Enhanced Citizens’ Participation Summary The
Local Governance Program (LGP) is an integral component of the Strategic Objective:
“Enhanced Citizens’ Participation in Economic and Political Decision Making”,
which seeks to increase the competition of ideas in the political and economic
governance of Zimbabwe. The Local Governance Program helps Zimbabwean citizens
enhance their capacity to participate in local government decision making processes
through a two-pronged approach of: -
Increasing the ability of
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to represent their constituents and advocate
their interests to local authorities; and -
Enhancing the capacity
of selected urban and rural Local Authorities (LAs) to receive and consider citizen’s
interests in their decisions and program implementation. Activity
Profile Promoting Democratic Local Governance Lessons
from a pilot activity held between 2001 and 2002, informed the design and implementation
of the Local Governance Program, which started in January 2003 and is scheduled
to run until September 2005. The program has prioritized the advocacy capacity
of CSOs in participatory local governance and the introduction of improved performance
management by LAs.
Improved Advocacy by CSOs: The program is
providing support to a number of CSOs so that they will become more representative
of their constituencies and articulate member interests better.
LA
Performance Management: The program is working with selected urban and rural
LAs to improve their financial management systems, with an emphasis on participatory
budgeting, timely auditing of finance statements and credit rating status. It
is envisaged that LAs will become more open to increased input from local stakeholders
and improve their service delivery. Beneficiaries Institutional
beneficiaries are Zimbabwean CSOs; and urban and rural LAs. It is envisaged that
CSOs will become more representative of their constituencies and articulate member
interests better. At the same time, LAs will become more open to increased input
from local stakeholders and improve their service delivery. Ordinary citizens
will benefit from improved service delivery, transparency, accountability and
increased participation in local governance issues. Local
Partners The locally based partners are Associations of both Urban Councils
and Rural District Council Associations. Partner CSOs include ratepayers and
residents associations; church-based groups; business associations; transporters
and traders; women and youth groups. The cities of Masvingo and Gweru; Municipalities
of Gwanda and Kariba; and Rural District Councils of Chipinge and Mutoko participated
in the pilot activity. The main international partners in Zimbabwe include SNV
Netherlands, Municipal Development/East and Southern Africa, the World Bank and
Intermediate Technology Development Group. Implementation
Partners The Urban Institute, an international non-profit consultancy
firm, is responsible for managing the technical inputs supporting the local governance
program. The publicly advertised grants are issued to non-political and non-partisan
local CSOs. Grantees can also draw technical support from the Urban Institute
for institutional development. |