Naga City joined two other countries in the Asia-Pacific, three in Africa, two in Europe and North America and one in Latin America for the highly-coveted award as the United Nations General Assembly “celebrates the value and virtue of service to the community.” The award was presented during the fourth annual forum on city information in the Asia-Pacific region on May 21 in Shanghai, China.
According to Mayor Jesse M. Robredo, who is credited for steering the city into the international limelight, Naga City has so far collected five international awards and 76 national and regional awards.
The official awards ceremony will take place on June 23, the United Nations Public Service Day, at the UN headquarters in New York, USA, according to Guido Bertucci, director of the division for public administration and development management of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
The other award recipients include Australia and Malaysia for Asia-Pacific; Canada and Austria for North America and Europe; Brazil (municipality of Bahia and city of Belo Horizonte) for Latin America; and Morocco, Cameroon and South Africa for Africa.
Every year the awards are presented to a government or government department in four categories: 1) improvement of public service results; 2) improvement of the quality of public service process, 3) innovation in public service and 4) local e-government.
Naga City capped the e-government category for its “i-governance program,” which effectively applies information and communication technology (ICT) in the promotion of transparency, accountability and efficiency in public service delivery.
The award came barely two months after Naga, on March 8, was honored in Fukuoka, Japan, by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) and the UN Development Fund for Women (Unifem) as one of the three most women-friendly cities in Asia-Pacific during the world celebration of International Women’s Day.
In January 2003, Naga City was named the year’s CyberCity Awardee for Asia-Pacific by the United Nations Development Program-The Urban Governance Initiative for its innovative use of ICT in fostering effective local governance.
Robredo, a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee in 2000, first brought international fame to this Bicol city when in 1996 the UN Center for Human Settlements (Habitat II) named its urban-poor land tenure and housing program as one of the Top 40 World Best Practices.
Quelle: ABS CBN News, 30.05.2004
