities (personal hygiene, nappies, pharmaceutical products etc.) to access fresh food products, healthy food, and other basic needs and ensure they are not stigmatised by being associated with charitable centres providing food.

• The programme for audits and intervention in homes affected by fuel poverty is intended to provide support for local councils in launching programmes to prevent this sort of poverty, by encouraging more efficient use of energy and training the individuals and families affected. It aims to improve energy efficiency in homes affected by fuel poverty, reducing their utilities bills and improving the quality of life of the occupants.

It is an all-encompassing project involving different departments of Barcelona Provincial Council, representing the housing sector and social and environmental services, plus other agencies: official bodies (municipalities, supramunicipal bodies, the Government of Catalonia), private companies, lawyers' associations, financial entities and social entities.
The entire project is developed in network with the 311 municipalities of the Barcelona province. The programme is also based on coordination between different departments and sections dealing with social services, housing and environmental in each municipality.

The project was developed in 2016, improving some existing services; developing new services for needs which had not yet been covered; and providing a comprehensive response to covering the basic needs of socially vulnerable families.

• The Home Debt Intermediation Service (SIDH) has been in operation since December 2012. It was created through an agreement between Barcelona Provincial Council and the Government of Catalonia.

The housing agency Ofideute already existed in Catalonia to advise people affected by housing mortgage debt, but the recession led to much greater pressure on this organisation, and it had only one office in Barcelona, making access to it difficult for those living in other municipalities. The SIDH was thus created with the aim of extending the service to other municipalities.

Barcelona Provincial Council has reached agreements with municipal and supramunicipal bodies to host the service in their areas. At the same time, agreements have been signed with lawyers' associations in Barcelona so that the service can be provided.

With effect from 2016 the programme was extended to requests linked to rent-related indebtedness, as this is a growing problem and the cause of many evictions in Catalonia.

• In January 2015, the social cash card was created via a cooperation agreement with a financial entity and the social organisation Càritas, to provide a response to growing food needs via a public benefits model that contributes to greater dignity among recipients.

Barcelona Provincial Council supplies to those councils that request them debit cards that can only be used in establishments that have a national economic activity code corresponding to food. Local social services in each municipality issue the cards with the amount agreed in the working plan to socially vulnerable families. In 2016 their use was extended to pharmaceutical products, items purchased from opticians and educational material.

Agreements were also reached with local shops for discounts linked to the card to be introduced, with a view to fostering social inclusion and the development of the local economy. The beneficiaries also take part in training and empowerment projects related to food and domestic management.

• During 2016 a strategic project was developed with a view to attending to basic social needs, incorporating the two existing programmes and designing a third programme to deal with fuel poverty. This strategic project was named the 'Action Plan Against Poverty'.

• In March 2017, a programme of audits and intervention in homes affected by fuel poverty was launched. The programme is offered via the Social Welfare Catalogue of Services, the main instrument providing technical and financial support to local government bodies in Barcelona province.

Social Services in participating municipalities detect families affected by fuel poverty, inform them about the programme and obtain their consent to participate. Their details are passed to specialist companies contracted by Barcelona Provincial Council which carry out home visits. Individual homes are visited and assessed and energy efficiency measures are implemented. Group training workshops are also organised. The Council coordinates and evaluates the programme, working closely in conjunction with municipal services.

The project has directly helped socially vulnerable families in municipalities in the province of Barcelona, thereby contributing to their social inclusion.

Six levels of impact can be identified:

a) Covering basic social needs: the follow up of the impact is linked with the SDGs as it showed in this fact sheet: (See table in photos)

b) Empowerment. The project involves the transfer of knowledge and skills and the provision of tools (training, advice, guidance…) so that those who are vulnerable can improve their situation and quality of life, specially women who are the main beneficiaries of the project (69% at the Audits Program)

c) Rights- based approach and dignity: The Action Plan Against Poverty has helped to cover the basic needs of social vulnerable persons ensuring users retain their dignity and not being stigmatized (avoiding evictions, allowing buying food in ordinary establishments) and empowered them with regard to knowledge and defence of their social rights, in particular regarding the right to fuel; the right to accessible, healthy and appropriate food; and the right to housing.

