Transcript Municipalities in Mali: Arenas for an Emerging Culture of Accountability and Good Governance Experiences of the Local Government Support Program - PACT (Programme d’Appui aux.

Municipalities in Mali:
Arenas for an Emerging Culture of
Accountability and Good Governance
Experiences of the Local Government Support
Program - PACT
(Programme d’Appui aux Collectivités Territoriales)
MATCL
Issa Doumbia
Mayor, Rural Municipality of Dioro, Mali
Dirk Betke
Director, Local Government Support Program (GTZ/ DED/ KfW)
Leadership & Accountability – Breakout Session 3
The Third Round Table on Managing for Development Results
Hanoi, 05.-08. February 2007
Content
• The Context: Decentralization in Mali
• The Local Government Support Program (PACT)
-- PACT’s concept
-- Practical results: Local government’s
capacities to engage stakeholders
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• Scaling Up and Institutionalization: the “domino
effect” of local government support
The Context: Decentralization
• Decentralization in the Republic of Mali is seen
as a key measure of democratization and
poverty reduction
• Elected bodies of sub national government were
established at regional (9), county (49) and
municipal level (703).
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• By law, the central government transferred
extensive administrative functions and
responsibilities to the new institutional
structures.
• Implementation of the decentralisation policy
happens through two complementary
components:
• (1) A nationwide municipal investment fund:
Local governments can use its subsidies to
build up basic social and economic
infrastructures.
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• (2) A capacity development program aimed at
strengthening technical and administrative
competencies of the regionally end locally
elected bodies.
The Local Government Support Program (PACT)
• PACT’s main objective is to support both components
of the national decentralization strategy:
• Investment fund
• Financial cooperation (KfW) contributes to the national
municipal investment fund through budget support.
• Capacity development
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• At national level, GTZ helped to create the legal
framework and is further supporting the institutional
consolidation of decentralization.
• At local and regional level, technical cooperation (GTZ,
DED) contributes to the national capacity development
program for municipalities.
PACT’s Concept
• The concept of PACT is based on the working
hypothesis that
• the new (mostly rural) municipalities should be the
driving force behind the decentralization reform.
• it is here that the desire for change is evidenced most
prominently today.
• Local governments can win the trust of their
constituency and acquire new legitimacy only by
• being responsive to the concerns of the citizens
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• providing services that improve their living conditions
• remain accountable for the development results they
achieve
• Success of local leaders (and their political
survival) depends on how stakeholders can be
mobilized to engage in the arena of local
development.
• When decentralization is implemented in this
way, it will set in motion an upward “domino
effect”,
• i.e. the local dynamics generate political
leverage for reforms at central level.
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The Example of the Local Municipality of Dioro, Mali
Practical Experience: Local Government’s Capacity
to Engage Stakeholders
Principles and key elements
Responding to local problems and priorities
• The intervention is demand-driven and addresses
directly the felt needs of the great majority of the locality
concerned
• In Dioro, three major problems were identified:
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• Bad performance in public service delivery
• Lack of financial resources (needed to provide services
and build infrastructures)
• Widespread popular distrust concerning the integrity of
local authorities
Orientation toward promising solutions
•
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designed to reach a maximum of stakeholders and to
achieve a maximum of (direct and indirect) benefits
•
Example 1: “Municipal market management”
• Huge economic potential largely unexploited
•
Example 2: “Municipal development planning”:
• Opportunity to engage stakeholders to produce a
shared vision of the future of the municipality
•
Example 3: “Public debate of the budget report”
• Dioro’s municipal government has been the first local
authority in Ségou region having the courage to be held
accountable in public for its budgetary decisions and
development measures.
Stakeholder involvement
•
A maximum of stakeholders concerned is mobilized,
participating with different degrees of intensity:
•
•
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•
The “big public” - representatives of all relevant
stakeholder groups
• civil society and the private sector
• local representatives of central state
administration and sectoral line agencies
participating in “general assemblies” at the start of
the respective process as well as in review or
reporting sessions
The “hard core” – technical committees and
service providers, who do the daily work
Shared vision concerning the key elements of the
process
• a sequence of clear-cut and well balanced steps
• the results to be attained (at each step)
• performance indicators (without always knowing
what the term “indicator” actually means)
Installing a simple M&E system
• which key players can easily handle without
permanent external support
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Transparency and Communication
•
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Full use of systematic feedback mechanisms and
communication helps establish accountability
relationships between local government and their
constituencies
•
Example 1 : Monthly Progress report with the
results of “municipal market management” through
the local radio station
•
Example 2 : “Public debate on the budget report
by the local government”
Development Results and Win-Win Constellations
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•
Substantial and stable rise of local government’s
budget through stable revenue
• e.g. municipal market management
•
Creation of new jobs for women and young people
• e.g. in market supervision and garbage collection
•
Improvement of environmental quality of the heavily
polluted market locations
• e.g. waste removal, public toilets
•
Improvement of organizational and managerial skills
as well as of negotiation capacities of civil society
organizations and private sector
Renaissance of a climate of mutual trust
•
•
Between the civil society, private sector, population on
the one hand and the municipal council and authorities
on the other,
Triggering a considerable improvement in tax payers’
morale:
• the efficiency of tax collection in Dioro has risen from
less aprox. 45% for many years up to 95%.
Emergence of a new partnership: a new “reciprocity”
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•
•
Public services delivered by the municipality are
“exchanged” for citizen’s loyalty supporting the new
institution of “local government”
Dioro’s “inhabitants” are becoming “citizens”
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•
A new culture of transparency and
accountability has markedly reinforced the
prestige and legitimacy of mandate holders
•
Civil society and private sector stakeholders
are now appreciated partners of the commune
•
Support from the local population is increasing
• leading to a situation in which democratically elected municipal councilors are being
taken seriously by central government.
Scaling Up and Institutionalization (1)
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•
PACT supports the effort of donor harmonization:
• instrument prototypes are developed and
refined, large-scale tests carried out and
mainstreamed in national reform programs
• below the level of donor roundtables,
harmonization of approaches emerge as a
form of “field level TA pooling”:
•
By means of synergy with other organizations,
some approaches developed by PACT touch up to
two thirds of the roughly 700 Malian local
municipalities
Scaling Up and Institutionalization (2)
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•
PACT is constantly inviting members of the
central and sector agencies as resource
persons and service providers to the
development, implementation and monitoring of
new approaches and instruments
•
They identify increasingly with the “products”
(ownership!)
•
Overcome prejudices within authorities and
prepare the ground for dissemination and
institutionalization