ORU Fogar's Database of Good Practices already has 30 projects of excellence

By awarding the VI edition to 5 new best practices on December 2, there are already 30 projects that appear in the Database of ORU Fogar’s website. These are excellent projects that the regions implemented to promote one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The Award, always organized by ORU Fogar and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), began in 2016 and has highlighted projects related to gender, health, social integration, economic activity development, energy transition policies or food safety.

Already listed in the Database, one can note that a very high percentage of projects are dedicated, in whole or in part, to digital or technological issues. From those who seek to bring connectivity to all citizens or territories, such as those of Mexico City and the Provincial Government of Guayas, Ecuador, which deserved two of the awards of the VI edition, to the CareWell project of the Basque Country, which It is an exercise in taking advantage of all the technological resources to care for the chronically ill in their health system.

Many of these projects, with this large technological component, are dedicated to facilitating citizen participation and ensuring the transparency of public management: such as the Observatory of the participation of Emilia Romagna or “Io Trentino”, a project in this Italian region that facilitates the relationship of the citizen with the administration. On the other hand, deserves to be stressed, the project from Catalonia that, in record time and driven by COVID, turned employment offices from face-to-face into remote.

All projects must be able to prove results after a period of operation, at the same time they must be able to be replicated by other regions. Thus, all the Database's projects, upon being awarded, passed the evaluation of a jury of 10 experts in public development policies. This jury is made up, each year, by people who work well in the field of United Nations agencies, or in the academic field.

The European and American regions account for the majority of the Database's 30 projects. Among the European regions it stands out that the Basque Country has deserved the award on various occasions. In America, the states of Mexico and the departments of Colombia stand out among the winners. It should be noted, on the other hand, that one of the awards was deserved by the Pyrenean Observatory of Climate Change, presented by the Pyrenees Work Community, an organization that includes French and Spanish regions, as well as the Principality of Andorra. A notable food security project of the Mancomunidad de los Andes dedicated to the production and commercialization of quinoa was also awarded.

At the award ceremony of the VI edition, the president of ORU Fogar, Rachid El Abdi, regretted that, once again, no good practice of any regional government of Africa has won an award, with which none of the 30 projects of the Database is African. After the verification, he committed himself to disseminate the announcement of the VII Award. Shortly, and during this month of January, the VII Award for Best Regional Practices 2022 will be announced.

Access to the Bank of Good Practices: here