GOVERNMENTS AT SEOUL CONFERENCE AGREE ON A ROAD MAP TO EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE

(Received from a UN Information Officer.)

SEOUL, 27 May -- The Sixth Global Forum on Reinventing Government concluded here today with a joint declaration to the world community, prompting governments to implement measures that will increase popular participation and the transparency of their operations.  Designed to stimulate innovations in public administration and governance, the four-day meeting was attended by nine heads of State and government, and almost 5,000 participants.

Issued today, the “Seoul Declaration” calls for policy measures that will increase transparent and participatory governance, as ends in and of themselves, and also to ensure that the global community can achieve sustainable human development for the benefit of people in all societies.

The Declaration recommends that governments urgently address challenges of economic development and social inequity by working in cooperation with business firms and civil society.  The statement commended governments who are already in the process of reinvention and privatization, and congratulated the Government of the Republic of Korea on implementing participatory governance as its central philosophy.

“It is our hope that participants from this Forum are returning home with new perspectives and practical ideas that can be adapted to their own local needs.  Equally important is that they are going back with an enhanced understanding of the problems that all countries, no matter how big or small, share and what they can learn from each other”, said United Nations Director of Public Administration and Development Management Guido Bertucci. 

Stressing the importance of reducing the growing inequality between rich and poor, urban and rural, connected and unconnected, the Declaration recommends developing sound indicators to accurately evaluate government performance and outcomes.

Also recognized in the Declaration is the need to develop more participatory decision-making processes and to utilize tools to increase transparency, such as results-based budgeting, enhanced oversight and use of information and communication technologies.

The meeting was held, for the first time in the Asia-Pacific regions, from 24 to 27 May.  The final two days were dominated by nine capacity-building workshops organized by the United Nations Division for Public Administration and Development Management.  Exchange of ideas, best practices and practical strategies to ensure effective governance were the core focus at the workshops.

Concrete outcomes of the Forum include plans for a United Nations Governance Institute in Seoul.  The Government of the Republic of Korea and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) will soon launch a feasibility study for the establishment of the Institute.

Participants accepted the offer of the United Nations Secretariat to host the Seventh Global Forum on Reinventing Governments at UN Headquarters in New York in 2006.

For more information on the Global Forum, please, contact: Elia Yi Armstrong, UN DESA, e-mail:  armstronge@un.org, in Seoul, mobile:  +82 10 2233-4219; in New York after 31 May, tel.:  +1 212 963-2926, or Oisika Chakrabarti, UN DPI, tel:  +1 212 963-8264, e-mail:  mediainfo@un.org.

For background conference materials, please visit: http://6thglobalforum.org.

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