The United Regions Organization / Forum of Regional Governments and Global Associations of Regions (ORU Fogar) is an international organization, which aims to bring together regions from all over the world and represents them before other international organizations in order to boost a global policy of balanced development and territorial cohesion.
The Organization’s main objective is to seek the regions’ recognition as major players in global governance. ORU Fogar defends that states’ decentralization power towards other actors accelerates development; consequently fostering democracy by the proximity between these new actors and the citizens. ORU Fogar promotes a model based on a strong regional government, with legally recognized capabilities and competences and also budgets in compliance with those competences. Amongst its members, ORU Fogar has important European and Latin American regions, as well as regional governments from Africa and Asia.
The organization acts according to two approaches:
– An integrated approach generated in the territories to design and implement in the field solutions to the new challenges that these territories are facing.
– The promotion of new governance rules at a global level, including the regional scale, allowing the development of this territorial approach.
Goals
● To make the voice of the Regions heard
● To bring together the regions throughout the world to identify their concerns, to work on joint proposals and to make their voice heard.
● To be the voice of the intermediate governments in parliaments, before the national governments and in all international bodies
● To facilitate the representation of the regions in global forums, as part of the construction of a global governance.
● To represent the intermediate governments in all the organisations which have a direct impact on the quality of life of their populations, in a spirit of loyal cooperation with the municipal power.
All of this with the view that the intermediate government is a strategic government in the service of development.
A global governance where regions count
● To support cooperation between regions with continental and global institutions, particularly the United Nations Agencies.
● To defend a new governance based on recognition of cultural and life style diversity, aiming at Human Development and the maximum possible accumulation of Social Capital.
● To promote participation of the regional governments in the design and the management of policies on education, health and the construction of social infrastructures.To favour cross- border and transnational relations in which regions take part.
To work for the regions
● To urge the national governments to incorporate the regional dimension in their agendas.
● To support the national policies that strengthen the regional level. To prioritize the regional competitiveness and growth policies as factors for social and territorial cohesion.
● As governments of the territory, to promote sustainable development, targeting full respect for the environment.
● With the support from the national governments, to provide a forum for exchanging knowledge and best practice policies, solidarity between rich and poor regions and to stimulate para-diplomacy among the regions of the world.
