UNDP team to visit state next month

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The concerted bid of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to reach out to the masses and ensure wide participation in human development and governance has caught the attention of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).Bowled over by the Mass Contact Programme of the Chief Minister, Geraldine J Fraser-Moleketi, Practice Director, Democratic Governance Group of UNDP, has informed that she will lead a team to the country next month to learn more about the work of the Kerala Government in the area of democratic governance.Geraldine J Fraser was a former Cabinet Minister of South Africa for two terms, before taking over the key post in the New York-based UNDP.In a letter to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, she appreciated the range of innovative practices in democratic governance initiated by the Kerala Government in strengthening people’s access and participation in human development and governance. I have accessed media reports about the approach to ensure transparency and accountability in governance, particularly the decision to web-stream the entire functioning of CM’s office. “The mass contact programme, in many ways, is the first of its kind to ensure the right to direct access to leaders and senior civil servants of the government,” she said.Describing Chandy Government’s attempt to combat corruption as ‘whistle blowing provisions’, she said that the 24X7 call centre in the office of the Chief Minister and the idea box for Vision 2030 seemed to be an interesting case of developing an inclusive approach to building shared vision within the society.“During my tenure as the Cabinet Minister of South Africa and in my present capacity, leading the world-wide democratic governance practice of UNDP, the need to promote south-south learning in the area of democratic governance was laid stress. I believe that many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America may be able to learn from the innovative practices in democratic governance in Kerala. “The Democratic Governance Group of the UNDP will be interested in exploring how best to showcase options for south-south learning from Kerala,” she said.During the visit to India in the second week of March, she said that she would like to explore areas of mutual collaboration in strengthening south-south learning initiatives and possible partnership with the govt in the area of e-governance, anti-corruption, governance assessments and local governance.