5 reasons to attend ORU’s Regional Summit in Rio

The VII World Summit of Regional Governments that ORU Fogar is organising on the 14th and 15th of April 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be a large-scale international event. There are many reasons why governments and regional networks the world over would want to attend and take part in the meeting, but let’s outline the five overriding reasons: 

1. Never before have the regional governments gathered to talk about themselves. ORU Fogar’s assemblies and summits have usually been devoted to discussing the global agenda, whether focusing on the Millenium agenda, climate change or food security. The years of economic crisis have brought about a debate on decentralisation in most countries. This Summit will allow to share all these national debates and mainly explore how the intermediate governments can be more efficient in these times of economic crisis. Six thematic areas will address issues such as: What powers are the intermediate governments able to better implement? How are they funded? How should they coordinate with the nation-state and the local governments? What role do they have in the protection of cultural diversity and in managing the territory?
   
   
2. The Summit will be attended by regional leaders the world over. Hosted by the Governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fernando Pezão, governors from America, Africa and Europe will take part in it. Participation is not only open to political leaders, but also to stakeholders in all spheres of the regional world. It will be a unique opportunity to learn and share regionalisation and decentralisation-related experiences from many corners of the globe.   
   
   
3. It will provide a participatory exchange platform, a work and “Practical Learning” space where attendees will become participants. An interactive survey system will allow the users to give their opinion and answer the questions raised by the speakers by means of their own mobile devices, so that afterwards results can be analysed and discussed jointly. Also, the Awards Ceremony of the First Regional Good Practices Award, coorganised with the UNDP, will present the best cases of policies implemented by regional governments having had positive results in their public management and having the capacity to be replicated in other institutions.
   
   
4. It seeks to exert an influence, from the intermediate level, on the global agenda. It seeks to discuss and set, among others, a joint positioning of the regional world towards the 3rd Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), which will be held in Quito in October this year. It will also promote the signature of the RegionsAdapt initiative, launched by the governments of Rio de Janeiro and Catalonia with the support from nrg4SD and The Climate Group, aimed at the adoption of a joint climate change adaptation program. 
   
   
5. It will allow to present the family of the United Regions Organisation (ORU Fogar), the deployment of its work lines and the new services put at its members’ disposal. All governments that are not still part of it will be invited to join its global network of regions.  

The VII World Summit of Regional Networks, untitled “Regional governments, how can we become more effective?”, will take place on the 14th and 15th April at the Guanabara Palace in Rio de Janeiro. Registrations can be completed online at oru2016assembly.eventbrite.es. The complete program and the information on the registration process are available at ORU’s website. See you in Rio!