GOI UNDP Capacity Building for Decentralised Urban Governance Programme

As part of the Capacity Building for Decentralized Urban Governance (CBDUG) Project, City Managers’ Association Orissa (CMAO) assigned to undertake various capacity building programmes in four Urban Local Bodies (ULB) of Orissa. The activities include conducting training, documentation, appraisal of City Development Plan and performance evaluation.

Building Cities Performance training programme was conducted as part of the Capacity Building for Decentralized Urban Governance Project in four Urban Local Bodies of Orissa i.e. Cuttack, Sambalpur, Berhempur and Puri. It was organized by City Managers’ Association Orissa an institution of Housing & Urban Development Department with support from Government of India, UNDP and State Urban Development Agency. The purpose of the workshop was to enable cities elected representatives and officials to understand in improving its performance.

The subject areas of discussion include Innovative Municipal Resource Mobilization, City Development Plan, Municipal Accounting, Property Tax Reforms, Public Private Partnership, Poverty & Livelihoods, City Disaster Management and Urban Environment etc and also provide solutions to make the project more successful.

The participant attended includes Mayors, Chairperson, Coporators, Councilors, senior & grassroots officials of ULBs, Citizens NGO and media etc. The days’ meeting comprised of technical sessions as well as an introductory session and a way forward in which the feed back from various participants were heard in order to understand the status of implementation of projects.

For the first time, global warming, climate change, urban transport and gender perspectives in urban planning processes were included in the programme, and attracted great interest amongst the participants. At the end of the Programme, participants presented their action plans and shared their feedback during the Evaluation Session. Some suggestions were to insert Climate Change Adoption strategy, Disaster Risk Reduction and Youth in Urban Governance in the next course of training programmes. At the end city evolved a Municipal Action Plan on improving its Municipal Resource Mobilization Strategy.

The resource person of the training programme includes Mr. Piyush Ranjan Rout, Executive Director, City Managers’ Association Orissa, Mr. Sanjib Mishra, Valuation officer – Housing & Urban Development Department and Mr. Mans Das, Chattered Accountant.

In all cities participants applauded the workshop and assured that their city will improve its image in days to come. In conclusion Mr. Piyush Ranjan Rout, Executive Director, City Managers’ Association Orissa remarked CMAO will continue its support in strengthening Orissa cities performance through innovative measures.