Ethiopia, Uniting Local Governments in Ethiopia

Objective:

The wider objective of the project is to strengthen the institutional and operational capacity of local governments to deepen Ethiopia’s decentralisation process as a pathway to sustainable development.

The specific objectives are:

(1) Strengthen Local Government representative organisations at urban and rural level to become meaningful exchange platforms and carry out advocacy with higher-level tiers of government, and

(2) Support Woredas’ capacities in Public Finance Management including Own Source Revenue Generation and strengthen Civil Service Capacity for better service delivery.

The expected results of the project are: R1 Ethiopian Cities Association unites urban local governments for exchange between peers; R2 Initiatives for the creation of sub-national governments’ representation at rural level are facilitated; R3 Selected woredas are trained in public finance management and have increased their own source revenue collection process; R4 Research findings on institutional and operational capacities of local governments is pursued.

R1: The Ethiopian Cities Association has been strengthened which is demonstrated by an increase in paying membership, the development of their 5 year strategic plan, the number of training workshops that have been organised and their active participation in the formulation of policies at the Federal Level, e.g. the New Urban Policy.
R2: In two pilot zones, grouping urban and rural Woreda’s around Yirgalem (in Sidama Region) and Bulbula (in Oromia Region) has led to increased collaboration.
R3: In pilot city Yirgalem the enitre property and land lease process has been modernized and digitalised, including the introduction of an e-billing and e-payment system. The modernization process included citizen’s participation, accountabilty, IT support, leadership training and redesign of the revenue collection process.
R4: Two universities (Oromia State and Hawassa) have conducted Service Delivery Research that animated debates under R2.

VNG International implemented the programma and delivered the following services:

Services related to result area 1:

1. Organisational assessment of the Ethiopian Cities Association (ECA)
2. Political Economy analysis of decentralisation in Ethiopia
3. Establish task-force in ECA to guide development process of the association
4. Strategic support to ECA on development of strategic plans and policies (e.g. communication, lobby / advocacy, service delivery policies)
5. Support to ECA training activities, workshops, seminars, experience exchange forums
6. Support to development of ECA services to its members (e.g. guidelines on public finance management (PFM), participatory policy-making, gender policies)
7. Support to the political organs of ECA (executive committee, general assembly, governing board, policy committees) to develop policy statements
8. Study tours and exposure visits
9. Development of ECA’s capacity to foster cities twinning in Ethiopia and outside Ethiopia
10. Identification of relevant interfaces / dialogue platforms where Local Governments exchange with Federal and Regional levels and ensure participation of ECA therein
11. Support to ECA to represent Local Governments at regional and federal levels in dialogue platforms

Activities related to R2:

12. Identify opportunities for exchange between rural woredas in a specific zone or region
13. Fund and accompany such pilot activities
14. Organise exchanges with higher tiers of government (zones / regions) on topics of concern of rural woredas

Activities related to R3:

15. Conduct a baseline assessment for Public Finance Management (based on Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability and World Bank data), review of relevant legislation / Standard operating procedures and other PFM initiatives in Ethiopia
16. Make an inventory of existing PFM training modules
17. Support to key business processes in woredas to modernize the Own Source Revenue Collection
18. Develop HR standards for key functions at woreda level (job descriptions, competency profiles) and provoke a discussion on capacity gaps
19. Organisation of benchmarks / exchanges to promote horizontal exchange and learning on PFM functionalities
20. Facilitate dissemination of best practices and knowledge exchange among all local authorities through ECA

Activities related to R4:

21. Establish linkages with research institutes (universities) and think-tanks
22. Subsidise policy research and advocacy related work on strategic local government issues such as civil service, decentralisation, pro-poor service delivery, gender and youth employment being cross-cutting
23. Subsidise activities that monitor the implementation of constitutional provisions with regards to decentralisation.