The agreement was signed on November 18 in Curitiba, Brazil

Rodrigo da Rocha Loures, President of FIEP and Carlos Lopes, UNITAR's Executive Director

UNITAR’s Executive Director, Carlos Lopes, and Rodrigo da Rocha Loures, president of the

Federation of Industries of state of Paraná (FIEP ), signed on 18 November, a partnership agreement with the objective of boosting the activities and outreach of CIFAL Curitiba. CIFAL Curitiba, one among ten other affiliated centers of UNITAR, will be hosted by FIEP as from January 2010.

CIFAL Curitiba’s capacity development objectives are to provide a range of learning and knowledge sharing opportunities to local actors from Latin America and Caribbean in the fields of local economic development and sustainable urbanization and environment. The Center will develop integrated training activities on various areas of public management benefiting local and regional authorities, international organizations, private sector and civil society as a whole, as stakeholders directly concerned with local development actions and initiatives.

Carlos Lopes says FIEP’s line of projects and work in the field of sustainable development are perfectly aligned with UNITAR’s capacity development philosophy. “This is an opportunity to boost sustainable development activities through training and research. In assuming the leadership of the Center FIEP will have the challenge to pursue and construct partnerships that aim at the development of local governance through participatory management.

“FIEP’s engagement with another UN programme is the result of the work it has been developing favouring sustainable economic development in Paraná. The Federation is leading projects such as We Can Paraná and the Sustainability Indicators Observatory (ORBIS). We will become a hub for the development, promotion and dissemination of knowledge in local development. Our main challenge is to contribute to the improvement of public management, focussing on peoples well being”, affirmed Rocha Loures.

(Video in Portuguese)

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