Project to Support Democratic Development

Purpose of Project

The goal of the Project to Support Democratic Development through Decentralization and Deconcentration is to ensure that poor people benefit from well-functioning sub-national institutions. It aims to support the reconstruction of state and social institutions at the sub-national level so that the institutions engage with and empower poor and excluded citizens. To achieve this, the project works toward four objectives. First, it supports the design and establishment of Cambodian-owned sub-national structures that promote voice, responsiveness, delivery capability and accountability. Second, it aims to ensure that systems for planning, finance, implementation and monitoring are integrated into the new national structures and processes. Third, it works to ensure that investment funds are delivered through mechanisms that promote accountability and that allow communities to debate and decide together what they will invest in. Fourth, it aims to ensure that aid effective mechanisms, including monitoring and evaluation, are in place.

Main Activities

• Enhance the operational strength and viability of existing structures and systems for sub-national development, and contribute to the design of new structures that are established through regulations in line with the Law on Administrative Management of the Capital, Province, Municipality, District and Khan (otherwise known as the Organic Law), which was adopted in 2008.
• Strengthen capacity, performance and accountability of 5,000 civil servants at national and provincial level and 11,300 Commune/Sangkat Councillors in the areas of public finance management, participatory planning, contract administration and procurement, monitoring and evaluation, project design and implementation, provision of socio-economic engineering services, natural resource management and agriculture development. This is achieved through strategic placement of 158 technical advisors at the sub-national level and 35 at national level.
• Enhance aid effectiveness through coordinated planning, programming and implementation of Annual Work Plans and Budgets of the National Committee for Democratic Development, 23 provinces and the capital, 106 Districts/Municipalities and 1,621 Commune/ Sangkat Councils.
• Facilitate the formulation of a 10-year National Program for Sub-National Democratic Development (2010-2019) and its first three-year implementation plan.
• Provide technical assistance for the design and formulation of decrees, regulations, ministerial circulars (prakas) and guidelines to institutionalize the sub-national democratic development reforms.
• Assist sub-national administrations to better administer planning, financing, managing and monitoring of the allocation of resources across a variety of sectors, such as infrastructure, natural resource management and gender mainstreaming, to improve service delivery, investment and capacity.
• Support the delivery of investment funds that enable development at sub-national level and provide annual allocations of discretionary resources to provinces, districts and communes.
• Provide continuing support to the four-year District Initiative Programme focused on developing capacity and policy lessons at district level for planning, programming and implementation of local services and investments through systematic dialogue and cooperation between districts and communes.

Key Results

• Government and donor funds were channelled through mechanisms mandated by the National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development (NCDD) and supported by UNDP and used for programme coordination, policy deve-lopment, sub-national operations and local development projects. These funds totalled $77 million in 2008, $82 million in 2009 and $93 million in 2010.
• Technical support has been provided at the sub-national level through the design and delivery of training on more than 30 topics. In 2009, 8,644 sessions were delivered to 313,753 participants, more than 40 percent of whom were women.
• New accountability systems have been developed, including revision of guidelines for accountability working groups at the sub-national level. The Commune/Sangkat Project Implementation Manual has been revised. In partnership with the World Bank, a new monitoring system for safeguards related to land acquisition, environment and Highland People has been implemented.
• 1,621 Communes and Sangkats have been assisted in designing and implementing development projects under the C/S Fund. The C/S Fund provided $22 million in 2007, $23 million in 2008, $27 million in 2009 and $35 million in 2010.
• 1,200 Commune Committees on Women and Children have been established, trained and supported in 18 provinces to bring increased focus to local social development initiatives related to the CMDGs and identified and implemented by communes in coordination with provincial government departments. The initiative, jointly supported by UNDP and UNICEF, is overseen by a National Social Services Working
  Group with inter-ministerial collaboration focused on the identification of local functions that may gradually be transferred to local authorities.
• The project has supported the NCDD Secretariat and MoI to issue regulations and decrees in support of the Organic Law. In 2009, more than 30 legal instruments were produced. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) support to the NCDD, Ministry of Planning and provincial administrations has resulted in new approaches to measuring change and improving M&E and data collection. Technical assistance is provided to help sub-national units better manage their natural resources.

Background

UNDP initiated a decentralization programme in 1996. By 2000, the systems and the capacity building efforts were being applied in 500 communes in 12 provinces. Commune/Sangkat Councils were elected in 2002 and 2007, the Law on Administrative Management of the Capital, Province, District, Municipality and Khan was adopted in 2008, and councils at provincial and district levels were elected in 2009. The 10-year National Program for Sub-National Democratic Development was approved by the Government in May 2010 and the design of the first, three-year implementation plan is well advanced. The Government’s reforms are aimed at devolving public services to lower levels of government to enhance responsiveness and accountability and to give citizens a greater voice.