Nicaragua Government Advances its National Decentralization and Local Development Strategy
United Nations Capital Development Fund awarded a special recognition in Managua for the technical assistance provided
Photo: from the left Ricardo Gomez (Country Director of GTZ), Leonardo Romeo (UNCDF Principal Technical Advisor), Mauricio Gomez (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs) and Carlos Sevilla (Director of the Public Administration Office in the President's Technical Secretariat) attending the National Symposium organized on the 12th and 13th December 2006 in Managua (Nicaragua) to present the National Decentralization and Local Development Strategy
22 December 2006: Putting Decentralization Reforms at the service of Local Development and Poverty Reduction was the central theme of a two days Symposium organized in Managua on 12 th and 13 th of December 2006, by the President’s Office Technical Secretariat, (SETEC) to officially present the Government’s “National Strategy for Decentralization and Local Development” (ENDDL)
UNCDF Senior Technical Advisor Leonardo Romeo said the Symposium, which brought together Nicaraguan national and local authorities, representatives of Central-American organizations involved in decentralization reforms and local development promotion in the region, and multiple donors, was the culmination of a year-long process of preparation, and country-wide consultation, of the Strategy document, led by the Office of Public Administration (OAP) of the SETEC.
“The process was supported by a wide range of international aid agencies,” said Romeo, “including UNCDF, which provided critical support through both a resident advisor to the OAP and intense technical backstopping services from headquarters.”
UNCDF has worked in Nicaragua for several years, supporting the Government in its efforts to advance decentralization and strengthen local governments. For example, a programme launched in 2001 helped the Nicaraguan Institute of Municipal Development (INIFOM) to develop, and extend to municipal authorities, improved procedures for strategic and statutory planning for local development. Complementing a major World Bank loan, it also piloted a system of fiscal transfers to municipalities, later institutionalized by Law 466 of June 2003
After recognizing UNCDF for the technical assistance it provided, Dr. Carlos Sevilla, Director of the OAP, expressed his deep appreciation for the quality of such assistance , and particularly stressed the key role UNCDF played in defining the scope and structure of the document and organizing the country-wide consultative process to validate and enrich its content.
Looking forward, the OAP then requested continuing UNCDF support to face the immediate next challenge: to develop a comprehensive, medium-term, National Program to implement the Strategy and align and harmonize the multiple sources of external aid that support the decentralization reforms process and a more direct involvement of municipal and regional authorities in the fight against poverty and the achievement of the MDG.
More information on UNCDF's programmes in Nicaragua is available online at http://www.uncdf.org/english/countries/nicaragua.
