USAID Enhance supports the Royal Thai Government and non-governmental stakeholders to strengthen citizen-centric local governance in Thailand. The project also empowers citizens to voice their concerns constructively to local administrative officials as a way to ensure their priorities are addressed and to ultimately foster inclusive and sustainable growth.
Enhance is based on the premise that mutually reinforcing efforts and deeper partnerships between the Royal Thai Government (RTG) and non-governmental stakeholders (think tanks, academic institutions, media, civil society organizations (CSOs), local community networks, and private sector actors) will provide more opportunities for citizens to participate in local governance and empower citizens to voice their concerns constructively. This is particularly important at the local level, where the interplay between government and citizens is most tangible and has the greatest potential to respond to citizen demands.
By strengthening communications, networking, and learning among local administrative organizations as well as non-governmental stakeholders and citizens, Enhance will guide local administrative officials towards processes and initiatives that better reflect citizen’s concerns and priorities. This project will promote the adoption and dissemination of tools designed to respond to citizen concerns, such as big data and digital technology that has been developed in innovative localities that can be scaled up and deployed to other areas. Enhance will spur innovations in citizen-centric governance that are developed by local stakeholders in response to their specific needs, and will work with the stakeholders to improve and apply them more widely.
Enhance has nationwide reach, with a prioritized focus on the Deep South (Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, and some districts of Songkhla) and selected provinces in the North and Northeast regions. Enhance’s approach to achieving sustainability for results relies on establishing respectful relationships based on trust among all relevant stakeholders. By enhancing existing measures for networking and mutual learning and by facilitating the exchange of best practices and multi-stakeholder innovations, citizens can more effectively engage their local administrative officials to foster inclusive and sustainable growth.
The project’s implementation period is from September 2022 to September 2027. An initial consultation period engaged all key stakeholders to better understand the challenges and opportunities in local governance. Enhance conducts co-creation workshops on building the capacity of local administrative officials and non-governmental stakeholders for engaging in citizen-centric governance; training on planning and budget for local administrative organizations; workshops on citizen-centric governance performance and measurement tools; best practices workshops on citizen-centric governance innovations; training on citizen-centric governance for media organizations; and citizen-centric governance peer learning conferences. Activities under Enhance will advance accountable, responsive, inclusive, and participatory local governance and will ensure sustainable and a longer term impact on citizen and local communities.
