Local governments in Romania consult citizens on budget & decision-making process.
The community of Varsag in Romania faced a persistent problem - local governments had no coherent or consistent approach to involving citizens in the decision-making process, regardless of the number of existing regulations requiring them to share information. This reality, combined with an overall lack of transparency of public administration activity, weakened citizens' trust in local government spending.
USAID brought counties together to identify community-wide problems and goals. More...
Office of Democracy and Governance
USAID
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20523
Tel: 202-712-1892
The Governance Division had primary responsibility for conceptualizing, drafting, and disseminating USAID's Anti-Corruption Strategy. The strategy outlines the Agency's approach to corruption and charts a course for a more strategic approach to addressing corruption in all of USAID's work.
The Governance Division leads the effort to support implementation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Threshold Country Program (TCP). For those countries falling short of MCC eligibility, the Division works with the MCC Secretariat to evaluate country performance on key governance indicators and provides technical advice and support to countries developing concept papers and business plans for MCC's Threshold Country Program.
Security Sector Reform (SSR) has taken on greater importance with USAID's new emphasis on engaging fragile states. The Governance Division worked to disseminate the latest Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee policy on security sector reform and to develop new analytical approaches.
The Division's approach to democratic local governance and decentralization is aimed at defining the roles of and division of authority between governments at various levels of the state. In addition, our assistance helps mission programs improve the ability of citizens to participate more fully in political processes by making local governments more accountable, transparent, and responsive. USAID's Guidebook on Decentralization and Local Government is one of the most frequently downloaded DG publications.
Parliamentary strengthening activities include technical support to more than twenty countries. In addition, USAID provides support to the House Development Assistance Committee, a commission created by the U.S. House of Representatives that provides peer-to-peer support, technical advice, and training to parliamentarians around the world.
New programs have been designed to enhance democratic governance in transformational development states and fragile states. The BRDG IQC provides the capability to work across multiple areas of governance, including state formation, public administration, policy reform, and implementation.
The Governance Division has led efforts to bring DG training to the field, including offering regional training workshops in El Salvador and Ecuador in January 2005. As part of the implementation of the Agency's anti-corruption strategy, specialists have developed and piloted workshops that focus on mainstreaming anti-corruption approaches across USAID's development work.
USAID's support to Transparency International (TI) has been critical to the development of this flagship anti-corruption non-governmental organization. TI's work on the Corruption Perceptions Index and advocacy on behalf of global instruments such as the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the Organization of American States (OAS) Anticorruption Convention, as well as the local efforts of its more than 80 national chapters, all serve to amplify USAID's investment in this area.
USAID Support for Governance Worldwide
