ORU’s Work Group on the 2030 Agenda meets with UNDP

Representatives of the group led by the Catalan Government welcomed Johannes Krassnitzer to discuss the role of regions in SDG localisation 

Last 15th of March, a meeting between members of ORU Fogar’s Work Group on the 2030 Agenda and Johannes Krassnitzer, coordinator of the UNDP ART Iniciative, was held in Barcelona. Technical representatives of the Catalan Government, the Barcelona Provincial Government, the Basque Government and the network nrg4SD attended the meeting, as well as ORU Fogar’s Secretary General, Carles Llorens.

During the meeting, several items concerning the need to implement the global agendas elaborated in the recent years under the umbrella of the UN were discussed. Johannes Krassnitzer attached special importance to the 2030 Agenda implementation and to the role that regions should play in it. He explained that, at present, there is a certain vagueness as of the profile of the intermediate governments in the localisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), even though certain regions are already well under way and have baseline work schemes. 

The regions present considered that the framework of the SDGs provides indeed a good opportunity for regional governments to carry out a more harmonised work and to improve their international positioning on the development cooperation system; and they agreed to integrate the issue in their work plan, identifying to this effect the most advanced regions and constituting with them a driving core that would allow to give shape to a broader initiative. This process, which could result in a common catalogue of the regions functions in relation to the SDGs, must also allow for a good positioning on the Aid Effectiveness agenda, where ORU Fogar had had a high profile that would be positive to regain. 

The meeting also covered other topics, as the progress of the RIS3-AL program, led by Catalonia with EU funds, for the promotion of Smart specialization strategies in Latin America.