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The 2004 AUICK Associate Cities Conference
Second
Session on 1 August 2004
Presentation on City-University
Partnership
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The representatives of the universities discussed their
role as educators and researchers, and a number of the academics also
highlighted the work that the universities are undertaking for the
welfare of the people, sometimes in cooperation with the concerned
cities. The majority of university representatives saw city-university
partnership as an important strategy and expressed their appreciation
and support for the initiative. The presentation was chaired by IAC
Member Dr. Krasae Chanawongse, Advisor to the Prime Minister, Thailand.
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Dr. A.J.M Nuruddin Chowdhury, Vice Chancellor of Chittagong University,
noted that to understand the challenges faced by the Chittagong City
Corporation, there is an immense need for collecting precise and
adequate data through well planned baseline surveys. If reliable and
adequate data are available, then policy making, strategy formulation
and the design of problem solving efforts will be significantly easier.
It is an area where Chittagong University can play a supportive role
for the City Corporation.
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Dr. Puruhito, Rector of Airlangga University in
Surabaya, indicated that the university has cooperated with the city
government of Surabaya for many years and across many fields. Such
collaboration has become stronger in recent years. The areas of focus
of the university include research and public service.
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Dr. Ismawi Bin Zen, Deputy Rector of the International Islamic University
of Malaysia, informed the participants that the university has
been involved in the development of Kuantan City through research on
public health, urban and environmental studies, providing medical
related services, and rendering community services. He offered to
support AUICK's new strategy to build a city-university partnership for
the development of Kuantan.
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Dr. Bashir Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture
Faisalabad, identified the major problems faced by the city and
highlighted the role that the university can play to support the city
administration in addressing these issues. In addition to research, the
university faculty can help the city to design, plan, implement and
monitor various initiatives and programmes. The university can also
develop training modules and organise training courses for city
planners and administrators.
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Dr. Alex Brillantes Jr. and Dr. Joel V. Mangahas, both
from the National College of Public Administration and Governance, University of Philippines,
expressed their willingness to work with the city planners and
administrators of Olongapo City, and thereby contribute to the capacity
building of the city officials and to the development of policies and
programmes based on the situation analysis, via a baseline survey, that
will be jointly conducted.
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Dr. Kulthida Tuamsuk, Vice President for Academic and InternationalAffairs, Khon Kaen University,
highlighted the role that the university has been playing over the
years in improving the lives of the people of North-East Thailand. She
referred to many community development projects in which the university
faculty have been involved and noted that working with the city is not
a new experience for the university. She stated that the conference had
given some pause for reflection and had required her to reflect on the
university's role and functions. She also noted that both the city and
the university need to think about how to create an environment of
mutual learning including new ways of managing the university and the
city. A particularly pertinent comment that she made was that the
research and development that the university and the city conduct
together should not overemphasize how the results are published.
Instead, she argued that equal and even more weight should be given to
how the results are used in policy formulation and development. She
also noted that whatever criteria are used to track the outcomes, it is
important not to get distracted by tracking them, but rather using the
partnership to focus on how the results are applied to benefit the
communities.
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Dr. Trinh Duy Luan, Director of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
in Hanoi, noted that problems faced by Asian cities are complex, and
that much of the work carried out in Vietnam is relevant to big cities.
He also expressed the view that city-university partnerships would be
beneficial to improve city planning and governance.
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Presentation on Linkages between UNFPA
Programs and AUICK Activities
Chaired by IAC Member Dr. Haryono Suyono, former
Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation,
Indonesia, the session received a presentation on UNFPA programs and
Linkages with AUICK Initiatives by each representative of UNFPA Country
Office.
Assistant Representatives and other officers from UNFPA indicated that
they have gained a better understanding of AUICK’s activities and saw
possibilities of cooperation and synergy between AUICK’s activities and
UNFPA’s Program. They expressed the hope that AUICK’s project, and
the lessons learned will guide UNFPA in designing its country
programs to further improve access to services, particularly for the
urban poor.
