Strengthening democratic local governance


The project aims at supporting the democratic transition and the peace efforts in Myanmar. Using a decentralized budget support approach to all townships of one state in the Southeast of the country, it will strengthen township’s participatory planning and budgeting capacity. The project will also deepen the community’s capacity to demand public services. Additionally it will support national level policy discussions based on this experience.

Pays/région Thème Période Budget
Myanmar
Governance

Décentralisation
Gestion des finances publiques
01.01.2023 - 30.12.2026
CHF  14’010’000
Contexte

As the country is going through a historical political transition, marked by a change of government through credible elections and by the launching of a peace process, the project aims at strengthening democracy and peace efforts at subnational levels. The project will focus in particular on making local processes more transparent, inclusive, accountable and participatory in order to improve citizens’ satisfaction with public service delivery. On the one side, UNDP will strengthen the state and township authorities to conduct participatory planning and budgeting, using discretional grants to the township level as an entry point that mimics fiscal transfers. On the other side, an (I)NGO subcontracted by UNDP will support the demand side to engage meaningfully and actively in those processes, with specific support to women and vulnerable groups. Newly elected ward and village tract administrators will be in particular empowered to better represent their communities’ priorities in their biweekly meetings with the township administration, characterized currently by top-down interactions. The commonly agreed use of the discretional grants will provide concrete and visible improvements of public services.

This project will be implemented in all townships of a state in SDC’s focus area in Myanmar, either Mon or Kayin, giving a minimum coverage to be relevant to inform and help shape future national policy development on local governance and decentralization. It is timely, as the government has just announced a decentralization of its general administrative department (GAD).

The project also aims at strengthening good governance practices in ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) areas, to the extent possible, and support better coordination between EAOs and state and township administration. How to do so will need to be further elaborated during the inception phase.

Direction/office fédéral responsable DDC
Partenaire de projet Partenaire contractuel
Organisme des Nations Unies (ONU)
  • Programme des Nations Unies pour le développement


Budget Phase en cours Budget de la Suisse CHF    14’010’000 Budget suisse déjà attribué CHF    0
Phases du projet Phase 99 01.01.2023 - 30.12.2026   (Phase en cours) Phase 1 01.12.2016 - 31.12.2022   (Completed)