Acehnese Acting Governor Opens Public Consultation on “blueprint”

Aceh, 2 March 2005 - Hundreds of people converged on Aceh's Syida Kuala University on Tuesday for the first of a series of public consultations on the government's plans for the future of Aceh, the so-called "blueprint", supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Governor of Aceh, Azwar Abubakar opened the proceedings, which had been widely advertised in local media as open to any who wanted to make their views known.

In his opening address, Governor Abubakar thanked UNDP for working in partnership with the local government. UNDP is providing the consultation process with $250,000 of funding under its governance programme. The money is intended to pay for hosting the consultations, including trips for regular officials to and from the districts in Aceh, and to and from Jakarta. It will also pay for a fully equipped secretariat for the provincial planning board.

In addition, a number of UNDP and World Bank funded technical advisers are working alongside the government.

The consultation process has been designed to allow the people of Aceh to put their views before the government, to ensure that the resulting blueprint is a more representative and democratic document.

'The most important thing is convergence," said the Governor in an interview with UNDP. "A lot of people have ideas about how to rebuild, but we need to synthesise them into one conclusion. It will be a very big task."

The format of the consultations is that all those who wish to speak address their views to a panel composed of members of the Government working group who are drawing up the blueprint, and a number of local experts. Each day, the consultations will look at a different area of policy.

Among the many contributions to the first day's discussions, which concerned spatial planning including the controversial question of a possible construction-free two kilometer zone along the Acehnese coast, were the views of a local seismologist and a geologist. The blueprint is due for publication on March 28th.

ENDS

A full interview with Governor Azwar Abubakar is available on UNDP's website.

For further information, please contact:
JAKARTA: Mieke Kooistra at mieke.kooistra@undp.org or +62 21 314-0081
BANDA ACEH: Imogen Wall at imogen.wall@undp.org or +62 (0)811 806821

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Note for editors:

The blueprint for the future of Aceh is being prepared by a series of ten working groups, under the umbrella of Bappenas, the national planning agency. A second series of working groups are working in Banda Aceh through Bappeda, (regional development planning agency). Each working group is tackling a different area of policy. The policy areas being considered include Security and Reconciliation, Environment, Infrastructure, Economy and Employment, Institutions, Social/Cultural issues, Legal, Accountability and Governance, Finance and Spatial Planning.

This initial phase of the consultation process will take nine days. It will be followed by a series of consultations across the province, which will consult the views of district-level government and local village leaders.

The blueprint, as it is commonly known, is the set of Government proposals for the long-term reconstruction of the areas of Aceh affected by the tsunami. It will lay the foundations for all subsequent rehabilitation work in the province.

UNDP is supporting the consultation process as part of its support for the long- term rehabilitation of Aceh, and its commitment to good governance.

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UNDP is the United Nations worldwide development network. It advocates change and provides countries with access to the knowledge, skills and resources their populations need to improve their lives.

Latest information on tsunami disaster efforts is available at: http://www.undp.org/bcpr/ or http://www.undp.or.id/tsunami/