| Grant Profile: |
| Project Title: |
Consultative Service Delivery Initiative |
| PCF/LICUS/SPF: |
PCF |
Status: |
Closed |
| File Number: |
353
| Region: |
MENA |
| Sector: |
Health and other social services |
Country: |
Iraq |
| FY approved: |
2008 |
Grant Theme : |
Social dev/gender/inclusion |
| Keyword(s): |
Community-driven development;Social/conflict analysis |
Approved Amount: |
$1,050,000.00 |
| Related Documents |
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Grant Recipient:
International Cooperative Development Association (ACDI-VOCA) |
Grant Purpose:
The overall objective of the grant is to pilot consultative service delivery in Suleimania governorate within Iraq. This objective includes two project developmental objectives :
(1) To further the state of the World Bank’s knowledge about supporting sustainable, consultative decision-making on resource allocation and service delivery within Iraq, while directly providing tangible improvements in service delivery in the process;
(2) To inaugurate a long term, ultimately sustainable process of consultative development in Iraq, ensuring the country’s substantial resource base is being utilized fairly, with accountability to citizens and in a transparent fashion.
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Grant Activities:
Component 1: Community Grants Program
The project supports grants generated out of the joint government-citizen participatory community assessment planning process. Key areas funded by the grant include public infrastructure improvements, community assets, and social services.
Component 2: Implementation Support
ACDI-VOCA will recruit and train local technical and social facilitators, support their operations and deploy them as they create and assist community action groups (CAGs) designed to liaise with government. ACDI VOCA will also hold and manage all funds transfers, directly conduct project oversight and be responsible for significant representational duties with ministry and governors’ offices.
Component 3: Social Analysis and Concurrent Real-Time Evaluation Studies
This component supports an ongoing external and independent examination of the influence of informal institutions, the capacities of local and regional governance, interaction between government and citizens, the extent of program leakage, the process of community mobilization and impact of insecurity on the socioeconomic changes taking place in program communities and neighborhoods.
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Results:
The overall goal of the Consultative Services Delivery Initiative (CSDI) was to assess the capacities of citizens and government in Iraq to jointly develop, participate in and implement consultative service delivery programming within Iraq. The project commenced in December 2007 and was completed in February 2009. To meet its objectives, it supported the establishment of Community Action Groups designed to provide links among citizens, regional and local government, and provided small grants to communities for projects aimed at improving public infrastructure, community assets, and services.
The CSDI program proved successful in increasing trust between the government and citizens, and improving community service delivery. Building trust among citizens and government was achieved through community meetings and funded projects. The process marked the beginning of a new mode of governance characterized by a three-way relationship in Iraqi society: between CAG members and citizens, between CAG members and government officials, and between citizens and their government. As one CAG member noted, “Mistrust is behind all social conflict and the CAG gives a chance to community members to tell us their problems, build trust and resolve issues.”
Key achievements as outlined by several studies of project results include:
• Increased capacity and frequency of interaction of program communities with local, provincial and regional government representatives.
• Engagement of Community Action Groups (CAGs) with local government improved significantly
• Community trust in government increased in one year after the project was initiated
• Citizen trust of local government also increased during the same timeframe
• Local government performance slightly improved as a result of the project
• Communities and local governments have shared in the cost of community projects which have been successfully completed and transferred to public agencies for maintenance and management
• Nineteen projects, ranging from the provision of computers and other equipment to schools and hospitals to providing communities with power through the purchase of generators, have allowed residents in project communities to actually see improvements in basic services
• The end of the project marked increased opportunities for economic development
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Lessons Learned:
Major lessons learned during the project include:
• Enhanced trust can contribute to a new mode of governance between citizens, their CAG members and government officials, and, in representative fashion, between citizens and their government.
• By the middle of the program (July 2008), local officials were far more aware and appreciative of the consultative role of community representative groups than district and regional officials. This was primarily due to the close relationship on project implementation between CAGs and local government officials.
• The government should be encouraged to include citizens in decision making.
