The United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) was established in Nagoya, Japan in 1971 by an agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Japan, and it is the sole agency among UN organizations to have a focus primarily on (subnational) regional development. For over forty years since its establishment, UNCRD has conducted training courses targeted at local and national government officials of developing countries as well as field research, and has set up a network for providing advisory services and information exchange with governments of developing countries. UNCRD is promoting its activities through its head office in Nagoya and also continuing activities in Africa and Latin America, where the regional offices were located until recently, in collaboration with other organizations.

The United Nations Centre for Regional Development is conducting a wide range of activities with the aim of assisting developing countries in their efforts to carry out sustainable regional development in a balanced manner.

In recent years, under the overall framework of “regional development,” UNCRD has been aiming to contribute towards sustainable development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Since the UNCSD or Rio+20 conference, held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012, UNCRD has been geared towards contributing to the implementation of the outcome document of the Rio+20, The Future We Want, through sustainable regional development. UNCRD will also contribute towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) once they are adopted as well as the Post-2015 Development Agenda. In particular, noting the rapid urbanization of developing countries and the many resulting issues, UNCRD will be focusing on “sustainable urban development and management” in the coming years.

For the purpose of assisting developing countries in their efforts towards sustainable urban development and management, in addition to the UNCRD International Training Course in Regional Development which is held annually, we have started an activity that focuses on planning and management for sustainable urban development based on the concept of green economy, targeted at mayors and senior officials in charge of decision making in the local authorities of developing countries. This will mainly take the form of a Mayors’ Forum to promote dialogue among mayors. Furthermore, the Centre has streamlined its activities on the themes of Social Dimension, Environment and Disaster Management Planning, and is promoting policy dialogue, training and capacity development, and research. Among these themes, we are promoting Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST) and 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). In the area of Disaster Management Planning, UNCRD has been widely disseminating the information gained in the workshops held in the Tohoku Region and will be utilizing this information in future programmes.

Moreover, UNCRD is continuing its activities in Africa and Latin America, where our regional office were located until recently, in collaboration with other UN organizations based on our activities on integrated regional development, to make important contribution towards the formulation of sustainable regional development management plans and their implementation, which have been highly appreciated in their respective regions.

Needless to say, UNCRD continues to make the best use of the development experiences of Japan in its diverse programme of activities.

We would like to ask your continued support and cooperation, and hope you will also have the opportunity to take part in the activities of the United Nations.