ORU Fogar and UNDP Best Practices Award Highlights Transparency and Economic Development Projects
For the second year in a row, the ceremony will present the winning projects of the Regional Best Practices Award, convened by ORU Fogar and the United Nations Development Program, UNDP Art, and will take place via an online platform. Usually, the presentation and the award ceremony take place during ORU Fogar’s annual assembly and which gives the winners the opportunity to present their good practice, before it can be registered in ORU Fogar’s bank of Best Practices.
The jury presided over by Johannes Krasnitzer, director of UNDP Art, is formed of experts in development from various countries, the Best Practices Award highlights projects that have contributed to the advancement of one or more, Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda.
On this occasion, three out of the five practices awarded were dedicated to facilitating information and citizen participation in a transparent framework. The Italian region of Emilia-Romagna presented the project "Participation Observatory (OPER)" which has a very powerful virtual platform, constitutes an instrument of quality citizen participation. Its goal is to ensure that debate and dialogue are translated into concrete public policies.
Also in Europe, another of the winning projects the “Creation of a remote support plan for the care of citizens in the face of the closure of employment offices due to COVID-19” was presented by the Generalitat of Catalonia. Faced with the health emergency of COVID-19 and the closure of all Employment Offices, a Remote Support Plan was designed with a Call Center, online forms and the digitization of the entire information system of the Catalan Employment Service to guarantee the health of users and employees.
In a completely different setting, the Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Provincial Government (Ecuador) presented the “Local Information System Project (SIL). ‘On the road to Open Government’”. It is both a program that allows the building of a management system of statistical and geographic information and the access to its services. It is the backbone of a tool that enables transparency, interaction between government and citizens and the fight against corruption.
And finally, the two other practices were dedicated to promoting the development, from two different points of view. The Argentinean province of Cordoba, presented the project “Strengthening and Stimulation of a Territorial Ecosystem of Innovation and Entrepreneurship through the Creation of a Public-private Agency in the Province”. Thanks to this governmental agency in which the business sector, the scientific/technological and academic one participate in, the province promoted 4 Business Accelerators, more than 50 Angel Investors and 12 Business Incubators. The Agency has also favored economic internationalization with various business missions.
Of all the awarded projects, the most original one and the one that obtained the best score was presented by the Province of Cajamarca in Peru: “School-Workshop San Antonio de Cajamarca - Development and Social Inclusion of Young People living in poverty through the 'Identity and Cultural Heritage’; ‘Heritage, Development and Social Inclusion'”. This school was created in 2017 to train young people from vulnerable populations in traditional neighborhoods, free of charge, in traditional professions related to the conservation of cultural heritage and associated economic activities. Thus, the project contributes to the integration of young people, but also to value the management of the historical heritage of Cajamarca, both Inca and colonial.
The ceremony which will award this distinction to the five regional best practices will be held online through the Zoom platform on Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. Lima time, 11:00 a.m. Buenos Aires time and 4:00 p.m. Barcelona time.
