History and Structure
The United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) was founded in 1971 as an instrument to help achieve the strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade. UNCRD was created by an agreement between the UN and the Government of Japan, and has worked to promote the following objectives for more than thirty years:
- Serve as a training and research centre in regional development;
- Provide advisory services in regional development;
- Assist developing countries in promoting the exchange of information, experience, and teaching in regional development; and
- Assist and cooperate with other organizations, national or international, concerned with regional development.
To meet these goals, the Centre targets its programmes towards socially and environmentally sustainable development. The three multidisciplinary themes of human security, environment, and disaster management serve as a guide for the Centre's training and research activities.
Organizational Structure and Overview of Activities
The United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) has direct links with the Socio-Economic Governance and Management Branch, Division of Public Administration and Development Management of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN (SGMB/DPADM/DESA/UN).
Figure 1. Relationship between UNCRD and UN/DESA (click to enlarge)
An Advisory Committee meets approximately every two years to advise the Centre on its policy and overall direction. The Seventeenth Advisory Committee met in May 2006, in Nagoya, to review the activities of UNCRD in its Nagoya Headquarters, as well as those of the Disaster Management Planning Hyogo Office, and the regional offices in Africa and Latin America. The Advisory Committee members recognized the effectiveness of UNCRD's ongoing programme consolidation and efforts to link its activities with important development initiatives of the UN, noting that by such a strengthening of the relevance of its operations, the Centre is much better placed to attract the sort of additional support and partnerships it needs.
