Newsletter - October-December 2015

Newsletter

Dldp aims through this newsletter to share to the readers the main achievements of each quarter as well as the main activities planned for the next quarter.

This format further enriches the ways of transmitting information through our website www.dldp.al

CONTENT 1 Swiss experience shared with local authorities in Albania

IV-th EDITION OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2015

Swiss experience shared with local authorities in Albania The National Conference on Local Government, organized by the State Minister for Local Issues in close cooperation with international donors who support the administrative-territorial reform in Albania, was held on October 30th in Tirana, and was attended by Albanian mayors, representatives from foreign embassies, international bodies, and state institutions, as well as from national and international experts. This conference served as a platform for the presentation of steps that have been undertaken t owa r d s t r e n g t h e n i n g l o c a l government in Albania by the Albanian Government in the framework of the consolidation of the Administrative Territorial Reform, as well as towards widening decentralization.

This conference also served as a debate forum on the need for cooperation between different actors in local and national level, aiming the institutionalization of this

cooperation in accordance with the best European standards. Local and foreign experts brought their experience pertaining the territorial reform and decentralization, arguing for these two issues from the viewpoint of different countries and stressing the link between them and different aspects of economy, finances, services, etc.

UNDP/STAR and PLGP/USAID programs, Council of Europe, and dldp, were the sponsors of this event, who have shown to have been and that will be the most active programs in issues of local governance. Dldp implemented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and financed by the Swiss Government, is from about 10 years engaged, among other things, in transmitting the Swiss experience in Albania, to improve the position of

local government and the delivery of services to citizens.

This September, dldp organized a study tour in Switzerland for a group of 18 mayors from partner municipalities and representatives from some ministries of the central government. In the framework of intensifying these exchanges, the Val de Travers Mayor, Mr. Frederic Mairy, was invited as a guest speaker in the National Conference on Local Government. He presented the successful experience of the amalgamation of Val de Travers commune. The presentation of Mr. Mairy was followed with a great deal of interest from all participants, including the Minister for Local Issues in the Albanian Government, and the Chairman of the Administrative and Territorial Reform of the Albanian Parliament.

1 Consultative meeting on fiscal decentralization

Consultative meeting on fiscal decentralization

2 Representatives from Kosovo municipalities visit Albania to exchange with local government counterparts

In the framework of activities supporting fiscal decentralization, dldp in cooperation with the Finance Ministry and PLGP / USAID, organized on October 16th, 2015, in the premises of Hotel Tirana International, a consultative meeting on fiscal decentralization, with the presence of almost all mayors of the country, as well as local finances experts, civil society and donors’ representatives.

The meeting aimed at promotion of consultations and dialogue between central government and local governmental units on the main reforms affecting local finances, presentation of changes to the for m ula allocation of the governmental unconditional transfer and other complementary measures for improving financial situation of local governmental units, including financial management and strategic planning, and also giving inputs on

2 Consultative meeting on dldp Grant Fund LGUs' project-proposals 3 Dldp main achievements during 2015

necessary measures to strengthen local governmental units and ensure effective implementation of the administrative-territorial reform.

The meeting was greeted by the Finance Minister, Mr ShkĂŤlqim Cani, who reaffirmed the will of the government to continue the reforms on the modernization of the government in local level.

PLGP/USAID program expert, Mr Fran Brahimi, in cooperation with Finance Ministry experts, presented the draft document on the allocation formula of the governmental unconditional transfer, explaining in a comparative way the current formula towards the new features of the new document, compiled for and in cooperation with the Finance Ministry.

Also, experts from the State Ministry for Local Issues presented the new

functions that it is thought to transfer to municipalities and the way of financing them.

In the meeting, dldp through its program manager, Mrs Valbona Karakaçi, stressed the need for the measures to be taken to improve the management of finances in local level. She also presented the dldp experience in performance benchmarking as regards local finances in local level, by using the PEFA draft report, prepared by dldp, as the first report created in the local level in Albania.

Representatives from Kosovo municipalities visit Albania to exchange with local government counterparts A delegation of around 80 local government representatives from 17 municipalities in Kosovo had an official visit during 17-18 November in Albania to hold a planning session and to exchange with their colleagues and partners here.

During his welcome speech Swiss Ambassador Mr. Christoph Graf mentioned the importance of inclusiveness when it comes to governance, referring to the need for consensus and participation from all concerned institution and groups. The new Mayor of Shkodër, Mrs. Voltana Ademi talked about waste management issues in her municipality. She mentioned examples of new instruments that are being used to manage waste such as the inter-municipal scheme introduced by the Swiss decentralisation programme in the north which creates links between neighboring municipalities in tackling

waste.

On behalf of the Municipality of Tirana D e p u t y M a y o r, M r s .

Brunilda Paskali presented the experience of how the municipal council relates to the executive body in Tirana’s case.

About 19 representatives from the Serb-led municipalities of Kosovo were also part of the visit.

