GN-Village Comm Supp Program - Phase 2

closed

The objective of the Village Communities Support (APL) Program is to strengthen local governance in rural Guinea and promote social and economic empowerment of the rural population, including women, youth and other marginalized groups. The long-term vision of the program is that, upon completion of the final phase, local communities and their representative local governments will have developed: (i) the capability to identify, prioritize, plan, and manage their own infrastructure and service needs; (ii) the capacity to mobilize and use transparently the resources necessary to finance the establishment, rehabilitation, and maintenance of basic community infrastructure; (iii) the ability to oversee the implementation, operation and continued maintenance of community infrastructure either by contracting private firms or through the support of de-concentrated government services; and, (iv) the capacity to sustain the development efforts and to enhance good governance practices. This original program objective remains valid for the second phase. There are 3 components to the project: a) The Local Investment Fund will be the mechanism for transferring funds to Rural Development Communities (CRDs) to finance public socio-economic infrastructure identified on the basis of a participatory strategic planning process. The objective of the component is for CRDs to receive and manage funds transparently to implement and maintain technically sound infrastructure. It provides an opportunity for local governments to take charge of local development challenges through experience with participatory planning, budgeting, financial management, and implementation of development activities; b) Capacity Building for Decentralized Rural Development which is to enable CRDs to prepare and implement their development and investment plans in an inclusive manner, with adequate support from de-concentrated staff. Activities under this component will address the institutional and policy changes required as well as the technical and fiduciary skills needed at the different decentralized levels to implement local development activities. This component will support an ambitious capacity building program to enable the Code des collectivitks locales to be implemented; and c) Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, which includes: (i) support for the coordination of the national program and (ii) administration, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the project.