Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 1
The largest ever UN gathering is now
history. On Friday June 22, the last
day of the Conference, representatives
of more than 180 governments
approved the outcome document of
the conference entitled “The Future
We Want.” If one reads the document,
clearly there is a reaffirmation of key
principles and agreements made in
1992. For example, a commitment to
sustainable development and putting
people, equity and inclusion at the
center of that effort; a recognition
that eradicating poverty is the
greatest global challenge facing the
world today and a sine qua non
element for sustainable development;
reemphasizing the importance of
democratic governance (rights,
freedom, gender equality, rule of law);
and acknowledging that sustainable
development can be achieved only if
different realm of policy inter-link and
articulate effectively, as well as the
joint work in alliance and partnership
of government, the private sector and
civil society organizations.
The Rio +20 document is also more
explicit about the role of sub-national
governments and governance in
sustainable development, as well as
issues related to transparency and
accountability. Both topics set the tone
for the enabling environment of
sustainable development, and highlight
the importance of institutions at all
levels of government and their capacity
to design and articulate policies and
action. Essentially, the adopted
document not only is consistent with
the Rio Principles, Agenda 21 and the
Johannesburg Plan of Implementation,
but it also sets the bar higher to
improve and strengthen the current
governance institutional framework. It
is clear that without effective
governance, sustainable development
is unattainable.
This was a key theme expressed by
Helen Clark, the UNDP Administrator,
at a lecture she offered in the
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in
March of this year in Singapore. The
UNDP Administrator highlighted
three elements of why governance is
today essential for sustainable
development. First, government at all
levels is in the business of promoting
development and expansion of
opportunities through “deliberate,
targeted, and pro-active planning and
delivery.” Second, sustainable
development and the resilience it
requires, is a complex and
multidimensional process that
necessarily involves effective
governance and government.
Therefore, as the UNDP administrator
highlighted, “challenges countries face
today demand policymaking which
views economic growth, poverty
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In this Issue Viewpoints Highlights Article - The Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public
Administration Performance Index (PAPI) 2011: Measuring Citizens’ Experiences
Event - The State of Civil Service and Human Resources in the Public Sector in Latin America
Thematic Web Site Golstat Welcome Agenda
Regional Centre LAC
Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 2
reduction, social development,
equity, and sustainability not as
competing goals to be traded off
against each other, but as
interconnected objectives which are
most effectively pursued together.”
And third, citizens more than ever
need to feel meaningfully engaged
with governments, informed about
policies and have the possibility to
participate in the decisions
taken by government that
affect their lives.
Therefore, transparent and
accountable government
matters for sustainable
development, as does the
existence of independent
institutions, which can hold
government to account. As
the UNDP administrator
highlighted, “fair, reliable,
and accountable governing
institutions build trust between
people and government and such
institutions need to be free of
corruption.”
As such, the key document that
emerged from Rio +20 called for
institutional reform to promote
sustainable development. This is not
about more government, but more
effective governance. Such call could
not be more relevant for the Latin
American and Caribbean region,
which is going through its longest
period of democratic regimes, and
unprecedented prosperity and levels
of human development. This is the
basis for sustainable development.
However, along with progress there is
also a growing citizen frustration with
the persistent wealth and power
inequality, and a growing citizen
insecurity and erosion of the rule of
law. The region not only remains the
most unequal in the world, but it also
shows three additional tendencies
that could directly affect resilience
and sustainable development. First,
the region remains highly centralized,
in spite of some progress in
delegation and desconcentration
some competencies to sub-national
governments; second, the region is
the most urbanized in the world; and
third, despite the impressive human
and economic development trends
and the array of anti-corruption
actors, tools and legal frameworks,
transparency indicators remain
relatively low in the region and the
perception of corruption remains
high.
Therefore, more effective and
accountable governance is needed in
the region, not only to respond to the
Framework of Action and Follow-up
of “The Future We Want,” but also to
manage the transition to a more
decentralized and transparent
region and to handle the
challenges of growing
urbanization. The aspirations of
Rio +20 provide the opportunity
for better governance at both
the national and sub-national
levels, rooted in basic principles
of transparency and
accountability. A centralized,
opaque and un-planned urban
growth could lead to a non-
sustainable future and cannot be an
option. Rio +20 has laid down the
ground for a long-term
transformation, and institutional
reform that offers an opportunity to
enhance governance accountability
capacity from the bottom-up.
