Angola

Decentralization and Local Governance Project

Project Short Title:    00039307              Decentralization and Local Government Task Manager: Jacob Massuanganhe, Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) - Head, Project Management and Coordination Unit Decentralization and Local Governance

Project Documents Decentralization and Local Government (Project Document) Ammedment to the Decentralization and Local Governance Project 2009-2011 Ammedment to the Decentralization and Local Development Programme in Angola Annual Work Plan Decentralization and Local Governance: Annual Work Plan 2009 Decentralization and Local Government: Annual Work Plan 2008 Evaluation Reports Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund Mid-Year Report DLG: Local Governance Assessment Framework for Angola - Mission Report, 2-9 July 2009 DLG: Progress Report (1Semester 2009) English version DLG: Progress Report (1Semester 2009) Portuguese version Decentralization and Local Governance: 2008 Annual Report DLG Mid-Term Review: Final Draft DLG Mid-Term Review: Final Draft (Portuguese version)

Duration:	Starting date (phase II: April 2008 ; Ending estimate date : 31 December 2010 (3 years)	Status :  Ongoing
Budget Amount:	US $ M 9,450.000 (planed) US$ 5,550.000 (secured funding)
Source of Funds:	UNDP TRAC: US$2,850.000 DFID: US$1,200.000 AECD: US$1,500.000
Key Achievement Need:	Strengthened institutional, technical and managerial capacities of municipalities and provinces covered by the project for adequate resources management (human, financial and material) aiming efficient services deliver to citizens. It is expected that the local administrations will be prepared for identification, designing and implement local development plans, collect and manage development data, elaborate profiles, coherent with evidence-based planning and efficient finance management in 15 municipalities.
Modality of Execution:	Direct Execution
Partnerships:	Government Institutions : Ministry of Territorial Administration (MAT), Ministry of Planning (MINPLAN), Ministry of Family and Woman Development (MINFAMU), Ministry of Finance (MINFIN), 15 municipalities of 5 provincial (Bie, Malanje, Bengo, Kwanza Norte and Uige). Civil Society Organizations : National and International NGOs, CSO, Professional Associations; UN Agencies : UNICEF, FAO and UNFPA

Brief Description:

The issue of decentralization has become one of the most important issues of the Angolan Government institutional agenda. A decree 17/99 on Local Administration was approved in 1999 which provided a legislative framework for deconcentration in Angola. The Government enacted the Local Administration Decree in 1999 (Law 17/99), which provided a detailed framework for deconcentration. Moreover, it has recently approved the Law 2/07 as result of the political and economic changes, which paves the way for further deconcentration as selected municipalities become increasingly responsible for their budgets (budgetary units). The Law 2/07 reinforces the status of the provincial and municipal governments as deconcentrated units of the State, whilst also moving towards greater territorial autonomy. Under the Law on state Organs of State, the municipalities became budget units for the first time in 2008 and 68 municipalities were chosen to pilot fiscal deconcentration and received in 2008 transfers directly from the state budget of around USD 5 Million. From 2009 all municipalities (163) were transformed into budgetary Units and resources allocated to materialize local needs and demands. Nevertheless the political shift, there are challenges pertaining to low skills-base in the face of increasing demands for enhanced service delivery.

As UNDP contribution, after a mid-term evaluation in 2006 and based on recommendations of the evaluation results, lessons learnt and the national priorities, a phase II of the project was designed. Thus, the phase II of the project (2008-2010) is a continuation and refinement of the phase I and aims at strengthening capacities of provinces and municipal administrations covered by the project, focusing on 5 key components:

• Enhancing the institutional, organizational, technical and management capacities of Municipal Administration for effective service delivery;
• Strengthening planning and budgeting in municipal administration;
• Enhancing financial management for fiscal decentralization;
• Decentralization for enhanced community participation, especially woman in local governance;
• Strengthen mechanisms for efficient coordination, monitoring and evaluation;

About the Project : The initiative was an official pilot project of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and UNDP in partnership with DFID and AECID to support Decentralization and Local Governance in Angola. The fundamental focus of the project is therefore to strengthen the capacity of Municipal Administration through institutional strengthening, capacity assessments, training, coaching, mentoring and establishing systems and procedures to manage resources for effective service delivery. Currently, the project covers 15 municipalities in 5 provinces ( Bie: Camacupa, Kuito and Andulo; Uige: Sanza Pomba, Negage, and Uige; Malange: Cacuso, Malange, and Calandula; Bengo: Dande, Icolo e Bengo, Ambritz, and Kwanza Norte in Cazengo, Kambambe, Ambaca. The project will contribute to building capacity of local administrations (in 15 municipalities) to address effectively the principle of good governance and participatory Local Development. The programme focus on building capacity of provincial and municipal governments in actively identify, design, and implement local governance and development plans, prepare municipal profiles, development plans consistent with evidence-based planning and effective and efficient public finance Management.

The Project seeks to support the selected municipalities, by motivating local communities and civil society to demand better services and to contribute to the delivery of those services, and also stimulating sustainable local development. This is being done through implementation of capacity development in targeted local administrations. The capacity building focus in formulating respective MDG-based and gender responsive development plans, targeting organizational issues as well as technical aspects such as participatory planning and budgeting, fiscal deconcentration, public finance management and community participation in local governance, with specific emphasis on gender. These plans are being vertically and horizontally integrated into the planning and budgeting system at municipal level. This approach is being complemented by operations methodologies for Multi-year Investment Plan s (MIP), which operationalize the strategic plans by programming the investment needs and investment resources to be mobilized over the years and guides for annual planning and budgeting.

