Local Development Program Support Project

closed

The Local Development Program Support Project will assist the Government design and implement a decentralized, and participatory financing mechanism, that empowers local communities and decentralized authorities to manage development funds by strengthening capacities, implementing demand-driven subprojects, and, supporting the emerging process of decentralization. To this end, the project components will: 1) provide matching grants to cofinance subprojects proposed by community-based organizations, or decentralized local government entities. This component will finance: a) activities in transport (bridges), education (classrooms), health (health posts, HIV/AIDS prevention and information, personnel training), and water and sanitation (wells); b) management of natural resources activities such as erosion control, tree nurseries, forests management, and alternatives to fuelwood; c) large-scale and more expensive collective infrastructure projects that would affect several villages, or cantons, such as drilling, rural roads, and water supply systems; 2) support capacity building for local development stakeholders, to strengthen the technical and organizational capacity at the community level, for participatory approaches, needs assessments, project management, access to credit, or new poverty reduction behaviors. Given the multisectoral nature of the program, these capacity-building activities shall entail a wide spectrum of sectors including health, environment, education, transport, and energy. This component would be implemented in local languages, and would prioritize the learning-by-doing approach as opposed to the lecture approach. 3) support the implementation of the decentralization policy, through three subcomponents: support to the completion of the legal and regulatory framework of the decentralization process; strengthening of the institutional and technical capacities of key stakeholders of the decentralization process at the national, regional, and local levels; and, support to the land tenure system definition; and, 4) provide project management support to coordinate, and manage project activities, and, ensure the availability of funds. Accounting activities, monitoring and evaluation, and administrative functions will be strongly supported.