The generation of an integrated and
strategic approach to strengthen sub-
national governance will be critical to
respond to already emerging and
potential challenges. For example,
unplanned urban sprawl and
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Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 3
population densities of cities and new
urban centers; extreme weather and
natural events including floods, fires
and natural disasters have further
heightened community awareness for
more effective land-use planning that
minimize risk; public transport that
supports fast and reliable transit
within and between urban centers;
supporting better urban design,
quality open and green space with
innovation and research in building
and construction to enhance wellbeing;
and regional and/or commonwealth
development opportunities to alleviate
pressure on capital cities and the
national government.
The sustainable development
implementation gap in the Latin
America and Caribbean region can
only be closed if capacities of sub-
national governments are enhanced.
For example, key capacities in terms
of identifying, managing and
mobilizing resources and designing
investment strategies. Similarly,
capacities are also needed to allocate
and re-distribute resources to ensure
efficiency and equity, and citizen
participation. Sustainable development
at the sub-national level also requires
more effective and adaptable
institutions in the public and private
sectors. It also requires innovative
urban planning and greater
entrepreneurship and clear
cooperation of all the spheres of
government. A new governance
xxxxxxx
design needs to emerge at the
country level, as to have effective
mechanisms to articulate multi-level
governance. There is a policy space
that is dysfunctional at the sub-
national level (municipalities,
parishes, and counties), as dealing
directly with national government
actors, as opposed to sub-national
actors, weakens sub-national
governance capacities. The
intermediate level of government
needs to be strengthened and/or
where non-existent, new and
effective institutional arrangements
need to be designed and
implemented. This can have
enormous potential to promote
sustainable development principles,
but is often not there and/or if it
exists is characterized by overlapping
and fragmented governance
structures. At this level it is important
to develop spatial strategies that
promote an infrastructure
configuration that maximizes sharing
and minimizes excessive mobility and
resource use.
The document “The Future we Want”
is also more explicit in terms of
accountability and transparency.
Accountability is seen as a means and
ends for a broad range of actors, such
as governments, the business/private
sector, the non-governmental sector
and even the donors, including the
United Nations System. Transparency
is seen as a complementary means
and ends, related in particular to the
policy making process, citizen
participation and budget and financial
information. It is impossible to undo
the culture of unaccountability with
the stroke of a magic wand. The
current institutional weave and its
interfaces or lack thereof, cannot be
changed overnight. It is a process
that requires leadership, and long-
term dedicated commitment. What is
needed is a set of drastic incremental
steps to begin creating an alternative
culture of accountability that refines,
reinforces and rewards the habits of
accountability.
Unlike 1992, Rio +20 provided an
opportunity to take stock and to
move forward an agenda to achieve
sustainable development. Amidst
progress and set-backs of the last 20
years, it was an opportunity to renew
political commitments and respect of
previous commitments and building
on the Rio principles, Agenda 21 and
the Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation. Beyond the
multiple demands and the mixed
media coverage, the outcome of the
Rio +20 has injected significant
impetus towards strengthening sub-
national governance and
accountability. And frankly it cannot
be only about the adopted document,
the differences between 1992 and
2012 or the mixed reactions to the
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Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 4
outcome. Ultimately, actions
speak louder than words.
Sustainable development
depends on leadership and
initiative from governments,
the private sector, NGOs,
academic and educational
organizations and donors
working together to enhance
governance capacities for
sustainable development.
There are already many
pledges and commitments
made for the Rio +20 agenda. The
Sustainable Energy for All initiative
for example, and other pledges were
made for green economy and disaster
reduction, and to deal with
desertification. There was a pledge
to plant 100 million trees by 2017,
where more than 7,000 schools in
150 countries are said to participate.
The greatest commitments came
from schools and universities, with
nearly 250 pledges, many in kind,
such as degree programs, campus eco
representatives, and reducing the
ecological footprint (see more
commitments here)
The Rio +20 document also provides
explicitly a number of clues to
zzzzzzzzz
strengthen subnational
governments. Section E of the
document, with numerals 97-
103, lay down a number of
elements to enhance sub-
national governance and
accountability. There has
been already some
constructive reaction from
the Latin American
Federation of Cities,
Municipalities and Local
Government Associations-
FLACMA, the UCLG, the joint
statement, and FOGAR.
