National Partner Organizations

The National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is a premier institute for urban research in India supported by the Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD), Government of India. It was established in 1976 under the Societies Registration Act. The Institute’s Governing Council consists of 19 members represented by senior officials from the Government of India, eminent urban leaders and experts from varied background. Mission is to be a knowledge center of research, training and information dissemination in urban development and management.

Research, Capacity Building & Technical Assistance in areas of planning & policy making across over 40 countries. Recognized Centre of Excellence with four UN Awards for Best Practice & Excellence.

SDS mission is to lead process of reforms & develop innovative instruments for planning, budgeting & management through M&E, research based policy, action research to test strategies & innovative practices on field & training on innovative approaches.

SDS has been a leader in many work areas-- national regulatory & apex refinancing institution for housing (1986), composite credit for housing, income generation & consumption (1987), saving behaviour in informal sector (1988), integrated housing & income strategy (1989), housing policy & action plans (1989), capital formation in urban slums (1992),down-marketing housing finance (1994), empowerment of resource-constrained communities (2002), house price indices (2005), predicted house price model (2008), outcome-oriented planning, budgeting & management (2009), rejuvenation of old assets to ensure efficiency in service provision (2011).

The Urban and Regional Development Institute (URDI) is established in 1995 as an independent not-for-profit organization aimed at promoting sustainable urban and regional development in Indonesia.

Its mission will be undertaken thorough: providing publication and other means for exchange of knowledge to enhance communication and cooperation among different stakeholders in the field of urban and regional development, developing research and policy analysis to provide alternative solutions to current issues and organizing training and other local capacity building exercise to support local governments in dealing with the current and future challenges and experience.

Yayasan Inovasi Pemerintahan Daerah (YIPD) is a not-for-profit organization that focuses on delivering high quality, professional technical assistance to strengthen the managerial capacity of local governments in Indonesia in areas such as administrative management, strategic management and planning, organizational development, financial management, and thematic issues such as environmental and infrastructure. YIPD works at the national level (policy analysis) and the local level (technical assistance and training).

YIPD also offers a clearinghouse function for information about local government innovations and best practices throughout Indonesia. YIPD works in partnership with local governments and their associations, community organizations, institutions of higher learning, donors, and the private sector to achieve good local governance in Indonesia. YIPD was founded as a USAID initiative in 2001 and it has become an independent Indonesian foundation with funding from an ever-diversified range of sources.

The Town Development Fund (TDF) is an autonomous financing intermediary institution established by the Government of Nepal in 1989 with a long term institutional objective of becoming a self-sustaining and complementary part of intergovernmental fiscal transfer system. It finances municipal infrastructure development projects through its loan and grant funding and provides technical assistance to municipalities. After long years of modest activities, it is now facing with a fast growing portfolio expanded in the last 7 years. The total value of the 11 donor programs have reached NRS 6.8 billion; of these contracted for subprojects NRS1.7 billion and disbursed NRS 1.4 billion by the end of 2011. With technical and financial supports from donor partners (ADB, GIZ, KfW, WB/IDA), it has recently laid down the foundation of a major organizational, business, financial, and operational restructuring, which includes an approved strategic Business Plan, a 5-year Business Restructuring Action Plan, and a Workout Plan for problem loans; all of these are now under implementation.

IPDF is the central Public Private Partnership (PPP) arm of the Government of Pakistan, operating under the aegis of Ministry of Finance. IPDF assist line ministries and state owned enterprises in structuring their projects on PPP basis. IPDF promotes participation of private sector in public development projects and acts as a bridge between public and private sector by facilitating infrastructure development under PPP methodology.

IPDF is actively engaged in transport and logistics, Mass Urban Transport, energy, social infrastructure.

MaRGG is a private, non-profit organization established for the purpose of offering consultancy services to governments, local governments, international development agencies and other established institutions and corporate bodies, to promote and strengthen good governance in international and local administration.

MaRGG objective is to help the United Nations, international agencies, national and local governments and other clientele organizations improve their governance systems, support mechanisms and processes to be participatory, responsive, transparent, just and equitable. It helps these authorities adopt a realistic vision for the future of their areas of governance and formulate, implement and monitor development policies and strategies to transform their localities and areas of governance into effective, efficient and productive workplaces and habitats.

Towards this end, it engages in providing technical support to research, training, social planning, communications and capacity building that help develop and implement international and national level policies as well as innovative and experimental programme strategies.

