THE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has invested in various governance programs to help regional countries foster positive political development.

UNDP Asia Pacific regional director Haoliang Xu said the organisation had engaged many regional states on having an effective Parliament.

“In the governance side, we are working with many governments in the region to help Parliament be more effective for them, to be more connected to their constituencies and for them to be more capable of holding government’s more accountable,” he said.

“For them to be more able to support a national debate to develop a vision for the country.”

He said one of the important focuses for the organisation in the region was also climate change adaptation.

“We are working with several governments on developing a green climate fund proposals that will help people to adapt to climate change.

“We are also working with governments and the private sector — for example banks and telecom groups — to provide access for rural population to have modern banking services.

“There is now more than one million people in the region that now have access to banking services without stepping out of their villages. This was made possible after our collaboration with the Australian Government, Westpac and Digicel over many years and other United Nations developing partners.”

Mr Xu was in the country on Monday for a two-day discussions between Melanesian leaders, academics and developing partners on analysing the functioning of particular governance systems in the Pacific and investigate the factors that could impact on the effective functioning and stability of Parliaments and political systems.