The program is based on a rights-based approach in the framework of the “right to the city”, which tries to leaving no-one behind (Habitat III and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development). Access to basic services is an important issue, as is generally the first line of defence and resilience-building against extreme poverty.

d) Impact on consumption habits (including workshops on healthy eating, the efficient use of energy...) to encourage more sustainable consumption (food, energy, etc.)

e) Prevention and detection of risks of social exclusion. The project emphasises prevention by intervening at an early stage when there are problems of indebtedness related to housing or utilities. Moreover, through personalised assistance and access to people’s homes it is possible to detect risk situations and draw up a plan for municipal social services to take action and track the situation.

f) Creating local networks: the project has reinforced the networks in municipalities (social services, other services, social entities…) to tackle the coverture of basic needs.

The enabling factors are related to the willing of municipalities of the province of Barcelona to focus on tackling poverty and developing new approaches, from a preventive and muldimensional point of view. That helped to stablish the alliances needed for developing the project. There was also a financial commitment of Diputació de Barcelona for allocating resources to the project and a willing of cooperating with other institutions for implementing it.

The constraints were related to the changing legislation in Spain and Catalonia regarding housing and energy poverty, which made more difficult the assessment to citizens. Diputació de Barcelona (lawyer department) and lawyers associations in Barcelona province worked together to clarify to the municipalities and to the program the legal framework. Other difficulty was related to the fast changing of social needs, but the proximity of municipalities to the citizens allowed detecting these changes and adapting the program.

Finally, the lack of competences of municipalities in housing and energy makes difficult to develop actions that can have a broader and structural impact in ending poverty. For this reason it was a key point of the project to build alliances with other levels of government.

The implementation of the project is encouraged by Barcelona Provincial Council and the 311 province's municipalities can join the scheme on a voluntary basis. The continued high level of participation by municipalities is indicative of the project's importance and its social impact in the region, which guarantees its sustainability.
Because it is linked to the detection of needs by municipal social services and continuous interaction between them and Barcelona Provincial Council via various channels (advice, surveys, catalogue of services, etc.), the project can adapt to new needs (for example, by increasing the range of products covered by the cash card, or extending advice and mediation to rent-related indebtedness under the Home Debt Intermediation Service). This flexibility is also a key point for its sustainability.
The "Action Plan Against Poverty" project has characteristics that allow it to be rolled out or adapted to other contexts, assuring its replicability, especially on the municipal or supramunicipal level, where a first response is given to cases in which basic social needs have to be covered.
The project is implemented by networking between agents at different levels of government, including local government, municipal social services, second-level local authorities and regional governments, and the third sector. All that needs to be transferred, therefore, is knowledge and a method of working that is systematised and well documented, and can be adapted to each particular situation. In this sense, there are different experiences of replicability.
A delegation representing the Public Centre for Social Action (OCMW) in Antwerp, Belgium, visited the Home Debt Intermediation Service in October 2017 as part of a programme of exchange visits by the European Social Network with a view to introducing a similar service to assist families who are in debt.
We should also point out that in 2015 the Home Debt Intermediation Service was chosen as a case study in the framework of the project 'Improve: Poverty, Social Policy and Innovation', financed by the EU's 7th Framework Programme. In the same year it won the EPSA award for best supra-local administrative practice. It has also been included as an example of the application of SDGs in the report 'Towards the Localisation of SDGs' drawn up by United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).
In connection with fuel poverty, in 2016, Barcelona Provincial Council led the HEPS Project ('Design of a project for intervention in homes affected by energy poverty, from the perspective of housing, energy, poverty and health'), financed by the Arco Latino network, with a view to transferring the programme for audits and intervention in homes affected by fuel poverty to other locations in the Mediterranean and improving the model for intervention.
The programme for audits and intervention in homes affected by fuel poverty was also mentioned as good practice by the EU Energy Poverty Observatory (EPOV), and we are part of the SDGs group of the European Social Network to be involved in the process of implementation of SDG1 at the local level.