It became clear that in some of the AACs, UNFPA has programs to
improve reproductive health services. For most other AACs, the relevant
country office staff saw possibilities for future collaboration. The
UNFPA staff gave a brief account each of their UNFPA country programs
with emphasis on their developmental and implementation process
including those in the urban areas. They pledged to work with AUICK in
developing programs that will address the needs of people in
medium-sized cities.
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In Bangladesh, Chittagong is part of UNFPA’s Program to
strengthen the services for the urban poor. Ms. Tahera Ahmed,
Assistant Representative, UNFPA
Bangladesh Office, noted that the current country Program was
focusing on improving services related to safe motherhood, family
planning, RTI/STI/HIV/AIDS, adolescent reproductive health, and quality
assurance.
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Mr. Yu Yu, National Program Officer, UNFPA China Office, saw thenew AUICK project as providing a channel through which the country
office could cooperate with Weihai on common issues of population and
migrants. In addition to assuring the support of UNFPA China, Mr. Yu Yu
made two specific recommendations for the successful implementation of
the project: 1) AACs should use baseline surveys to devise
city-specific action plans that target MDGs, and 2) AUICK should
involve key stakeholders at the central level, in addition to
city-level policy makers.
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Though Surabaya is not covered by UNFPA in its current Program cycle, Dr. Richard Joanes Makalew, Advisor of Population and
Development, UNFPA Indonesia
Office, stated that it would consider including the province and
the city in the next Programe cycle. In this regard UNFPA would work
with AUICK and utilize the lessons learned from the AACs' experience to
expand services to medium-sized cities in the province.
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Ms. Yeoh Yeok Kim, UNFPA Assistant Representative, UNFPA Malaysia Office,
explained to the audience that in Malaysia, as in other countries,
UNFPA was focusing on specific programs to reduce poverty, strengthen
reproductive health services, and to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS.
She stated that she saw potentials for cooperation with Kuantan
Municipality and AUICK on such issues.
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Faisalabad is
not a city included in the UNFPA’s country Program.
Nevertheless, AUICK’s initiative in Faisalabad can
contribute to the attainment of national development goals and can
establish linkages with UNFPA’s Programe. Ms. Shahida Fazil,
UNFPA
Assistant Representative, UNFPA
Pakistan Office, expressed support for AUICK’s Programe and the
readiness of the UNFPA Pakistan office to work together with AUICK and
Faisalabad.
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Ms. Florence Tayzon, UNFPA Assistant Representative, UNFPA Philippines Office,also expressed a commitment to work with Olongapo to promote
partnership with the city hospital, and to use it as a resource centre
for training service providers in the poorest provinces in Luzon. A
partnership with the city hospital could also provide integrated
reproductive health services, emergency obstetric care, management of
violence against women, and monitoring and supervision. The city
hospital could also serve as a referral hospital for prevention and
management of abortion complications and for non-scalpel vasectomy.
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Mr. Pornchai Suchitta, UNFPA Assistant Representative, UNFPA Thailand Office,
reported on his inquiries with past AUICK trainees. They found the
training to be useful and were able to utilize the information and
knowledge in their work upon their return. They hoped that AUICK would
develop a mechanism for keeping them informed of its activities by
establishing a network of trainees. UNFPA Thailand also found
AUICK’s Programe to be in line with its own Programe and saw
possibilities
for cooperation.
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Danang is part of UNFPA’s Program in Vietnam. Ms. Tran Thi Van, UNFPA
Assistant Representative, UNFPA
Vietnam Office, explained that the country office has been
working with AUICK and expressed UNFPA Vietnam’s readiness to
strengthen its collaboration with AUICK and with the Peoples’ Committee
of Danang in the new project initiative.
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Closing
Mr. Kazutoshi Sasayama, Chairman of the Conference, thanked all the
participants for their valuable contribution and for their support of
AUICK’s Program. While expressing his appreciation, he also called on
the participants to spare no effort to meet the goals of ICPD and the
MDGs.
KOBE DECLARATION
At the conclusion of the conference the mayors and the representatives
of the nine AUICK Associate Cities signed a declaration of commitment
to work together to meet the goals of ICPD and MDGs.
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