The UN Regional Commissions

Regional Commissions and Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation (RPTC)

What is the Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation?

The Regular Programme of Technical Cooperation (RPTC), established by the General Assembly in its resolution 58(I)in 1946, serves to support developing countries, least developed countries, countries in economies in transition, and countries emerging from conflict in their capacity development efforts.Technical cooperation activities funded by the RPTC are small scale, demand driven and focused, targeting specific elements or member States requirements to meet international commitments arising from the outcome of UN conference and summits.  The programme provides the operative flexibility for implementing entities to respond to urgent, unanticipated needs of developing countries, in a rapid-response capacity that is not provided for in any other section of the regular budget biennial workplan.  Activities under the RPTC often have a multiplier effect, on many occasions working to mobilize extra-budgetary funding to respond to development needs on a large scale.

How does RPTC benefit member States of the Regional Commissions?

 

The RPTC is an important component of the Regional Commissions’ technical cooperation, which builds on their normative and analytical work and feeds into the intergovernmental dialogue.  It enables the Regional Commission to respond to requests from their respective member States in addressing emerging needs and providing urgent technical assistance, utilizing the Regional Commissions’ multi-disciplinary strength.The modalities used by the Regional Commissions for the RPTC include, inter alia, the following:

  • Advisory services
  • Training courses/seminars
  • Knowledge networking

Using these modalities, the RPTC resources enabled, for example:

  • ESCAP to respond to the urgent need in Samoa for post-disaster impact and needs assessment after the recent tsunami in the Pacific and to support long-term recovery and reconstruction efforts;
  • ECLAC to provide rapid-response technical cooperation services to Mexico in assessing the socio-economic impact of the human influenza (AH1N1) pandemic and to Bolivia in evaluating the socio-economic impact of the first-ever dengue epidemic, in both cases facilitating the formulation of the corresponding recovery plans;
  • ECA to provide advisory services to the African Union Commission for the design of a human resource management reform and development framework, and the finalization of a comprehensive results based management and accountability framework. ECA also provided ICT support to rural schools in Cameroon through a project known as the Electronic Rural Schools in African Languages (ERELA) Initiative, launched in collaboration with the National Association of Cameroonian Languages Committee (NACALCO);and
  • ECE to launch a Euro 1,5 Million three year programme on strengthening institutions and modernizing legal frameworks for regional water resources management, with a view to increasing resilience of Central Asian countries to external (economic and natural) shocks and facilitating their sustainable development.
  • ESCWA to provide training on measuring ICT indicators to improve national capacity to collect, analyze and disseminate statistical indicators on the information society. Support was also provided to the Ministry of Economy and Planning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in formulating their 9th National Five Year Development Plan for Key Productive Sectors.

How do Regional Commissions support MDG achievement through RPTC?

 

RPTC2The Millennium Declaration provides a shared vision and a common development agenda for the international community, sharpening the focus of the global development task of the United Nations.  The Millennium Declaration recognizes the special needs of least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states.  Through the RPTC, the Regional Commissions provide technical assistance to these countries in developing the capacity of Governments to formulate and implement policies for sustainable economic and social development, while accelerating the pace towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
For details, please visit each Regional Commission’s RPTC webpage.

Short URL: http://www.regionalcommissions.org/?p=266

Posted by on Jan 9 2013. Filed under HIGHLIGHTS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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