Regional Development and Local Government
The establishment of this portfolio responds to growing interest amongst donors and developing country governments in the role of lower government and local communities in policy planning and resource allocation to meet local needs. This interest is fuelled by a recognition that local communities need to be more involved in decisions about how services are delivered, and that local authorities and communities can often provide services more effectively than national institutions. As poverty reduction strategies become more strongly developed, there is also a move towards the monitoring by civil society of public spending, and the quality of local services and their impact.
The RD&LG portfolio will respond to these needs by providing advisory and support services in the following areas:
- Regional / local economic development strategies;
- Institutional linkages between local service delivery institutions, local authorities, and local communities;
- Reform of local government;
- Fiscal decentralisation and the financing of local authorities and other local service delivery institutions;
- Local participatory planning processes;
- Decentralised systems of poverty (PRSP) monitoring.
Project Examples
Armenia Regional Development Project
Client: Government of Armenia
Funder: DFID
Moldova: Cooperation in Regional Development Project
Client: Government of Moldova
Funder: DFID