Strengthening regional and local governance in the Kvemo Kartli region

2008

Capacity Development Response Strategy Kvemo Kartli Region

Strengthening Regional and Local Governance in the Kvemo Kartli Region

This document tries to assess the capacity assets and gaps of the regional office of the governor and the seven municipalities of Kvemo Kartli region, Georgia and tries to suggest solutions for some of the gaps through this capacity development response strategy.

Bikash Ranjan Dash Capacity Development Advisor UNDP, Georgia

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Table of Contents

Acronyms…………………………………………………………………………………………………….................................... 3 Executive Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………….................................. 4 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………................................ 16 2. Context ………………………………………………………………………………………………….................................. 16 3. Methodology and process ……………………………………………………………………………........................... 18 3.1. UNDP’s approach to capacity development and assessment ……………………………............... 18 3.2. Process followed …………………………………………………………………………………............................. 19 4. Summary of capacity assets and gaps …………………………………………………………….......................... 23 4.1. Regional Administration ………………………………………………………………………………………………... 23 4.2. Municipal Administration ……………………………………………………………………............................ 26 5. Capacity Development Response Strategy ………………………………………………………........................ 34 5.1. Regional Administration ………………………………………………………………………............................ 34 5.2. Municipal Administration ……………………………………………………………………............................ 35 Appendices Appendix I – Capacity Development Response Strategy Matrix (Regional Administration) ………… 69 Appendix II – Capacity Development Response Strategy Matrix (Local Administration)................. 74 Appendix III ‐ Executive Summary of Institutional Baseline Mapping Report ……………………............. 92 Appendix IV‐ Prioritized Capacity Gaps (In consultation with the stakeholders )…………………………... 98 Appendix V‐ Sample questionnaire for planning and coordination component ……………………………101

UNDP | 2

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Acronyms

ACH‐ Accion Contra El Hambre BDD‐ Basic data and direction CA‐ Capacity Assessment CD‐ Capacity Development CEGSTAR‐ The Centre for Effective Governance System and Territorial Arrangement Reform CIS‐ Commonwealth of Independent States EC‐ European Commission EU‐ European Union GDP‐ Gross Domestic Product ICT‐ Information communication and technology KK‐ Kvemo Kartli MTEF‐ Medium Term Expenditure Framework NALA‐ National Association of Local Authorities OSCE‐ Organization for Security and Co‐operation in Europe SIDA‐ Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency UNDP‐ United Nations Development Programme

UNDP | 3

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Executive Summary

During the “Rose Revolution” of November 2003, many Georgians—spurred on by rampant corruption and the state failing to deliver basic services—took to the streets to demand reform. A new government was formed, which started the reform process. A second wave of reforms was initiated in 2005 and 2006 to create a solid legal basis for self‐governance.

Numerous laws were passed outlining the broad responsibilities of the regional and municipal levels of government and attempting to delineate their functions.

UNDP, with support from SIDA, started a series of projects in Georgia in the area of Democratic Governance. One of these projects was Strengthening Local and Regional Governance in the Kvemo Kartli Region. The project aims to strengthen local and regional governance structures in the Kvemo Kartli region by using the capacity development approach.

UNDP Georgia and the Kvemo Kartli project decided to use UNDP’s capacity development framework for the regional and local governance reform in the Kvemo Kartli region. The capacity development framework of UNDP suggests that the capacity development process should go through five steps: 1. Engage stakeholders on CD process 2. Assess capacity assets and needs 3. Formulate capacity development strategies 4. Implement capacity development strategies 5. Monitor and evaluate capacity development strategies

UNDP’s capacity assessment framework has three dimensions: point of entry, core issues and functional capacities. It also suggests a capacity assessment methodology and a practice tool to diagnose capacity assets and needs at three levels where the country’s capacity resides: enabling environment, organization and individual. The Kvemo Kartli project adapted the capacity assessment tool to factor in local requirements. Three sources of information were used to collect data, namely, interviews with beneficiaries and stakeholders (using open ended questions), self‐assessment questionnaires and focused group discussions. There was a separate chapter of questionnaires covering issues and challenges related to the representative body (Sakrebulo).

