A new year begins, with a new development agenda to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development comes into force, defining with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a development framework for the next fifteen years.
While we need to face critical challenges, many of them being global concerns with a strong local impact, Local and Regional Governments (LRGs) will continue to be key in fulfilling the new development agenda. They have a critical role in setting priorities, executing plans, monitoring results and engaging with local businesses and communities, especially with the emergence of more deconcentrated and decentralized forms of governance.
Over the years, the major role played by LRGs in addressing complex challenges and achieving development impact has been increasingly recognized. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been working across countries and continents, hand in hand with LRGs and their associations, to accompany them in this journey to tackle the territories’ challenges and to respond to local priorities. In this regard, peer-to-peer learning and exchange of experiences, innovation and know-how, which already exists in the territories, represent an important resource to tackle development challenges and to achieve the expected development outcomes.
In this framework, the ‘First Regional Good Practices Award’, launched by ORU Fogar in partnership with UNDP, is an excellent opportunity to share original approaches as well as effective and efficient solutions from regional governance stakeholders to contribute to development and, hence, to the well-being of the citizens.
As never before, it is evident that many LRGs have achieved good results in planning strategies for local economic development, in responding to the citizens’ demands, especially of youth, and in delivering good services. Unfortunately, this knowledge often remains an isolated case and the sharing of innovative approaches remains a missed opportunity. The ‘First Regional Good Practices Award’ provides a very good chance to explore and share practices that have increased the effectiveness, efficiency and innovation in public management and have contributed to achieve important development results, and more importantly, to place them at the disposal of all regions, provinces, federal states and networks of regional governments. Through the sharing of ideas, approaches and concrete instruments for good regional public management, the contest will also be an excellent occasion to systematize the good practices developed so far and to facilitate their possible replication by other constituencies in other regions, according to the different national and local contexts.
I would like to encourage all relevant stakeholders to contribute, without hesitation, to this exercise: it is an opportunity not to be missed to strongly contribute to the citizens’ well-being by addressing local, national and global development challenges, and of course to be recognized for the work done.
Giovanni Camilleri
UNDP ART Initiative – Hub for Territorial Partnerships Coordinator
