LOCAL DEVELOPMENT Through its regional programme, BRC has enhanced its standing and role in supporting the countries in the ECIS region, in coordination with the country offices, to further progress in the area of local development and governance. The overall strategic relevance of the interventions financed under outcomes 4, 5 and 6 has been assured through a good combination of focused regional projects, accompanied by targeted advisory support and complemented by extensive capacity development assistance. The role of BRC has been generally acknowledged as instrumental to opening new opportunities for the country offices in their approaches to various national counterparts, ensuring promptly needed expertise, with reported very positive outcomes in terms of visibility of UNDP and its recognition as an important player among national counterparts. UNDP has been actively involved in various initiatives in the region focused on local development and it has developed a good knowledge base.184 This expertise has enabled UNDP, through some of its country offices, to successfully position itself among the relevant actors, establishing partnerships with the EU and other donors. In the current programming phase, BRC has built on the results achieved by country offices and fostered synergies with them, strengthening the cooperation with local stakeholders and expanding the focus of its inter-municipal initiatives by introducing climate considerations. BRC has expanded the rather comprehensive work initiated in FYR of Macedonia in the area of inter-municipal development, and extended this experience to other Western Balkans countries and seeding it in Moldova and Ukraine. A key element in the results achieved is linked to the involvement of a local/regional counterpart, NALAS. The good cooperation with NALAS,
UNDP country offices and national counterparts has been crucial to allow BRC to ensure a good balance between upstream interventions and downstream initiatives, and to reach out to new counterparts in other relevant countries, such as Turkey. However, as pursuing these opportunities further could be hampered by uncertainties in the medium to long-term financing perspectives, future scenario of the interventions will have to be carefully defined. In the field of anti-corruption BRC has been particularly effective in supporting UNDP country offices, especially in Western Balkans, Ukraine and Central Asia, aligning its interventions to national priorities and policies. The existence of a consistent support from governments in the region towards addressing corruption has provided the needed political support to match the resources allocated effectively. The combination of advisory services with the assistance under the regional anti-corruption project, funded by the Global Thematic Programme on Anti-Corruption for Development Effectiveness (PACDE), enhanced the relevance of these interventions vis-à -vis the contexts in the country offices and regionally. BRC has progressively shifted emphasis from anti-corruption agencies towards extending capacity development support to other type of agencies forming the national integrity systems in the different countries in the region. The range of approaches adopted by the BRC team in working at the country level balances well upstream and downstream interventions. Consistent with UNDP’s Strategic Plan, BRC has supported the implementation of human rights recommendations emanated from UPR, treaty bodies, and other mechanisms. Such support is strengthening the national human rights systems, fostering the engagements of governments, NHRIs, and CSOs with international human
A recent assessment looked into more than 120 projects on local development implemented in the ECIS region. See UNDP, Development & Transition Newsletter, July 2011.
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C H A P T E R 4. S T R AT E G I C P O S I T I O N I N G O F U N D P I N T H E R E G I O N
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