PDF - UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotions Office in Italy

The ITPO’s large degree of autonomy that was initially intended to enhance efficiency by
avoiding bureaucracy turned out to be counterproductive in terms of effectiveness and
efficiency and resulted in isolated efforts and overstretching the ITPO mandate. The new
ITPO strategy formulated in 2004 in order to enhance network synergies has virtually not
been implemented, one major reason being the understaffing of the ITPO coordination
unit at the UNIDO HQ. Repeated shifts of the ITPO’s position within the organizational
structure of UNIDO were also not helpful in this respect.
UNIDO Exchange Internet platforms
The Internet platforms ‘UNIDO Exchange’ and ‘Mediterranean Exchange’ are of good
technical quality but the ITPO Italy and other ITPOs made only limited use of these
platforms. The so-called ‘information sharing’ facility is limited to a downloading
functionality (13 of the 14 publications currently available from this page have been
uploaded as a batch in June 2005). The ‘market place’ under ‘Mediterranean Exchange’ is
more populated. However, many of the ‘investment and cooperation opportunities’ on
offer go back to 2003 and seem to be dormant. Most of the interviewees felt that the
‘Exchange’ tools were not particularly useful. No monitoring is available of how these tools
may have contributed to the generation of projects.
ITPO publications
The ITPO increased the number of its publications significantly in recent years. However,
many of these publications are rather internal studies and many of those aiming at a larger
audience have not been effective. This is in particular the case of a series of country guides
for investors. On one hand, these guides duplicate at least partly similar efforts of other
organizations. On the other hand, no publication policy seems to be in place and none of
these reports are adequately disseminated. The fact that such guides are neither produced
as a joint effort of the ITPO network nor even distributed by it is another sign showing
that the potential for synergy is not exploited.
Efficiency of implementation
The implementation efficiency of the operation has been affected by a number of factors
such as the unclear administrative status of the ITPO as a hybrid between a (temporary)
project and a permanent operation; the fluctuation of funding; the geographical
relocations of the Office; the change in management; the gradual shift of focus from
technical support to promotional activities; the loss of staff and hence of specialized
expertise; the difficulties of managing a large number of consultants; the deficiencies of
central guidance and support from the ITPO coordination unit at UNIDO HQ.
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