A strong signal could be sent, if in the
region more commitments and
pledges are made and implemented
to strengthen sub-national
governance and accountability for
sustainable development.
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Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 5
The Use of the Integrated Financial Management System as a Financial Tool for Transparency and Control by Society IADB March 2012.
The study analyzes and discusses the role of the Integrated Financial Management System as an inducer of transparency and control by the society, it serves as a tool for generating reliable and accurate information; and the technological aspects to produce and disseminate the State´s financial information. Through online search, the transparency web sites of 18 countries in Latin America were evaluated, with the purpose of identifying three types of requirements related with: (i) the disclosure of contents on public finances management; (ii) availability of historical and timely information ; and (iii) usability and accessibility. The results show a positive evolution of fiscal transparency in the majority of the countries evaluated. The study identifies three preconditions for greater fiscal transparency: (i) the public financial management (PFM) needs of the Integrated Financial Management System as an integrator operating system of all the other systems, using Public Accounting as a tool for registering and integrating information from the (PFM); (ii) Institutional capacity generated by qualified human resources; and (iii) the disclosure of public information to the society as an instrument of social audit.
[To download click here] Linking Local Government Discretion and Accountability in Decentralization Serdar Yilmaz, Yakup Beris and Rodrigo Serrano-Berthet. Development Policy Review, Blackwell Publishing, 2010. This paper suggests a methodology to analyze the links between local government discretion and accountability. It integrates both supply side (public sector) and demand side (social) perspectives, in three dimensions: political, administrative, and fiscal. From the analysis of existing literature and taking as an example cases from Asia and Latin America, it is argued that the relationship between local discretion and accountability is far more complex than accountability being an automatic outcome of increased discretion. In fact, increasing resources allocated for public services and expanding local government discretion over the use of these resources require a special attention to fixing accountability incentive structures. Otherwise, decentralization efforts will most likely not convert into more accountable governments. As decentralization reforms become more widespread across the world, they often try to increase the autonomy and discretion of local governments without thinking through bout the incentive structure of accountability that are crucial to obtain more responsive and governments. Even when accountability is taking into consideration, the efforts tend to emphasize only internal governmental mechanisms, neglecting external and citizen vigilance and political oversight, or vice versa. In addition, the relationship between discretion and accountability in decentralization reform is further complicated when fiscal, administrative and political aspects are separated – a point often missed in such reform efforts.
[To download click here]
Sustainable Development and Sub-national Governments: Going Beyond Symbolic Politics? Sander Happaerts Research Institute for Work and Society (HIVA) 2012. This paper takes a closer look at the sustainable development policies of subnational governments. In the past decades many sub-national governments have taken many concrete initiatives to institutionalize sustainable development. The paper shows that most subnational policies are characterized by symbolic politics, which means that they have a high political-strategic effectiveness, but low impact effectiveness. Those symbolic politics can be explained by two dynamics. First, sub-national governments lack an overall political will to pursue fundamental changes for sustainable development, although they perceive the need to do something’ about it. Second, symbolic politics are favored by the sub-national governments’ ambition to follow international standards. The paper has two sections; the first section presents a comparative case study analysis of five subnational governments: Quebec (Canada), Flanders (Belgium), Wallonia (Belgium), North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) and North Holland (the Netherlands). The second section offers a conceptual framework of symbolic politics. Finally, the paper also looks ahead to the possible impact of Rio+20 and the new concepts that the summit might endorse, such as “green economy.”
[To download click here]
Towards an Accountability Policy in Mexico Superior Audit of the Federation/CIDE/RRC 2011. This book is the result of the discussions and presentations in the framework of the International Seminar "Towards an Accountability Policy in Mexico” that was held in August 2011 in Mexico, organized by the Accountability Network of Mexico (RCC), a coalition of about 50 organizations committed to the topic of accountability. The objective of the Seminar was to define and discuss the causes of the problem that generate lack of accountability in Mexico. The Book is a product of the Seminar and contains 7 articles that analyze various issues and dimensions of accountability. It is recognized that the reforms achieved in the last few decades have created a set of public expenditure oversight institutions, which has allowed evaluation of public policies, to measure government´s performance and analyze the impact of access to government information. Similarly, there is an acknowledgement that civil society has gained more and better capabilities to participate in public life, and demand accountability. In spite of this progress, one of the main conclusions of the book is that to overcome the accountability challenges in Mexico is not necessary to have more laws and uncoordinated entities, but instead to build an articulated institutional framework, concrete and with well-defined objectives.
