3 February 2009: Carlos Lopes, UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Executive Director, and Henri Proglio, VEOLIA Environnment Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, have renewed the cooperation contract between UNITAR’s Local Development Programme and VEOLIA Environnment.

The contract was signed during the session of UNITAR’s Board of Trustees, held on 30 January 2009, in Paris, France. The contract focuses on two principal areas for action. The first covers support for the capacity reinforcement activities conducted by the International Training Centres for Local Authorities and Local Actors, optimizing the governance of local public services, creating public private partnerships and supporting local authorities to address climate change at the local level. The second area addresses “Access to Basic Services for All,” an initiative conducted jointly by UNITAR and UN-Habitat with the objective of presenting guidelines on basic services to the UN-Habitat Board of Trustees in 2009, and thereafter to implement them locally.
This cooperation contract was initiated after the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002, and has been subsequently renewed. This latest renewal is for a period of three years. [UNITAR Announcement]