PRESS ROOM
12/4/2024
UPRA Supports the Formulation of Territorial Development Plans for Departments and Municipalities
National Agricultural Frontier, Territorial Agricultural Kit, APPA, and Peasant, Family, and Community Agriculture, among the topics the entity presented.
Bogotá D.C., (@UPRAColombia, @claudialili76). In Bogotá, around 60 Secretaries of Finance and Planning from the country's governorships gathered to learn about the institutional offerings of National Government entities such as the National Planning Department, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA).
"We took advantage of this opportunity to socialize the territorial kit, to continue supporting the management of the departments, and to encourage the signing of memoranda of understanding with the governorships", said Dora Inés Rey Martínez, Technical Director of Social Property Planning and Rural Land Market at UPRA.
Among the topics presented by UPRA are the National Agricultural Frontier, the APPA, Peasant, Family, and Community Agriculture, and the Territorial Agricultural Kit, a tool that provides guidelines to strengthen the agricultural sector policy and detail the Territorial Development Plans of the new administrations for 2024-2027.
For their part, the secretaries and delegates from the governorships highlighted UPRA's role and work. In this regard, Lorena Aldana Pedrozo, Secretary of Planning of the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, commented: "UPRA's intervention has been important for us, especially all the support they have been providing to the territories in formulating their Territorial Development Plans."
"In our department, we have a fairly active participation from UPRA accompanying us, specifically through the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries; one of the traditional sectors and with potential development for our archipelago department, especially in everything related to the right to food," added the Secretary of the Archipelago.
Similarly, Ricardo Castro, Director of Planning of Valle del Cauca, emphasized that "UPRA has very valuable information for planning in the Valle del Cauca countryside. With the information we receive, we are advancing in something that is the infrastructure of spatial and statistical data for Valle del Cauca; it was an ordinance that we approved in the first months of the Government and what we are seeking is to articulate a departmental information system to make better decisions."
Camilo Ernesto Lozano, Administrative Director of Planning of Huila, highlighted the institutional offering presented by UPRA: "it is very important, especially regarding territorial planning; in the department of Huila, we are in the adoption of our Territorial Planning Plan, and the information provided is very important."
"Additionally, we are very interested in being able to reach an understanding agreement with UPRA to articulate national policies with departmental ones," emphasized the Administrative Director of Planning of Huila.
UPRA and DNP Work Closely on APPA
UPRA has been working on identifying Areas of Protection for Food Production (APPA) since last year; specifically, in La Guajira, and in new prioritized territories in 2024.
During the event of the National Federation of Departments, UPRA and the National Planning Department (DNP) highlighted the coordinated work they have been doing to regulate Article 32 of Law 2294, "By which the National Development Plan 'Colombia World Power of Life' is issued."
"The work of UPRA has been important, and, together with DNP, IGAC, the Ministry of Housing, it will allow defining how conflicts for agricultural production zones, mining zones, tourism zones, infrastructure zones can be resolved, so that the territorial occupation development model in the departments can be oriented towards a sustainable economy, ensuring the country's energy transformation, and, above all, taking care of territorial planning around water," announced Antonio Avendaño, Director of Territorial Planning and Development at DNP.