[To download click here]
Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 6
A country’s transition from low-income to middle-income
status implies a shift in the relationship between
government agencies and civil society organizations in the
way they interact to each other. In low-income countries,
policymakers generally rely on anecdotal
evidence/narrative to assess the quality of its public
administration and public services delivery, but this
information is often misleading and at best incomplete.
To confront the new social, economic and institutional
challenges, policy-makers need to be informed; citizens
(i.e. civil society) with information are empowered, and an
informed/empowered citizen can have a greater
responsibility towards his/her community and country.
The relationship between governments and citizens has
shifted in most developing countries in the last decade,
and Viet Nam is not an exception. The better educated
and informed citizens are the better and more efficient
administrative services they will demand from
governments. Nowadays, as Viet Nam enters into the
range of middle
income countries,
citizens increasingly
demand a public
administration
system free of
bureaucratic and
administrative corruption, patronage, nepotism, diversion
and stealing of public funds. Similarly, they demand public
administration systems that promote development and
equity, more participation in the decision-making
processes of public policies, as well as on their
implementation and monitoring.
In a context of increasing demands for engaging citizens in
government affairs, UNDP Viet Nam has stepped up its
policy an advisory service with innovative ways to provide
objective and evidence-based measures to policy–making
decisions. The Provincial Governance and Public
Administration Performance Index (PAPI) is a pioneering
effort to engage citizens’ experiences on how to reduce
corruption and improve governance in a one-party State.
The PAPI gives voice to citizens on their experiences with
governance and public services. It is the largest exercise of
its kind measuring experiences with governance drawn
from citizens’ interactions with governmental authorities
at different levels, including issues of transparency,
accountability and control of corruption.
A total of more than 13,600 citizens were consulted on
their direct experience with the performance of provincial
and sub-national authorities on various governance and
public administration issues. The PAPI research offers a
comprehensive picture of the current state of affairs of
sub-national governance in all 63 of Viet Nam’s provinces.
It also provides extensive analysis of governance and
public administration performance at the national level.
The PAPI policy research also includes information on a
range of issues affecting ordinary Vietnamese, including
on land, health
and education. In
the area of land
for example, the
PAPI survey finds
that 8 out of 10
citizens at the sub-
national level are unaware of land use plans. Getting land
use rights certificates remains a problematic public
administrative service that systematically scores lowest
among the four types of administrative procedures
measured in both the 2010 and 2011 PAPI surveys.
According to PAPI 2011 findings, of the one-third of
citizens who lost land only 9% of those surveyed said the
compensation they received was close to the market
value. This is a decline from the 2010 results, where 17%
said the compensation was close to the market value.
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Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 7
In the area of corruption in the public sector, a third (31%)
of those surveyed said bribery is needed to receive
medical care; almost a third (29%) that it is needed to get
a job in the public sector; two in five (21%) that it is
needed to apply for a land use right certificate; and 17%
that bribery is needed for children to get better treatment
in schools.
The research is helping policy
makers and the international
development community better
understand Vietnamese people’s
experiences, and to draw
concrete lessons on how to
reduce corruption and improve
citizen satisfaction with public
administration.
For example, in 2010 Kon Tum
province in central Viet Nam was
ranked as one of the lowest
performing provinces in the
index. As a result, the provincial
authorities decided to use the
survey data and good practices
from other provinces to develop
an action plan to tackle
corruption and informal payments and improve public
services. This plan is now being implemented across the
province.
The PAPI survey looks at six different dimensions of
provincial governance and public administration. This
includes: (i) participation at the sub-national level; (ii)
transparency; (iii) vertical accountability; (iv) control of
corruption in the public sector; (v) public administrative
procedures; and (vi) public service delivery. The full report
is available here.
Since the launch of the 2011 survey
in May 2012, there has also been
extensive Media coverage and
discussion of the results. The media
debate is continuing and this is
helping to keep attention on the
issues and problems raised, as well
as the need to focus on solutions
and actions.
PAPI is a joint policy research
initiative implemented
collaboratively between the Viet
Nam Fatherland Front, the Centre
for Community Support and
Development Studies under the Viet
Nam Union of Science and
Technology Associations, the
Commission on People’s Petitions
under the Standing Committee for the National Assembly,
and UNDP in Viet Nam.
