Regional and Local Development Project

closed

The objective of the Regional and Local Development Project is to assist the Government of Jordan in promoting regionally balanced local development, principally through municipalities and other ancillary support institutions by: (a) improving the equity and adequacy of central-local resource transfers; (b) restructuring the Cities and Villages Development Bank (CVDB) to improve its efficiency and to diversify its products and services; (c) strengthening municipal financial management, revenue generation and service delivery capacity; and (d) improving regional planning and inter-municipal coordination to take advantage of economies of scale and strategic development opportunities. The project includes the following four components: (1) strengthening selected national level institutions involved in the municipal sector with a focus on strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs (MOMA) to more effectively regulate the sector, particularly with regard to municipal financial management, budget preparation and reporting, and urban planning; (2) municipal infrastructure and services, which will introduce a performance-based grant system to finance locally identified and prioritized investments in municipal infrastructure and service-provision and which will also finance investments in municipal assets that provide services while generating revenue streams; (3) municipal capacity building whereby technical assistance and training will be provided through CVDB to strengthen in particular municipal financial management and budgeting, asset management, local revenue collection, human resource capacity, investment project analysis and feasibility study preparation; and (4) regional economic development strategy and investment planning which will include technical assistance intended to strengthen regional development planning and ensure effective linkage and coordination among municipalities in their development planning efforts.