The capacity assessment process started with an institutional baseline mapping exercise with the following thematic areas: UNDP | 4

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

1. Organizational and human resource management issues 2. Planning and coordination 3. Budgeting and financial management 4. Procurement and service delivery 5. Monitoring and evaluation 6. Communication and implementation

In the inception phase of the project, the Kvemo Kartli project built rapport with the regional and local administrations, and the municipalities nominated one person each from the executive and representative bodies as a focal point to work closely with the project. At the project level, the Capacity Development Advisor developed the questionnaires, which were translated into Georgian, and got feedback from the staff before they were finalized.

Because of the technicality of the questions, the Kvemo Kartli project decided to use project officers to help fill out the questionnaires. The departments and committees organized a series of meetings to discuss different issues and to fill in the questionnaires. All the information received through these questionnaires was compiled by the project officers, and a single, completed questionnaire was prepared for each municipality. Two villages in each municipality were selected on a random sampling basis, where project officers conducted focused group discussions to get an idea of the responses from community about service delivery.

The process of designing a capacity development response strategy went through all the steps prescribed in the capacity assessment methodology user’s guide: 1. Engage partner and build consensus 2. Assess capacity assets and needs 3. Summarize and interpret results 4. Formulate capacity development response strategies By using the above mentioned tools, the Kvemo Kartli project collected all the information, which consisted of capacity assets and gaps for both municipal and regional administration.

These capacity gaps led to the formulation of a capacity development response strategy having the following four clusters: 1. Human resources 2. Organizational arrangements 3. External accountability 4. Strategic planning UNDP | 5

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

For each of the clusters, the Kvemo Kartli project, in consultation with other stakeholders, came up with short‐, medium‐ and long‐term strategies at three levels: enabling environment, organizational and individual. The Capacity Development Response Strategy was described separately for both the regional and local administrations.

Regional administration: Human Resources: Some of the issues under this section are the unclear and inappropriate HR regulations and rules, which are necessary to implement functions properly. Under the enabling environment point of entry, some of the short‐ and medium‐term (no long‐term activities in this section) activities are the following: 1. Map the processes related to recruitment, performance assessment, and promotion, and then, suggest improvements 2. Support implementation of recommendations related to recruitment, performance assessment, and promotion There are no activities under organizational and individual point of entry.

Organizational Arrangements: Some of the issues under this section are weak horizontal coordination and information sharing between departments, lack of coordination and information sharing between regional and local administrations, inappropriate organizational structure for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and lack of central government issued methodology/guidelines for data collection, storing and analysis.

Under the enabling environment point of entry, some of the short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities are the following: 1. Conduct a review of current municipal and regional offices of the governor and the line ministry and statistics department practices in the area of data collection, etc. and provide recommendations for improvement 2. Organize a workshop for relevant central and regional government authorities and municipalities to present findings and recommendations for review 3. Discuss the recommendations of the study with the regional administration and support implementation 4. Establish a working group at the national level on local level data collection, sharing, storage and analysis.

Under the organizational point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region will address issues of communication, coordination and appropriate organizational framework for strategic planning, and it will have the following short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities:

UNDP | 6

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

1. Functional and business process mapping and reengineering on communication and coordination 2. Study to find out the appropriate organizational framework 3. Develop guidelines on why and how information sharing between departments can occur 4. Organize a briefing workshop on the draft guidelines 5. Implement the recommendations on data collection, analysis and storage 6. Document and disseminate best practices and lessons learned from the Kvemo Kartli experience.

There are no activities under individual level.

External accountability: The issue under this cluster is a weak communication culture. The regional office of the governor concerning has limited practice to consult different stakeholders. They also have a weak system to disseminate information and receive feedback from the community.

There are no activities under the enabling environment and individual point of entry under this cluster. Under the organizational point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region will try to address the communications issues between the regional administration and community and vice versa. Some of the short‐ and medium‐term activities (there are no long‐term activities under this section) are: 1. Functional analysis and business process mapping and reengineering on communication.