• Democratically-elected “Community Action Groups” (CAGs) can successfully facilitate citizen-government collaboration in a community-driven development process. Most successful CAGs include broad representation from community groups, including the private sector.
• There is a need for diversification of CAG members, to create greater inclusiveness in the consultative process. The project should involve private sector technical specialists, non-government employees, NGO-type representatives, religious leaders, women and youth representatives, and technical experts from government offices, among others.
• Local and central government officials recognized the role of community meetings, an idea introduced by CSDI to draw in members of the community other than just CAG members, in order to discuss and vote on projects that the CAG proposed. These officials especially noted the transparent quality of community meeting discussions and their focus on critical community needs. In an interview with a special advisor to the Minister of Education, he stressed that the “role of citizens is paramount in decision making at the local level of government.”
• Citizen meetings and the role of citizens in voting on CAG activities were seen as very positive attributes of the CSDI process. They not only helped increase trust between citizens and CAG members but also proved to be a very important factor in enhancing the consultative process.
• Consultations between CSDI program managers and senior government officials are essential to attract greater government interest in the program, especially to develop mutual agreement on structure of the consultative process and follow up.
• Co-funding with government builds trust and leveraging capacities, and is optimally defined contractually up-front.
• While the main foci of the project have been CAGs, citizens, and appointed government officials, a more focused emphasis should be placed on elective or legislative bodies, in order to bring them into the consultative process.
• Community development trainings proved to be an essential part of the project and an important ingredient to building the consultative CAG model. One CAG member noted that through the community development course, she had “learned how to deal with the government and the community, which is especially important given that the government cannot do everything.” Community outreach training was also seen as important in teaching CAG members how to analyze social conflict and come to usable conclusions. One member said that trainings helped CAG members learn “how to deal with conflict-based issues in resolving problems between community and government.” Another outlined that trainings transformed him into an “expert in working on youth issues, including work with HIV-AIDS and youth gangs.”
• Local media, when appropriately involved, can provide an initial boost, followed by ongoing coverage of CSDI or potential follow-on activities in areas of minimal security risks.
• It is important to integrate project activities with the plans and budget process of the provincial government to optimize potential contributions from the government for community-prioritized projects.
• Through interviews with all levels of government officials, it was determined that the lack of decentralization and subsequent financial constraints this places on local authorities negatively impact the government’s fiscal ability to respond to community needs. The lack of decentralization needs to be dealt with in any future programming.
• A real-time evaluation of a program can be invaluable for making incremental and structural program adjustments in real time as pilot activity continues.
• Continued tracking of citizen perceptions on service delivery, legitimacy and effectiveness of government, and quality of life in their communities help identify evidence of program impact.
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News:
Communities and local government in Iraq have set out on a journey to improved service delivery through an innovative process of consultative development in Iraq. The “Consultative Service Delivery Initiative” (CSDI) project in Iraq has been established with the objective to support community development activities initiated by Iraqi citizens, in consultation with the government. The main purpose of the project is to provide tangible improvements in service delivery through a long-term sustainable process of consultative development in the country, ensuring that Iraq’s substantial resource base is being utilized fairly and transparently, in an atmosphere of increased mutual accountability.
The CSDI project embodies community-driven development principles coupled with a strong focus on the process of community planning, as well as close engagement with government in project preparation. Since project commencement in January 2008, eight grassroots Community Action Groups (CAGs), comprised of 7-13 volunteer community members, have been established and introduced to the Initiative. These Action Groups have received training in project development – from proposal writing and procurement, to community outreach and monitoring and evaluation of results.
The Action Groups have presented their project ideas to the community and local government, fostering dialog between citizens and their government representatives in an open meeting format, to allow for feedback and project ranking through a democratic vote. In this process, the government has remained open to input by communities on prioritizing community needs.
The uniqueness of the CSDI program lies in its structured approach to community development which combines training and learning by doing. The practical aspects of “learning by doing”, combined with training and mentorship by CSDI staff, provide a popular and effective interactive and participatory environment for government and community members alike. The initiative is expected to generate increased citizens’ faith in the effectiveness and legitimacy of their government, as well as improved confidence of government officials in engaging with citizens.
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