THIS IS WHAT UNDP
PREACHES TO ARAB COUNTRIES
ABOUT GOOD GOVERNANCE, TOLERANCE, HUMAN RIGHTS & FIGHTING CORRUPTION
Governance in the Arab States
The
2004 Arab Human Development Report, Towards Freedom in the Arab World,
identified several key challenges to good governance in the region.
These include public administration systems that do not fully meet the
needs of citizens, shortcomings in institutional accountability,
constrained opportunities for people to participate in the
decision-making processes affecting their lives, and in some cases the
lack of enjoyment of fundamental rights such as citizenship and gender
equality. Add to this a regional and international context that often
presents barriers to reform, and the challenges to good governance are
indeed formidable.
Amid
such constraints, however, events in many Arab countries-including
Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen- at the end of 2010 have
demonstrated an increasing demand by Arab people for the reform of
governance institutions and processes in a way that allows people
greater freedom, increased opportunity and equitable development. Such
reforms include credible electoral processes; rights based parliamentary
legislation, effective parliamentary oversight, rule of law and
equitable access to justice, and integrity of public servants and
private enterprises. UNDP works in the Arab States with governments, the
private sector and civil society to support these processes,
strengthening the capacity of institutions and individuals to protect
human rights, enhance social cohesion and expand public space for
dialogue between governments and citizens.
Over
the past few years, the region has witnessed a steep rise in human
security threats of dramatic scale and intensity as a result of decades
of occupation, protracted internal conflicts that are often enmeshed in
regional and international conflicts and unresolved issues of power and
wealth sharing. These crises have devastating effects, ranging from
massive displacement, deprivation, poverty and systematic human rights
violations. In the Arab region, an increasing number of UNDP country
offices are operating in uniquely fragile environments directly affected
by recently ended conflict.
Programme on Governance in the Arab Region
At the request of Arab governments, the Programme on Governance in the Arab Region -POGAR-
supported key regional and national governance institutions to address
governance needs and concerns, with the aim of enhancing good governance
practice and governance reform in the Arab world. POGAR’s activities
ranged from promoting policy dialogue and creating strategic
partnerships, to capacity building and knowledge sharing among
government officials, civil society organizations, academics and donor
agencies. POGAR worked with a large array of Arab national and regional
partners, as well as other UN agencies and international donors to
promote pillars of good governance including rule of law, transparency
and accountability, participation and human rights.
Other Governance Initiatives in the Region
Parliamentary Support
In
partnership with the Arab Inter Parliamentary Union to assist and
support parliaments in the region, UNDP focuses on the role that
parliaments can play in crisis prevention and recovery and strengthens
their capacity to legislate for, oversee and represent communities in
support of peace, reconciliation and long term human development.
Fighting Corruption
Sixteen
Arab states have signed and ratified the United Nations Convention
against Corruption (UNCAC). The League of Arab States has issued a few
weeks ago the first official pan-Arab anti-corruption instrument. This
effort which started in 2002 has finally culminated in the issuance of
the Arab Convention against Corruption. In 2010, UNDP launched a
regional project on Anti-Corruption in the Arab countries (ACIAC)
which resulted in the adoption and implementation of concrete
anti-corruption measures in at least eight Arab countries and the
endorsement of the ACIAC Project by high-level delegations from 17 Arab
countries. Training methodologies and products on anti-corruption
assessments were completed and contributed to raising awareness among
stakeholders and promoting their effective use to inform UNCAC.
Local Governance in Conflict Countries
In
the Arab region, UNDP works with many partners to enhance political
economy and conflict sensitive analyses in order to inform programming
on public administration and local governance, electoral support and
parliamentary strengthening, enhanced human rights, integrity and gender
equality.
Local
Governance in Conflict Countries - UNDP has proposed “tension analysis”
as a methodological tool to enhance conflict sensitive programming and
to orient programming strategies towards focusing on relations and
processes not only infrastructure, delivering services locally without
bypassing local networks and enhancing accountability and resilience on
the local level.
Elections
The
overall objective of UNDP support to elections in the region is to
foster credibility, transparency, effectiveness as well as
sustainability of electoral institutions and processes, with a
particular emphasis on inclusive participation and women’s empowerment.
UNDP follows a cycle approach not an event approach to electoral
assistance, i.e. sustains its support in between election events for
long term institutional development.
Human Rights
Most
Arab countries are signatories to several UN conventions and all have
an obligation to submit reports in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
Focusing particularly on social and economic rights and South-South
experience exchange, UNDP's three lines of action include: supporting
the strengthening of national human rights systems (e.g. capacity
assessment of national human rights institutions); mainstreaming human
rights into development programming; and promoting greater engagement
with the international human rights machinery (e.g. support to
implementation of UPR recommendations).
Legal Empowerment Of The Poor
The
Legal Empowerment of the Poor initiative in the Arab region attempts to
create a comparative knowledge platform focusing on the informal sector
and its empowerment, practices of judicial activism in defense of
social and economic rights and experiences of civil society and
investigative journalism in support of voice and representation to
collectively protect social and economic rights of the poor. Three
national consultations in 2009-2010) highlighted the issues of informal
economies in the Arab region which absorb all unemployed youth and
women. Those regional consultations asserted the need for the protection
of social and economic rights in an environment that respects civil and
political rights as key to combating of inequality and exclusion.
Responsive Social Service Delivery
UNDP’s
commitment to support countries achieve the MDGs highlights the
importance of public institutions that are capable of delivering
services effectively at national and local levels. However, technical
capacity is not enough to guarantee equitable delivery of the MDGs to
all, especially vulnerable groups not usually captured by aggregate
statistics on MDG progress. Making service providers and public agencies
more accountable and responsive to citizens promotes inclusive growth
and human development.
□ Voice and Accountability (V&A) - UNDP documents ways in which V&A mechanisms can be employed at the local level in the Arab region to improve service delivery.
□ Gender Sensitive Service Delivery - In
collaboration with UNIFEM (part of UN Women), UNDP produced in Arabic a
guide to gender sensitive service delivery to be used in sensitizing
national partners working on developing nationally owned indicators for
better service delivery that is sensitive to women’s needs and
experiences with providers of services.
Governance at the Country Level
UNDP
is committed to responding to government demand to implement
national-level projects that respond to the governance challenge in Arab
states. Initiatives to strengthen governance on the national level are
implemented within the framework of the strategies of Country Offices,
and in collaboration with national and international partners including
governments, civil society, and other United Nations agencies. Two key
areas of activity are institutional strengthening and decentralization.
Institutional Strengthening
Our
country-level work on institutional strengthening comprises a number of
initiatives for parliamentary development, electoral reform and
judicial reform. We are working along with the governments in North
Africa, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq Jordan and the Gulf. In Egypt, we are
promoting development through nationally owned indicators building
parliament capacity to develop strategies for promoting economic
development through trade.
Decentralization
Decentralization,
on the other hand, is a long-standing commitment that has yet to fully
materialize in the region – decision-making remains quite centralized in
nearly all Arab States. UNDP is committed to helping Arab States
decentralize by supporting changes such as the institutionalization of
local elections, modernization of legislation at the municipal level,
and reform of national legislation for enhanced capacity and
responsiveness at sub-national levels, allowing for local governments to
better deliver the services needed for human development at the local
level throughout the region. This includes local governance and area
development in Yemen & Syria.
Legal Empowerment of the Poor
Support
to social and economic rights of informal sector employers and
employees is underway through our support to diagnostic studies of the
informal in Syria and Jordan.
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