*Policy Advisor, Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption, UNDP Viet Nam.
E-mail [email protected],
www.papi.vn
Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 8
On July 9th the
Conversatory “The
State of Civil
Service and
Human Resources
in the Public
Sector in Latin
America: Where
are we and How
are we Doing?” was held in the LAC Regional Centre-
Panama. The event target practitioners from UNDP’s
Panama Country Office, the Regional Center, and other
United Nations System, and academics. It was an
opportunity to exchange ideas about the state of the civil
service in Latin America and to share results of recent
studies. What follows is a summary of the main issues
highlighted in the event.
The ensuing regional and sub-regional studies that have
been promoted by international organizations since 2000
(Reports of Civil Services, IDB, 2006; BAROMETER 2009
and 2012) to monitor the degree of implementation of the
principles contained in the Ibero-American Charter for the
Public Service show that the efforts in building
meritocratic and flexible civil services have been a partially
and diversely successful. There are distinctions between
the countries, but within each country there is also a
mosaic that combines segments of meritocratic, parallel,
clientelistic and administrative bureaucracy (See How
Democracy Works).
Within that regional diversity that shows more shades of
gray, the deliberate focus was on unique experiences that
cannot fit in a general model of “the” Latin-American civil
service, far from being a homogenous whole.
According to the Ibero-American Charter for the Public
Service, professionalization implies combining merit and
flexibility in the civil service system’s design. It also implies
the translation of these principles into concrete management
practices. This requires regulatory capable and politically
supported institutions and senior executive management
level involvement. (See Iacoviello y Strazza, 2011,
Iacoviello y Pulido, 2012) Let's see some concrete regional
experiences in terms of professionalization of the civil
service.
Management of merit requirements
The meritocratic incorporation has been installed as a
general principle in the Costa Rican, Brazilian and Chilean
civil service, but also in segments of public employment in
most of the countries in the region. In addition, the
dramatic situation that countries such as the Dominican
Republic, Peru and El Salvador had to deal with in the
early years of the XXI century have been reversed, thanks
to the initiatives that promote the gradual introduction of
competitions of access to public employment.
At the time of design, it is interesting to consider the
option of selection committees that are integrated by
third parties such as it occurs for example in the case of
the Senior Public Management System implemented in
Chile, which incorporates the figure of a Council of
technical profile and political diversity. This Council is the
guarantor of sustained improvement in the process.
Implementation of flexible mechanisms
The management model that supports the Ibero-American
Charter for the Public Service does not propose a scheme
of a "zero sum" between merit and flexibility. Rather,
flexibility is meant to be what ultimately guarantees
sustainability of meritocracy (LONGO 2002).
Among the mechanisms of contractual flexibility, the
employment relationships without stability with defined
deadlines and pre-defined tasks. There are many examples
of successful policies to reduce the labor condition gap
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Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 9
between contracted and permanent staff in the region. For
example, the “hiring” system in Chile, with the right to have a
career and results-based responsibilities; the changes
introduced in the recruitment process in Argentina through
the Law of Public Employment; and replacing "non-personal
services" with administrative contracts in Peru.
Functional flexibility helps to adapt the decisions of human
resources to the challenges faced by public organizations.
In this line the Senior Public Management System
implemented in Chile (Sistema de Alta Dirección Publica ),
the Board of Government Administrators in Argentina
(Cuerpo de Administradores Gubernamentales) and most
recently the Board of Public Managers in Peru (Cuerpo de
Gerentes Públicos de Perú) are
examples of flexible employment
management approaches, with
meritocratic selection based on
background and skills.
The wage flexibility completes the
repertoire although there are fewer
experiences in the region. The case
of Chile can be highlights with its
equitable wage structure and
variable payment through a bonus
that is associated to individual and institutional
performance (both are for permanent and recruited staff).
In the rest of the region there is still a large deficit in terms
of internal and external remuneration equity. Although
critical situations such as the cases of Ecuador and Peru
have been reversed in recent years.
Hierarchy of the regulating body for human resources policy
Having a regulatory capable and politically supported
institution is an unavoidable requirement to sustain the
professionalization of civil service. Much of the sustained
improvements in the civil service in Chile, Brazil, Colombia
and Costa Rica, as well as more recently in the Dominican
Republic, Peru, Paraguay and El Salvador, can be
attributed to the institutional strengthening of the civil
service responsible.
