Organizational
Chart
The implementation of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the UN Development Agenda that
are strongly underpinned by pro-poor and pro-equity orientation, requires new
types of institutions including new approaches, strategies and tools. What is
also required is new relationships and new partnerships. The overall governance
environment, especially those elements that contribute more directly to the
planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring of public services, require
adjusting, repositioning in a way that goes beyond the realm of public
administration and become more citizen-based and engaging. All these require
learning of new skills, the introduction of new tools and the initiation of new
procedures and processes.
DESA is attempting to
respond to these new challenges through the provision of what it calls
socioeconomic governance products and advisory services. In this aspect, the
Socio-economic Governance and Management Branch (SGMB) of the Division for
Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) is taking the lead. In
order to pursue its work coherently and consistently the Branch is organized
both functionally into two clusters: i) Participatory Governance and Partnership
Cluster; and ii) Governance Tools for the Implementation of the UN Development
Agenda Cluster or Governance Tools Cluster. For reference, see Organizational
Chart. In addition, DPADM through this Branch also has an outreach agency,
namely: United Nations Center for
Regional Development (UNCRD), Nagoya, Japan , and partners with the International Centre of
Innovation and Exchange in Public Administration (CIIIAP), Bahia, Brazil.
UNCRD with its two regional offices in Africa and Latin America offers training,
research and technical cooperation in the broader issues of sustainable human
development.
A conceptual framework
describing the key elements of socioeconomic governance products and services is
presented below:
- Inter-governmental and
research work in the area of pro-poor governance and development;
- Capacity-building of social
and economic institutions relevant for the MDGs (for example, strengthening the
planning and monitoring capacities of the ministries of planning, social welfare
etc.);
- Production of tools,
techniques and strategies that contribute more directly to supporting the MDGs
(for example, national and subnational human development reports, citizen
charters, people budgeting, participatory audit etc.);
- Strategies and
institutional options to link social capital to development management to pursue
the 'engaged governance' process for citizen-based dialoguing and advocacy for
policy change (for example, in recent times the South Asian civil societies have
networked among themselves and formed a group called the South Asian Centre for
Policy Studies [SACEPS] and SGMB provided support to this group to produce, "A
Citizen's Social Charter for South Asia: An Agenda for Civic Action," as a
dialoguing tool for policy formulation in social development. In addition, in
order to explore mechanisms, tools and strategies relevant for citizen
engagement, DPADM/SGMB partnered with the State Government of Queensland,
Australia and organised the first "International Conference on Engaging
Communities" during
14-17 August 2005 in Brisbane, Australia. For further information,
please view conference details.
- Building the capacities in
pro-poor
budgeting process, participatory
audits, monitoring and evaluation, etc.