The Action Plan Against Poverty is one of the 4 pilot projects of Diputació de Barcelona for localising SDGs in a supralocal institution, with potential impact over the 311 municipalities of the province.
The project aims to contribute, through local government bodies and their social services, to the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals in the three dimensions of sustainable development (Environmental, Economic and Social), in particular:
• SDG 1 'End poverty in all its forms everywhere' and SDG 2: 'End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture', as basic social services are doing an important role in combating poverty by detecting situations of vulnerability and covering basic needs.
Tthere are other SDGs related with the project:
• SDG 10 'Reduce inequality within and among countries', as strong basic social services enable us to reduce social inequality via the transfer of resources, services and support, so that those who are most vulnerable have the opportunity to cover their basic needs. They also play an important role in preventing and tackling situations of risk that could lead to social exclusion and more inequality.
• SDG 11 'Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable'. The project aims to reinforce the role of social services as agents supporting people’s social inclusion, training and empowerment and making individuals and communities more resilient.

The project is based on promoting programmes to prevent situations of indebtedness and difficulties for families in covering basic needs, via models of assistance that are dignifying and sustainable, based on alternative methods for resolving conflict (mediation), the efficient use of energy and normalised access to food.
To achieve it, the project is implemented by means of coordination between ministries and government bodies, networking with social organisations and specialist entities and optimisation of the use of public and private resources.
Finally, it provides a personalised, specialist advice service through the usual assistance points (social services, housing, consumer affairs - there is no parallel network -) and supports the empowerment of users regarding their social rights, which has helped to deal with a social emergency and improve the quality of life and welfare of socially vulnerable people.
The Action Plan Against Poverty is, therefore, a good solution because of the comprehensive and multidimensional approach with which it tackles poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability, which are among the most serious problems affecting cities and regions.
Through this project, Barcelona Provincial Council helps local governments to deal with the challenges of reducing inequality, fighting poverty and increasing resilience and affordable energy, as reflected in various global agendas such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda.
This good practice can serve to guide other regions facing similar challenges and act as a starting point for thought and discussion, so that community policies that contribute to people’s welfare can be developed.
The experience is also an example of the localization of the SDG based on the need to find solutions at the local level for the global challenges and objectives.

• Video of the Home Debt Intermediation Service (SIDH)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jw2LYIiy_s
Presentation of the Housing Debt Mediation Service, which since 2012 offers advice and intermediation free of charge for people who have housing debts, coming from the mortgage or the rent. SIDH is implemented by the Barcelona Provincial Council in cooperation with the government of Catalonia, municipalities and county councils, and the eight lawyer associations in Barcelona province.

• Website of the Home Debt Intermediation Service (SIDH)
https://www.diba.cat/es/web/benestar/sidh

• Video of the programme for audits and intervention in homes affected by fuel poverty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMT788clcFA&list=PLktlOkMIU3E2J0JVg9lsyOKmAokGHv7-j
Service aimed at strengthening preventive and educational responses at the local level to the increasing situations of energy poverty among the population of the province of Barcelona. It is an intersectional program promoted by the departments of Welfare, Housing and Environmental of Diputació de Barcelona. Its goals are to improve the energy efficiency of the houses in situations of energy poverty; reduce the cost of basic supplies (electricity, water and gas or other fuels) and improve the quality of life of the beneficiaries.

• Website of the programme for audits and intervention in homes affected by fuel poverty
https://www.diba.cat/es/web/benestar/auditories

• Website of the social cash card program
https://www.diba.cat/es/web/benestar/targeta-moneder

• Campaign from Diputació de Barcelona regarding the SDGs

https://www.diba.cat/en/web/ods/la-diputacio-amb-els-ods
Barcelona Provincial Council is committed to making an active contribution to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals (SDG), supporting their implementation throughout the province of Barcelona. It reaffirms its commitment to continue supporting initiatives that will help all the areas and dimensions of the SDGs to be achieved. Barcelona Provincial Council also hopes to lead innovation in the implementation of the SDGs. Its role as a network of municipalities means it is ideally placed to achieve this aim. The Provincial Council is developing a strategy for implementing the SDGs in three action areas with three working approaches.