Leadership of senior public managers
The best design of public employment policies falls in a
vacuum without a cadre of senior managers with
competencies and incentives to be actively involved in
managing their teams or units. For this reason it is
important to analyze and highlight the regional
experiences of regimes especially for senior public
managers (vis-à-vis those generic civil service), such as the
case of Chile and Mexico with senior management
employment systems, or the
already mentioned cross-
cutting professional systems in
Argentina and Peru.
In sum, in spite of uneven
development and the ongoing
unresolved challenges in Latin
America, in its civil service
experience one can find in all
four aspects mentioned above
initiatives that are aligned with the precepts of the Ibero-
American Charter for the Public Service. We are referring
to initiatives that go far beyond the establishment of
merely normative rules of the game. That is, it is a
question of implementing meritocratic and flexible
management approaches.
As was done in this event, it is worth highlighting positive
experiences of civil service professionalization, not to
transfer them automatically to other political-institutional
environments but rather to inspire reforms situated in the
concrete reality of Latin American countries
*Associate Expert of the Democratic Governance Area of the UNDP Regional Service Center for Latin America and the
Caribbean. www.mercedesiacoviello.com.ar
Local Governance and Decentralization Newsletter 10
The Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate (GOV)
GOV is a specialized website of the Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD), which provides governments with
tools to adapt their public sector arrangements to the changing needs of
modern society. It is a comprehensive platform that contains reports,
documents and statistical analysis. GOV has seven main areas of work: 1)
budget and public expenditure, 2) fighting corruption in the public sector,
3) public employment and management, 4) innovation in the public sector
and e-government, 5) regional development, 6) regulatory policy and 7)
risk management. GOV provides access to the Observatory of Public
Sector Innovation, aimed to systematically collect, categorize, analyze and
share innovative practices from across the public sector, via an online
interactive database. The website is aimed at civil servants, academics,
policy makers and practitioners. To visit the web site, click here
According to the Pro- Decentralization Peru Newsletter No
13, in 2011, local and regional governments in Peru had a
lower implementation rate of public expenditure in
investments than the national government. Local and
regional governments implemented 62%, and 64%
respectively, while the national government had an 82%
implementation rate. Similarly, if the 2011
implementation rate is compared with 2010, the observed
trend is negative, as only the National Government shows
a positive variation of 9.5%, while regional and local
governments present a declining trend of 5% and 13.5%
respectively. In 2010, local governments implemented in
national currency (new soles) approximately the
equivalent of US$ 3.6 billion, and in 2011 3.2 billion
respectively was implemented. As far as regional
governments, in 2010 they implemented in national
currency (new soles) approximately the equivalent of US$
1.8 billion, and in 2011 1.7 billion respectively was
implemented.
http://www.regionalcentrelac-undp.org/en/
Mission of Associate Expert Alvaro Galvez to UNDP Honduras, to provide advisory services for institutional strengthening of the Rafael Landaverde Foundation August 1
st to 15
th, Tegucigalpa,
Honduras.
International Youth Day, August 12.
Regional Workshop: From the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) to Anti-Corruption Policies in Latin America, August 23 – 24. UNODC and Regional Service Centre UNDP, Panama.
Youth Organizations Dialogue Meeting: Opportunities and Challenges of Youth Participation in Subnational Governance. August 26 – 29, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Regional Caribbean Workshop “Enhancing Young Leaders’ Skills for Engaging in Social Audit Processes”, September 19- 21, Kingston, Jamaica.
Regional Workshop on Governance and Accountability in the Water
Sector, September/October, Panama City, Panama. Democratic Governance Area Community of Practice Meeting,
October 24 – 26, Mexico.
Fifth UNDP Global Anti-Corruption Community of Practice Meeting,
November 5 – 6. Brasilia, Brazil.
We are pleased to welcome Lissa Schafer, who since August
has incorporated to the Democratic Governance Team in the
Regional Centre. Lissa was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and
holds a BA in Public Translations at the University of Saarland.
Currently she is studying a Master in International Relations
at the University of Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with
main emphasis in development, economy and cooperation.
In 2010, during her last semester of the translation career
she made an internship for 4 months in the Argentinian Main
Consulate in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
She worked in the representation group REFRA which belongs
to the Argentinian Embassy. Among other projects,
translations and exercises she helped in the organization of
the Argentinian representation as honor guest of the
international Book Fair in Frankfurt.