2. Preparation of an analytical study on the strengths and weaknesses of the current feedback mechanism.

3. Implementation of the recommendations on the reengineered processes.

4. Holding of a workshop concerning findings of the analytical report and other citizen feedback mechanisms.

5. Selection and implementation of new/improved citizen feedback mechanism.

Strategy and planning: Different issues under this section are the following: 1. Lack of technical and experienced staff to carry out the planning and budgeting activities 2. Lack of a formal structure to involve different stakeholders in strategy preparation UNDP | 7

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

3. Lack of supporting documents or regulations to prepare strategic documents (such as a manual, guidelines of approving strategic documents, and formation of working groups for the preparation of strategic documents) 4. Lack of appropriate methodology to design the strategic plan 5. Inappropriate organizational structure for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation (addressed above under organizational arrangements) Under the enabling environment point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli project plans to conduct a study on current planning methodologies in use as a short‐term activity and provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by the national government. Some of the short‐term and midterm activities (there are no long‐ term activities under this section) under this point of entry are the following: 1. Conduct a study on the current planning methodologies in use and provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by national government.

2. Preparation of the manual on “How to Prepare a Regional Strategy.”

Activities under this point of entry are linked to activities under organizational arrangements. The short‐term and midterm activities under this are the following: 1. Conduct a study on the organizational framework on strategic planning including involvement of different stakeholders.

2. Implement the agreed recommendations.

Under the individual point of entry, there are no short‐term nor long‐term activities. Most of the activities under the individual point of entry will be implemented by the regional administration with support from UNDP project as midterm activities.

1. Organize trainings for staff of regional development unit on strategic and participatory planning.

2. Organize a visit to one of the European countries having similar experiences.

Municipal administration: Human resources: Under this cluster and under the enabling environment point of entry, some of the capacity issues are: unclear or inappropriate criteria in municipalities for staffing structure (level and number); in regard to the executive, a lack of enforcement of civil service code (permanent staff being forced out when there are political changes); no criteria for determining which recruitment process to use (professional vs. short term); lack

UNDP | 8

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

of awareness at the municipal level of the recruitment procedures; promotion criteria not clearly defined in the civil service code; and performance evaluation criteria not explained.

Under the enabling environment point of entry, Kvemo Kartli plans to implement activities to streamline the human resources management system. Some of the short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities are the following: 1. Conduct functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR. 2. Design guidelines for staffing structure of municipalities.

3. Organize workshop for municipal staff members, specialized governance organizations, Ministry of Regional Development and regional office of governor.

4. Organize workshop on current status/difficulties in enforcement of the civil service code.

5. Organize workshop with municipal and regional authorities to increase understanding of recruitment procedures.

6. Develop criteria for selection of municipalities and subsequent selection of two pilots.

7. Apply guidelines in two pilots.

8. Codify the process and make recommendations for improvement concerning the application of guidelines.

9. Provide advice to municipal authorities on how to improve the civil service code, and share experiences from new EU member states on civil service code reform and best practices.

10. Define criteria for application of appropriate recruitment process (whether to choose permanent recruitment or short term recruitment).

11. Conduct research on promotion policies relevant to the Georgian context.

12. Develop criteria for selection of municipalities and subsequent selection of the two pilots.

13. Application of staffing structure guidelines in the two pilots.

14. Codify the process and make recommendations for improvement concerning the application guidelines.

15. Pilot suggested civil service code improvements as noted by the consultant.

UNDP | 9

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

16. Organize a workshop and present results to other municipalities, regional authorities and ministers of regions and NALA. 17. Support preparation of decree on scaling up of good experiences and application of criteria 18. Apply guidelines in remaining municipalities in Kvemo Kartli region 19. Organize workshop and present municipal perspectives and results of research on different promotion policies to national stakeholders 20. Organize workshop to present experiences of pilot municipalities in applying performance evaluation criteria.

Under the organizational point of entry, some of the issues are the lack of job descriptions and a standardized format (coverage, quality and inconsistency in format); lack of standardized and transparent recruitment guidelines for short‐term posts (duration of advertisement, what details are required in a TOR, where to advertise, selection panel); fiscal and non fiscal incentives are subjective—there is no objective criteria that determine which staff will receive them nor specification of type/amount of incentive; and performance criteria for staff are not yet defined nor linked to annual work plans (which are subsequently linked to department work plans).