Mr. Stanko Trajkovićis the deputy head of commune in Partesh says his unit has a very good cooperation with the Swiss supported local governance programme DEMOS that operates in Kosovo. Both Kosovo and Albania are engaged in reforming local government structures although the decentralisation process in Kosovo has started earlier. Two common challenges

are related to clear competences and financial delegation at local level. On the other hand, regional cooperation in the Western Balkans is a focus of Switzerland’s policy in the region.

Swiss embassies in both countries support actively the strengthening of local governance and the acceleration of decentralisation.

Consultative meeting on dldp Grant Fund LGUs' project-proposals With the support of the Swiss Cooperation in Albania, dldp has allocated a 700,000 Euro fund for the identification, development, implementation and monitoring of projects selected from municipalities of Kukës, Dibër and Durrës Qarks. On October 23rd, 2015, a consultative meeting was held in Tirana with the participation of 7 municipalities of these 3 Qarks that would benefit from the instrument of dldp Grant Fund, where they presented the current status of activities for project-proposals' writing, findings, challenges and approaches proposed.

In the meeting there were the technical staff representatives of these beneficiary municipalities: Durrës, Shijak, Tropojë, Dibër, Mat and Klos, members of dldp partner organizations supporting municipalities in projectproposal writing, Swiss Embassy representatives, as well as experts from Environmental Ministry and Urban Development Ministry.

The proposed project-proposals during the technical workshop from each

municipality are identified during a process separated into several phases.

First their identification was carried out in the framework of the Functional Zones Program (FZP), where 5 of the best project were rated by the public, experts and local elected officials.

Then their re-validation was done by new mayors. After this, pre-feasibility evaluations were carried out and there were set up scenarios based in projectideas, which are being developed further into full proposals with the support of the dldp.

LGUs' experts, supported by relevant service providers, presented the

selected approach, technical and financial scenarios combined with elements of social inclusion, risks identification associated with the project during implementation and eventual solutions, as well as the need for technical assistance to continue the implementation. Valuable suggestions were given by ministerial experts, whic h ser ved to the tec hnical improvement of project-proposals so that projects will be implemented on a faster pace.

The implementation of these projects will be carried out in 2016.

Dldp main achievements during 2015 Waste management 1. During 2015 dldp efforts were mainly concentrated to improve service delivery and to increase citizen’s satisfaction on waste service in the supported LGUs mainly due to optimization of service in Shkodra and Lezha Municipalities.

Some most important achievements are highlighted as follow: The average fee collection in 10 dldp partner LGUs (CC members) is increased by 2%.

Model of waste management planning has been applied in 4 new Municipalities.

Two integrated waste plans have been prepared through Functional Area Programs in old partner LGUs (Lezhë and Malësi e Madhe); 2. Dldp key products such as support packages, curricula, standards, etc. are owned by national actors and their institutional capacity for knowledge management and dissemination at local and national level is improved.

Evidence based on such improvement: Waste management planning has been introduced within Polis University program (Environmental Engineering Course); dldp technical packages have been used nationally outside dldp area (in 7 new municipalities) as well as internationally. Concrete examples shows that dldp cost and tariff model has been used in Kosovo and Peru.

3 good practices in Waste management have been developed and partially up-scaled in collaboration with capacitated agencies of environment.

A National conference in waste management was organized in collaboration with EUD & MoE, serving to share dldp’s and other stakeholders’ experiences, views and products in the sector.

The implications for local finances as regards this draft-law, were clearly deconstructed by the expert on public finances, Mr. Fran Brahimi, who spoke at length on new features of this draft-law, such as the materialization of internal auditing by establishing a Commission of Finances as an internal auditing mechanism of the municipalities, the issue of the formula, transfers, and the right to establish taxes and tariffs, the way of calculation, gathering and administration inside boundaries and according to criteria described by law, etc.

Mr Eduart Cani, public services experts, discussed the new organic law as regards public services, specifically in the sector of urban waste. An important part was the new features this draft-law brings, such as the principle of multitudes of ways to carry out services, starting from internal structures of the municipality itself to the specifics of public-private partnerships, the sanctioning of the obligation to set up standards on performance management for each of the public services and the obligation for their monitoring, more rights to municipalities by giving way to the freedom of action beyond Qark - level sanctions, etc.

The meeting of CC continued its work in parallel separate sessions according to thematic, where members of the CC had the possibility to express their opinions in front of DLDP experts, including their experiences, concerns and reco-mmendations on issues of waste management, finances, funds access, gender equality, as regards the new organic law. A new feature in this meeting was the establishment of CC with the participation of the Network of Women in Politics, as another possibility to strengthen the role of women councillors in their municipalities.

Public Finance Management 1. Dldp has continued in 2015 to contribute towards a stronger financial management of LGUs by supporting the access to other funding sources, generation of own revenues and lobbying for further financial decentralization in line with the new government plans.

In local and national level the highlighted achievements are: 16 old LGUs and 15 new LGUs implement the FPT piloted package as new guidelines.

