The project on Human Security and Regional Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), initiated by the LAC Office in 2001, has established a sound network of governmental and academic institutions, through which a variety of training and diffusion workshops have been implemented. Chile hosted the first active node of the network at the University of Viña del Mar, supported by the Blas Pascal University (UBP) of Córdoba, Argentina. The two universities, in association with governmental institutions of Chile, and its more recent partners, the Municipality of Milan, Italy and the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), have jointly provided financial and/or institutional support for the materialization of a Training Programme on Urban and Regional Projects in Human Security. This programme, which includes distance learning workshops available to interested parties among the LAC countries, was launched on 9 November 2005 through a workshop held at ECLAC in Santiago, Chile.

Around seventy individuals participated in the workshop, comprising representatives of governmental institutions of Chile (national and local), ECLAC, NGOs, academia, practitioners, and representatives of the authorities of the City of Milan, the University of Blas Pascal, JICA-Chile office, and of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The workshop facilitated the presentation, analysis, and discussion of the training aspects and material of the training programme. Main issues addressed were: (a) how the HS focus and framework of analysis is addressed in the formulation, design, evaluation and follow-up of the projects developed by course participants; (b) the main aspects emphasized by the HS concept, and the difference and similarities between the HS concept and other concepts as sustainable development, human development, human rights, quality of life; (c) HS indicators; and (d) the need for a new development paradigm based on HS.