IX Award Best Regional Practices
Gonzalo Pizarro y Alexandra Fawzi, SDG Integration Team, UNDP.
Recognizing the importance of regional best practices for sustainable development
In our quest for sustainable and equitable progress, the international community has defined a global vision, embodied in the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it contains.
How do we get there? That is a question that has no predefined answer. It is context dependent, and therefore what holds true in one place is not necessarily true somewhere else. For inspiration, we have traditionally looked to broad global or national strategies. However, we must not overlook the pivotal role of local and regional governments in driving our collective future. For the successful realization of sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda, it is imperative that development is not just conceptualized, but translated and implemented at local and regional levels.
This is why ORUFOGAR’s Regional Best Practices award is a strategic endeavor. It allows to highlight and give a platform to good practices, which have proven to work at regional level. It also allows for us to learn, crowdsourcing the solutions, and making the context real.
To fully comprehend the value of the award that ORU Fogar calls every year, it is essential to define what constitutes a good public management practice. A good practice is an activity or process undertaken by a regional authority that has produced noteworthy results in public management and that can be replicated in other organizations to improve their effectiveness, efficiency, and innovation for the benefit of the public good.
It is critical to recognize and strengthen these regional good practices, emphasizing their role as catalysts for sustainable development and societal improvement.
Why catalysts? They embody the essence of effectiveness, efficiency, and innovation. The contest enables different regions to learn from one another. Indeed, it allows moving from status quo to actual planning and action phase towards the achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sharing good practices with other regions can inspire innovation, giving the key and providing a blueprint to others to adapt the practice to local context.
The collaboration of UNDP with ORU Fogar is embedded in UNDP's main objective, expressed in its strategic plan, which is to support countries in achieving the profound transformations needed to move towards sustainable development, as expressed in the SDGs. Capacity building and knowledge sharing are at the core of UNDP’s mandate as it supports the identification, promotion, and replication of successful practices. By working with various levels of government, UNDP facilitates the identification of effective solutions tailored to each location's specific needs and contexts.
This is precisely the Award's aim: to recognize and reward five outstanding best practices, to promote and encourage initiatives implemented by regional governments to improve the quality of services provided to citizens.
The collaboration between organizations like UNDP, ORU Fogar, and intermediate governments ensures that these practices are shared and adapted, accelerating the journey towards a more sustainable and equitable future for all. It is crucial to push boundaries to inspire more regions and localities around the world to share and adopt good practices, to foster a global movement dedicated to the well-being of societies and the progress towards sustainable development. Therein lies the importance of promoting the kind of initiatives ORU Fogar undertakes, such as this awards call.
