12 June 1996 - A strong theme throughout Habitat II has been the recognition of the urgent need to build the capacity necessary to get beyond words and documents and “to get things done”. This capacity, and the ability to build further capacity needs to be developed primarily in developing and transitional countries. It requires the broadening of the range of suppliers and the development of trainers and curricula able to meet the challenge of the new agendas stimulated by Habitat II. Local governments and civil society should be in the driving seat and should make clear what they need.
International capacity building institutions have been challenged to provide strategic support to enable this process. The institutes who collaborated to organize events in Habitat II on Building Capacity for Better Cities are responding to this challenge by setting up a focal point for a network of capacity building institutions. This network will lobby for effective capacity building strategies and will promote dissemination of experience and information through print and electronic media.
Initially the group will comprise: the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies; the Development Planning Unit; the Lund Centre for Habitat Studies and the Asian Institute for Technology, and will work in close collaboration with the Training and Capacity Building Section of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), the global focal point for capacity building in settlements management and local leadership. The group will co-ordinate with members of the NGO Forum Training and Research Caucus and other capacity building institutions.
The aim is to build a network which will stimulate the development of local capacity building strategies in the context of national plans of action, and support effective response by the suppliers. The group aims for early action by maximising impact of existing opportunities while developing proposals for new approaches. They propose to review and consolidate progress in an international meeting in Bangkok in 1997.
For further information, please contact:
Tomasz Sudra
Chief, Training and Capacity Building Section, RDD
UNCHS (Habitat)
P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, KENYA
Tel.: 254-2-623034, 623036 - Fax: 254-2-624265
E-mail: tomasz.sudra@unep.no