UNDP Launches New Provincial Program Office
VIVAnews - The UNDP ART Gold Indonesia (AGI) and the Gorontalo Provincial Government announced, on Tuesday, the launching the UNDP Provincial Programme Office in Gorontalo, in an effort to support national policies and local practice in the field of regional and provincial development. In addition, the office will serve to facilitate international development cooperation in the Province.
“We are proud to host this unique partnership with UNDP ART Gold Indonesia,” stated Gorontalo Governor, Fadel Mohamad, during a press conference in his office, as quoted from a press release received by VIVAnews, Wednesday, Feb. 18.
“At a time when there is growing uncertainty regarding the realization of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, this kind of initiative is a powerful new mechanism to promote coordination among development partners, hence increasing the effectiveness in achieving these goals.” added the governor.
Speaking before the press, UNDP ART Gold Country Technical Advisor for Indonesia, Zeina Mogharbel Vallès said that establishing the provincial program office was a decisive step forward in the implementation of AGI program activities in the country.
“It is clearly reflects the commitment of Gorontalo provincial government to strengthen the coherence and effectiveness of international development cooperation. We hope that UNDP ART GOLD will contribute to achieve an integral, multi-sectoral and participatory provincial development planning, as well as become a tool to improve the province’s role as the coordinator of economic, social, education, health and environmental sectors,” Ms. Mogharbel Vallès explained in Gorontalo.
Through this provincial program office, AGI will be coordinating not only with the local government, but also with other various decentralized cooperation development actors from the North and South, to ensure that needs related to regional development are addressed.
The office is expected to support the local government in the formulation of policy guidelines and recommendations, identify and address key gaps, and achieve the internationally agreed development goals. In addition, it should strengthen linkages between Gorontalo province and AGI’s global networks for resource mobilization.
AGI’s intervention in the province started in 2008 where the Programme sponsored Gorontalo’s participation in the Second International Convention for Local and Territorial Development in Tangiers, Morocco in May 2008. From there, AGI also facilitated and established the South-South Cooperation initiative between Gorontalo and Sri Lanka’s Southern Province, as a part its global effort to promote cooperation between developing countries in the areas of good governance, economic development and poverty reduction. The South-South Cooperation between the two regions was officially launched in Jakarta on September 2008.
In December 2008, an official visit of Sri Lankan delegation to Indonesia took place. Throughout December 2008 to January 2009, a series of workshops were held in Gorontalo on ART GOLD methodology and instruments, attended by the future members of the Provincial Working Group. One of the first partnerships facilitated by ART GOLD Indonesia has been in the Higher Education sector, with the signature of a letter of intentions between the Gorontalo State University and the Italian university of Bicocca, based in Milan.
ART is derived from a French acronym for “Support to territorial and thematic networks of human development cooperation”. It helps regional and local authorities in the South and North to set up alliances and partnerships in support of local development, with programs currently underway in more than a dozen developing countries. Sri Lanka and Indonesia are the first two Asian countries in which ART Gold operates.
In Gorontalo, AGI will facilitate and coordinate the formulation of Provincial Development Guidelines and Provincial Yearly Provincial Action Plans through the Provincial Working Group. These guidelines, aligned with the MDGs, can tackle any of the five main sectors of ART GOLD intervention: Governance, Local Economic Development, Welfare Services (Health and education), Environment, and Cultural Development.
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