Part Three:

The Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI)

The Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI) is an endeavour of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to assist mayors, governors and other urban stakeholders in building the capacity of local governments to perform their tasks effectively. It will advance the five principles for liveable and sustainable cities They are:

• social justice,

• ecological sustainability,

• political participation,

• economic productivity, and

• cultural vibrancy.

The Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI) is a response to UNDP’s continuous commitments to work on urban issues, building upon its earlier investment and insights from the Urban Management Programme for Asia and the Pacific (UMPAP) and Asia Pacific 2000 (AP2000).

Goals

The Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI) is directed at assist local governments in making cities in the Asia Pacific region more liveable through:

• strengthening capacities;

• promoting good governance principles; and

• enhancing the quality of governance tools available to urban administrators and decision makers

Project Strategy

The Initiative is intended to build upon what has already been done to develop capabilities and effective visionary leadership in the participating cities, and through them in the region. It will:

• Support collaborative, city-level pilot projects for urban capacity building;

• Support local and regional efforts to build partnerships with a wider range of local government, civil society and private sector organisations; and

• Act as a regional support and co-ordination facility in the Asia Pacific Region for information activities on urbanisation, globalisation and urban governance.

The primary target groups of the Initiative include the following through whom, the Initiative envisages to help improve the well being of urban populations living in the participating countries. It will place special emphasis on reaching the vulnerable groups such as:

• The urban poor, children and women.

• Local authorities, specifically mayors, governors and city administrators;

• Regional associations of cities/municipalities and urban training and research institutes;

• Relevant members of the civil society groups;

• Concerned institutions of the Central governments and the private sector.

Participation

The initiative is open to all cities from the developing countries in the Asia Pacific region while a select number of them will serve as nodes for demonstration of good governance.

Structure and Execution

The Urban Governance Initiative (TUGI)’s executing agency is the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) – Asia Office. UNDP Kuala Lumpur serves as the Designated Field Office (DFO), and the Principal Project Resident Representative (PPRR) is the UNDP Resident Representative in Malaysia. The Project Secretariat is located there too.