Content The Context: Decentralization in Mali The Local Government Support Program (PACT)

1. Municipalities in Mali:Arenas for an Emerging Culture of Accountability and Good GovernanceExperiences of the Local Government Support Program - PACT (Programme d’Appui aux Collectivités Territoriales) Issa DoumbiaMayor, Rural Municipality of Dioro, MaliDirk BetkeDirector,Local Government Support Program (GTZ/ DED/ KfW)Leadership & Accountability – Breakout Session 3The Third Round Table on Managing for Development ResultsHanoi, 05.-08. February 2007

2. Content • The Context: Decentralization in Mali • The Local Government Support Program (PACT) • -- PACT’s concept • -- Practical results: Local government’s capacities to engage stakeholders • Scaling Up and Institutionalization: the “domino effect” of local government support

3. The Context: Decentralization • Decentralization in the Republic of Mali is seen as a key measure of democratization and poverty reduction • Elected bodies of sub national government were established at regional (9), county (49) and municipal level (703). • By law, the central government transferred extensive administrative functions and responsibilities to the new institutional structures.

4. Implementation of the decentralisation policy happens through two complementary components: • (1) A nationwide municipal investment fund: Local governments can use its subsidies to build up basic social and economic infrastructures. • (2) A capacity development program aimed at strengthening technical and administrative competencies of the regionally end locally elected bodies.

5. The Local Government Support Program (PACT) • PACT’s main objective is to support both components of the national decentralization strategy: • Investment fund • Financial cooperation (KfW) contributes to the national municipal investment fund through budget support. • Capacity development • At national level, GTZ helped to create the legal framework and is further supporting the institutional consolidation of decentralization. • At local and regional level, technical cooperation (GTZ, DED) contributes to the national capacity development program for municipalities.

6. PACT’s Concept • The concept of PACT is based on the working hypothesis that • the new (mostly rural) municipalities should be the driving force behind the decentralization reform. • it is here that the desire for change is evidenced most prominently today. • Local governments can win the trust of their constituency and acquire new legitimacy only by • being responsive to the concerns of the citizens • providing services that improve their living conditions • remain accountable for the development results they achieve

7. Success of local leaders (and their political survival) depends on how stakeholders can be mobilized to engage in the arena of local development. • When decentralization is implemented in this way, it will set in motion an upward “domino effect”, • i.e. the local dynamics generate political leverage for reforms at central level.

8. The Example of the Local Municipality of Dioro, Mali • Practical Experience: Local Government’s Capacity to Engage Stakeholders • Principles and key elements • Responding to local problems and priorities • The intervention is demand-driven and addresses directly the felt needs of the great majority of the locality concerned • In Dioro, three major problems were identified: • Bad performance in public service delivery • Lack of financial resources (needed to provide services and build infrastructures) • Widespread popular distrust concerning the integrity of local authorities

9. Orientation toward promising solutions • designed to reach a maximum of stakeholders and to achieve a maximum of (direct and indirect) benefits • Example 1: “Municipal market management” • Huge economic potential largely unexploited • Example 2: “Municipal development planning”: • Opportunity to engage stakeholders to produce a shared vision of the future of the municipality • Example 3: “Public debate of the budget report” • Dioro’s municipal government has been the first local authority in Ségou region having the courage to be held accountable in public for its budgetary decisions and development measures.

10. Stakeholder involvement • A maximum of stakeholders concerned is mobilized, participating with different degrees of intensity: • The “big public” - representatives of all relevant stakeholder groups • civil society and the private sector • local representatives of central state administration and sectoral line agencies • participating in “general assemblies” at the start of the respective process as well as in review or reporting sessions • The “hard core” – technical committees and service providers, who do the daily work

11. Shared vision concerning the key elements of the process • a sequence of clear-cut and well balanced steps • the results to be attained (at each step) • performance indicators (without always knowing what the term “indicator” actually means) • Installing a simple M&E system • which key players can easily handle without permanent external support

12. Transparency and Communication • Full use of systematic feedback mechanisms and communication helps establish accountability relationships between local government and their constituencies • Example 1 : Monthly Progress report with the results of “municipal market management” through the local radio station • Example 2 : “Public debate on the budget report by the local government”

13. Development Results and Win-Win Constellations • Substantial and stable rise of local government’s budget through stable revenue • e.g. municipal market management • Creation of new jobs for women and young people • e.g. in market supervision and garbage collection • Improvement of environmental quality of the heavily polluted market locations • e.g. waste removal, public toilets • Improvement of organizational and managerial skills as well as of negotiation capacities of civil society organizations and private sector

14. Renaissance of a climate of mutual trust • Between the civil society, private sector, population on the one hand and the municipal council and authorities on the other, • Triggering a considerable improvement in tax payers’ morale: • the efficiency of tax collection in Dioro has risen from less aprox. 45% for many years up to 95%. • Emergence of a new partnership: a new “reciprocity” • Public services delivered by the municipality are “exchanged” for citizen’s loyalty supporting the new institution of “local government” • Dioro’s “inhabitants” are becoming “citizens”

15. A new culture of transparency and accountability has markedly reinforced the prestige and legitimacy of mandate holders • Civil society and private sector stakeholders are now appreciated partners of the commune • Support from the local population is increasing • leading to a situation in which democrati-cally elected municipal councilors are being taken seriously by central government.

16. Scaling Up and Institutionalization (1) • PACT supports the effort of donor harmonization: • instrument prototypes are developed and refined, large-scale tests carried out and mainstreamed in national reform programs • below the level of donor roundtables, harmonization of approaches emerge as a form of “field level TA pooling”: • By means of synergy with other organizations, some approaches developed by PACT touch up to two thirds of the roughly 700 Malian local municipalities

17. Scaling Up and Institutionalization (2) • PACT is constantly inviting members of the central and sector agencies as resource persons and service providers to the development, implementation and monitoring of new approaches and instruments • They identify increasingly with the “products” (ownership!) • Overcome prejudices within authorities and prepare the ground for dissemination and institutionalization