Dldp tools and curricula on SDPeMTBP and PFM are disseminated on national scale to LGUs outside the dldp area.

2 good practices in PFM (FPT- budget evaluation, PEFA analysis) have been developed and partially up-scaled.

A National Conference on Grant Formula in collaboration with MoF and PLGP served to introduce dldp’s position towards PFM at local level as well as to share the experience with PEFA analysis at local level.

2. Dldp key products are owned by national actors and their institutional capacity for knowledge management and dissemination at local and national level is improved: There is evidence of at least 2 dldp products which are within the business/annual plans of identified institutions, such as Financial Planning Tool (FPT) within STAR package of support and Public Financial Management (PFM) curricula within annual program of ASPA for training of civil servants.

Fund Access Dldp approach in 2015 was to establish a performance based grant scheme for the new LGUs so these new LGUs can benefit of traditional grants (scheme validated in dldp 2) combined with performance elements. The project supported the selected LGUs with on-budget grants to strengthen their responsiveness and thus service delivery in the four selected areas of dldp (PFM, waste management, e-governance, fund access/inter-LGU cooperation). These grants will be disbursed ‘on budget’ with the only conditionality that only activities mentioned under the strategic development plan can be financed.

The main highlighted achievement in Fund access line are: At least 7 projects of Grant Fund have been fully developed under support of dldp.

There was developed The Methodology on Functional Area Program and implemented FAP as an instrument to enhance economic development, to improve public service delivery and organizational structuring in 7 Functional Areas (FA). There were identified project packages for 6 FA in the 3 new Qarks and 2 FA in the old Qarks.

Functional Area Program was further developed in Territorial Strategy and linked with annual budget. Identified projects will be addressed in new budgets.

A sectorial national event has been organized related to dldp core packages, such as: a fair of identified projects through FAP in collaboration with MoSLI, MoIPA, MUD (and other organizations) served to share methodology of Functional Area Program as well as the packages of identified projects.

2. Dldp committed around EUR 700,000 to support the traditional grant fund scheme: 100,000 Euro per LGU. LGUs agreed to co-finance at least 20 % of the project/s budget.

E-Governance and communication The OSSH instrument is one of the crucial tools for realizing the decentralization process and strongly builds on two cross-cutting GoA approved strategies, namely “European Digital Agenda of Albania” and “Public Administration Reform”. GoA's primary objectives for implementing the reforms are to reduce the scope for corruption, foster a citizen-focused culture for public services, and reduce the time and cost of service delivery both for citizens and the government.

As dldp has worked with the one-stop shop model over a long period, it is regarded by the national government as an important partner that can help local governments to strengthen their public service provision.

After the successful piloting in Lezha and Kallmet, the model is under consolidating process in Lezha, adding a new administrative unit (Shengjin). The consolidation process includes the integration of old OSSh, as per the new LGUs functioning. Currently, the model is under

implementation in Shkodra Municipality and administrative units of Velipoja and Dajc, Bregu i Bunes and will be completed with Vau i Dejes and Bushat. In addition, other 2 LGUs (Klos and Mat) will be supported by dldp through the grant fund scheme with the projects of integrated OSSh. The main highlighted achievements in the electronic governance and communication thematic line are: Improvement of quality and quantity of information delivery. Improvement of citizens perception in accessing and delivering the service, compared to summer 2014.

Model of integrated OSSH developed and piloted as well as 2 Integrated OSSH with improved access to Municipality information established.

Dldp experiences in Integrated OSSH have fed into Sector Working Group discussions and donor positions towards government. Such experience has been

widely accepted by different political parties.

There are 67 services digitalized in IOSSH Lezhë and 26 services digitalized in IOSSH Shkodër.

1 good practice on integrated OSSHs is developed and is part of National strategies.

Policy influence and Knowledge Management 1. The Decentralization Strategy had a strong drive for decentralization, striving for more functions given to local level. Other strategies, such as Public Administration reform strategy, Digital Agenda, Strategy on Public Finance Management as well are having a strong impact to local level. The sectorial frame being subject of revisions had its impact as well in the approach of dldp, within its core packages of support which have a strong sectorial orientation.

Dldp and its key partners contributed to more conducive national decentralisation policy and legal framework by feeding in systemic and structured learning.

2. Dldp supported institutions to deliver recognized tools and curricula at national scale in collaboration with research actors (academia, independent think tanks).

On this regard we can list some main achievements: 5 curricula recognized by ASPA and Line Ministries (MoF, MoE, MoIPA/AKSHI, MoSLI) that have been integrated in their plans.

One paper on Knowledge Management (KM) opportunities was developed and shared through Decentralization Strategy process.

Dldp has collected data concerning ‘available products for continuous education of local experts’ and has published a catalogue of such products in collaboration with ASPA and with the support of MoSLI and MoIPA. The Catalogue refers 105 products from 13 programs.

3. Dldp has worked hard to validate and anchor the local governance standards with capacitated agencies.