Implementation Framework : The project was catalytic in mobilizing government and local stakeholders to promote effective local governance and strengthening capacity at the municipal level in an integrated and harmonized manner. It involved a range of partner’s engagement and the participation of target communities, the commitment and engagement of civil servants. The project infrastructure and its implementation framework were being vital to materialize the expected results and government’s ownership. The first step to concretize this intention was the establishment of the Project Board (to make sure that the project is aligned with the national priorities, systems and procedures) and later the establishment of the Technical Teams (to ensure sustainability, replicability based on best practices and government commitment in all steps of the project implementation, monitoring and evaluation).

Capacity Building Strategy : The project adopted an innovative training and capacity building strategy - Deliverables Oriented Training (DOT),addressed to provide guidance and tools for desired products/results (e.g. municipal profiles, Municipal development plans, etc), according to the 6 key municipal functions enacted in the Law 2/07 and summarized in one single frame: The MENU. The framework is an expression of the 6 key municipality functions and was built based on the capacity assessment conducted in all 15 municipalities. It represents the critical demanded capacity and essential constraints that municipal administrations are addressing.

The MENU is an integrated frame, which provides what are the nuclear municipal administration functions and how to materialize (tools applied in practice to produce specific deliverables) subdivided in six different components. As Strategic Plan and Annual Cycle it encompasses: a) Participatory and Consultative Mechanisms (CACSs); b) Municipal Strategic Planning – Diagnosis, Profiles and Development Plans; c) Annual Planning and Budgeting. As Operational Cycle encompasses, comprises: d) Local Finance and Public Accounting; e) Municipal Management and Development, and f) Infrastructure Management (Procurement). Each component is then broken in steps. To Operationalize the framework, two manuals were elaborated to guide the municipalities and simplified templates for Municipal Profiles and Strategic Plan were also formulated and used as standard format for all municipalities. Based on that, were c onducted 26 training sessions covering strategic planning and operational cycles for 842 participants from Provincial, Municipal and regional level during 164 hours.

Achievements and impact : In general, t he assessment found that all 15 municipalities covered by the project, are still running under the framework of Decree Law 97, but important steps have been taken to evolve towards the new legal framework and strengthen their capacity. Institutional technical support was guaranteed with provision of substantive equipment – Vehicles, Motorbikes, computer, Printers, Photocopy Machines and other – for 9 municipalities of Malanje, Uige and Bengo.

In almost 6 months, were established technical teams in all municipalities and in five key provinces covered by the project. The municipalities have now put in place the Consultative Councils (CACSs), a network of groups to actively consult with their constituencies, although representativeness still to be enhanced. In all focus municipalities were trained the Consultative Councils (CACSs) and established at communal level in 2 municipalities. Based on the above mentioned standard format (templates), technical orientation workshops were commutated in Luanda (IFAL), Barra de Dande (Bengo) and Cambambe (Kwanza Norte). As result all municipalities conducted local consultations and diagnosis; at least prepared their 12 municipalities elaborated their profiles and 5 Municipal Strategic Plan were drafted.

Relevance and lessons : The capacity building strategy demonstrated that training oriented to deliverables (doing step-by -step), is more effective, because the participants or civil servants learn what is demanded and applied for their daily work. Secondly, it demonstrated that any manual or guide should be based on real needs and should identify clearly the steps to materialize the results. The project is serving to demonstrate a number of lessons including the fact that real institutional change, whether at the community or government level, requires sustained and well-focused support over a prolonged period of time; substantial cross-learning from similar experiences elsewhere must be supported; local political support must be developed and consistently maintained; strategic collaboration with civil society organizations in the challenging area of community capacity-building is required; and mechanisms must be put in place to enable effective constant refreshing of capacity-building work to cope with staff reassignments, change of leadership etc. Recognizing the approach, a local partner (CARE) is requesting UNDP to provide training in Local Finance and Public Accounting Management to their project sites.

As part of the capacity development strategy, were elaborated templates (standard formats) to support and facilitate the Municipal technicians to elaborate themselves municipal diagnosis, Profiles, Development Plans and Annual plans and budget. This approach allowed municipalities to build themselves capacity to conduct such exercises for this cycle and the following cycles. A as result, was conducted diagnosis in all 18 municipalities, 12 Municipal Profiles and 5 Municipal Strategic Plans are being finalised.

Policy impact and Replication : Currently the project is covering 15 (plus 3– Kaculama, Maquela and Changuale, funded by Provincial governments). Due to the relevance of its implementation framework (technical teams) and training strategy (The Municipal Menu), the provincial Governments of Malanje, Uíge and Bié are integrating all municipalities (with their funding) and UNDP is being requested to expand technical assistance to all municipalities or to expand the number of provinces covered by the project. Moreover, the central technical team (MINFIN, MINFAMU, MAT) are analyzing the challenge for its replication. This need was discussed during the mission to Brazil with the Minister of Territorial Administration in December. A National Workshop is being prepared (March) to disseminate the technical teams infrastructure and the Project Capacity building framework to all Provinces, as well as the project training strategy and its framework will also be mainstreamed for training and capacity building for all budgetary units.

The project phase II implementation strategy include promotion of synergy amongst the main institutions linked to decentralization process in the light of the five outputs/outcomes defined above. Technical teams (which integrate technicians from different ministries and sectors) at national, provincial and municipal levels are established, and trained to guarantee ownership and sustainability. The Ministries, provinces and municipalities are put together in an intensive day-to-day interaction implementing project activities.