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REGIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING IN SEE,2007-2010 (RCSP)
Key documents:
THE NEED FOR A REGIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING APPROACH
The development of sustainable communities, strategic urban management and access to affordable housing play a key role in the broader socio-economic development context of South Eastern Europe.
As a variety of comprehensive sector studies undertaken by the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB)[1], the European Investment Bank (EIB)[2] and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)[3] have shown, a major constraint to the rapid introduction and implementation of responsive approaches in the region is the lack of institutional as well as human capacity and limited access to best practices from neighbouring countries. This applies to all government (national and local) entities, the private sector, academia and NGOs.
In order to support SEE countries in furthering essential reforms in the areas of urban development and housing, a regional capacity strengthening effort, targeting the national and local level, providing well-targeted policy development assistance, facilitating regional cross-border co-operation and allowing for investments [4] from external sources to underpin reform efforts, is essential.
CONSULTATIVE PROGRAMME DESIGN IN 2006
To this end, the Stability Pact brought together senior housing and urban management specialists from SEE, from International Organisations, UN-HABITAT, EIB, CEB and from interested EU member States to design the “Regional Capacity Strengthening Programme for Urban Development and Housing in SEE (RCSP)” in a consultative manner.
The RCSP aims to build human, institutional and investment absorption capacity in the area of sustainable urban development. This demand-driven tool will facilitate cross-border co-operation and guided exchange of experiences to enable national and local governments (and their civil society partners) to deal with urban management-, urban environment- and housing matters in compliance with the Acquis Communautaire and other EU standards. The key feature, which distinguishes RCSP from other external support efforts in this sector, is that it aims to bring to bear experience from within the region in all capacity-building actions to be supported by the programme, along with international experience.
Top priority will be given to the strengthening of collaborative networks of central governments’ agencies, national municipal associations, civil society and academic institutions, expected to serve as sustainable structures for regional co-operation in the future.
Due to the absence of key EU institutions responsible for matters related to urban development and housing, it has been agreed that UN-HABITAT is well-placed to be the main implementing agency of this regional capacity-strengthening programme[5].
As a first step in transferring responsibilities, the Stability Pact and UN-HABITAT entered a formal co-operation agreement in January 2006, foreseeing joint programme development activities in 2006 as well as subsequent programme implementation in the region.
FROM PROGRAMME DOCUMENT TO REGIONAL IMPLEMENTATION (2007-2010)
The programme document for a “Regional Capacity Strengthening Programme for Urban Development and Housing in SEE (RCSP) 2007-2010” was validated by SEE stakeholders and IFIs during the 1st half of 2006.
An interim RCSP programme implementation mechanism (composed of Stability Pact, UN-HABITAT, SEE National Focal Points, Council of Europe Development Bank and European Investment Bank) has been established and RCSP implementation is foreseen in three phases - (i) demonstration activities during 2006, (ii) start of inception phase during 2007 and (iii) main phase during 2008-2010.
Five SEE Government proposals were received in and assessed at a meeting of the Interim RCSP Steering Committee (composed of CEB, EIB, UN-HABITAT and the Stability Pact) on 27 October 2006. While the two proposals submitted by Albania and the Republic of Montenegro were selected for implementation between December 2006 and May/June 2007, the remaining proposals will serve as a project pipeline for the inception phase of the RCSP (expected to start during 2007).
SEE stakeholders were informed about the foreseen RCSP implementation arrangements at the 4th regional Vienna Declaration review meeting (Belgrade, 23-24 November 2006) and specific work-plans were agreed with the RCSP focal points in Albania and the Republic of Montenegro.
At the same time, UN-HABITAT and the Stability Pact will intensify their efforts to mobilise resources needed to initiate the RCSP inception phase in 2007.
[1]Housing in SEE: Solving a puzzle of challenges (2004); Social challenges in SEE (2005); Trends and progress in housing reforms in SEE (2005)
[2]Housing Sector Study in CEE and SEE (2005)
[3]Country Profiles on the Housing Sector (2003-2005); Social Housing Policy Guidelines for Transition Countries (2005)
[4]e.g. from International Finance Institutions and Development Banks
[5]in view of its human settlements development mandate within the UN family, its focal point role for the human settlements-related MDGs, its considerable experience in the development and implementation of programmatic global and regional support programmes and its strong global and regional experience in training and capacity strengthening for human settlements.
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