SEVANATHA was established in the year of 1989 as a local NGO in Colombo Sri Lanka. It was founded by a group of Grassroots Human Settlement Activists to assist urban poor communicates to improve their shelter and livelihoods. Since 1989 SEVANATHA has been engaged in its operational activities in Colombo and a number of other major cities in Sri Lanka.

Mission of SEVANATHA
To revitalize and enhance the capacities and creativity of the urban and rural poor in order to make them strong in achieving and sustaining improved quality of life and better living environment for all.

Objectives
• Community empowerment through information sharing, training and networking
• Capacity building of the urban stakeholders through popularizing replicable models of participatory development
• Improve partnership between urban land authorities and urban poor community
• Improve urban development policies through demonstration project activities and best practices
• Empowering community through community finance and investment opportunities.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Local Governance (SLILG) was established on 15th October 1999 by the parliamentary Act No 31 of 1999, with an objective of accomplishment of a daunting task, i.e. the enhancement of capacities of provincial councils and local government institutions for the provision of efficient and effective services to the people to uplift their living standards by promoting good local government practices.

Objectives:

Some of the main objectives of the establishment of the institute are:

1. To function as a resource center, on local governance providing technical and information services for its stakeholders


2. To function as the focal point for Local Governance networking with relevant national and international institutions


3. To provide specialist support services in the development of human resources, improvement of management systems, and organizational change

Founded in 1993, the Thailand Environment Institute is a non -government and non-profit organization that enhances capabilities of the national, local governments, civil societies, local communities and business sector personnel in integrating and balancing economic, social and environmental development activities by linking policy with actions and strengthening networking of concerned strategic partners for sustainable development.

Academy for Managers of Construction and Cities (AMC), a professional agency of Ministry of Construction of Vietnam, specializes in training courses in home and abroad for managers and staff working in construction sector or training courses relating to construction and urban management for other managers and Vietnam municipal leaders. Up to now, it has been operating for over 30 years and is the biggest training unit for construction – relating staff in Vietnam.

Besides training courses, it has been carrying out many scientific research projects and projects on surveying the actual situations and demands of upgrading the qualifications of the staff….

The Academy has been received many awards from Ministry of Construction, Vietnam Government and is a high prestige to enterprises, managers.

Urban Development Agency is a State organization to assist the Minister of Construction to manage urban development; to organize programs and project in urban development in which the Ministry of Construction (MOC) is an investor or Urban Development Agency is an administrator appointed by the Minister with the following objectives:

• Formulate legal documents in the area of urban development;
• Research into strategies, policies for urban management and development;
• National and international experience exchange;
• State management tasks on urban development;
• Manage and implement ODA-funded urban development projects.

The Vietnam Institute of Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning is a State organization under the Ministry of Construction in Vietnam with high quality skills and experiences in: organizing scientific researches; applying technological advances to serve governmental management in the fields of architecture and construction planning; conducting researches on preservation, conservation and development of Vietnamese architecture; carrying out relevant research on construction planning; organizing training courses, co-operating with foreign countries and propagating information on technological science in the fields of architecture and construction planning; offering consultative activities. VIAP operates a network of offices located in the three main parts of Viet Nam including Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City with over 850 staffs. VIAP has highly qualified experts with experiences in a diverse range of projects in Viet Nam, as well as a strong reputation in international co-operation. During the period of 50 year establishment and development, VIAP was given many titles and architectural and planning awards.

The Development Strategy Institute is a national research institute under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI). As prescribed in the Decision No 110/2009/QĐ-TTg by the Prime Minister, Development Strategy Institute has the following mandates:

- Research into methodology for the formation of socio-economic development master plan;
- Advisory to the Ministry of Planning and Investment on policies related to the socio-economic development master plan;
- Implement national socio-economic development master plan as well as the cross sectorial master plan like the infrastructure system;
- Consultancy services to local governments to create their socio-economic master plan;
- Capacity building for local civil servants on planning

Recently, DSI has contributed greatly to the socio-economic development policies in Vietnam. Notably, it was one of the main research institutes which actively prepared the National Socio-Economic Development Strategy for the period 2011-2012. DSI has implemented research projects for the realization of the socio-economic development strategy, namely Study on the Creation of National Integrated Infrastructure System for the Industrialization and Modernization of the period 2011-2012, Study on the Institution Reforming, and Study on Human Resource Development.

Besides this, DSI also develops socio-economic development master plan for special and regional jurisdictions.