Under this point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region focuses on streamlining the number of departments and review functions of each of those departments and develops job descriptions for all the civil servants. Some of the other short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities are the following: 1. Conduct functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR. 2. Develop job descriptions in cooperation with relevant municipal HR focal points based on accurate description of the post’s functions.

3. Develop training manual on job description formulation.

4. Hold workshop to train municipal administration in two pilots and regional administration on job description formulation.

5. Conduct study on current incentives being offered and range of options based on staff feedback and best practices in new EU members states 6. Hold workshop for municipal executive and legislative representatives to gain buy‐in on application of policy.

7. Implement the pilot testing.

UNDP | 10

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

8. Conduct study on current practices in performance assessment in Georgia and new EU member states.

9. Organize workshop to train administration in five other municipalities on how to formulate job descriptions.

10. Document best practices and lessons learned of pilot and disseminate to relevant stakeholders.

11. Pilot testing of performance evaluation in one municipality.

12. Documentation and dissemination of lessons learned.

Some of the issues under individual level point of entry are lack of technically skilled staff in certain sectors. However, there are no short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities because this is beyond scope of the project and the region as this is related to education reform and other factors.

Organizational arrangements: Some of the issues under the enabling environment point of entry are: lack of alignment of local priorities and budget allocation provided by the central government, municipalities lacking access to and/or understanding of key guidelines issued by central government (including budgeting, procurement, public expenditure management/accounting and reporting, financial control, audit, laws and decrees and delegated responsibilities).

There are no short‐term activities under this section. Some of the medium‐ and long‐term activities are the following: 1. Hold workshop on BDD and MTEF processes for municipalities in Kvemo Kartli region to ascertain impediments to their participation and understanding and to increase dialogue between national stakeholders and municipalities in Kvemo Kartli region.

2. Develop an inventory of all applicable laws, decrees, and processes/procedures relevant to municipal functions and responsibilities.

3. Establish a physical and e‐library of information 4. Disseminate findings/results of the workshop to relevant stakeholders at the national level.

5. Analyse laws, decrees, legal acts, procedures, etc.

The issues under the organizational point of entry are: weak horizontal coordination and information sharing between departments, lack of coordination between the head of the executive and departments, lack of clear reporting lines within departments, lack of alignment and overlap of department’s functions to the services the municipality has to UNDP | 11

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

provide, limited transparency and understanding of the financial management process within the municipality, and lack of coordination and information sharing between the regional and local administrations. Some of the short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities under this point of entry are the following: 1. Conduct a functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR. 2. Conduct a study on existing practices and impediments to coordination and information sharing.

3. Develop guidelines on why and how information sharing between departments can occur.

4. Organize briefing workshop on the draft guidelines.

5. Develop guidelines on why and how coordination should occur.

6. Organize briefing workshop on the draft guidelines.

7. Codify lessons drawn from functional analysis.

8. Implement in remaining five municipalities.

9. Organize workshop with all the Kvemo Kartli regional municipalities on the findings on mapping and proposed changes.

10. Implement changes in department structure and functions in two municipalities.

11. Organize workshop with all the Kvemo Kartli regional municipalities on findings of functional analysis and proposed changes.

12. Implement changes in two municipalities.

13. Organize workshop with all Kvemo Kartli regional municipalities on findings study and positions.

14. Implement changes in all municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region.

15. Document and disseminate best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience.

16. Implement the process mapping across municipalities.

External accountability: Some of the issues under this section are lack of knowledge and understanding of Georgian language for many citizens; municipalities’ weak communication culture concerning consultation with and dissemination of information to communities; weak system among the municipalities to receive feedback from the community; lack of

UNDP | 12

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

horizontal accountability between the executive and representative bodies; and weak citizen participation in accountability mechanisms.

The enabling environment point of entry does not have any short‐ and long‐term activities.

One of the medium‐term activities is the following: 

Preparation of an information package on citizens’ rights and responsibilities in languages other than Georgian and distribution across the Kvemo Kartli region.

Under the organizational point of entry, some of the short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities are the following: 1. Develop a draft communication strategy for two municipalities concerning consultation and information dissemination (including budget process and result).

2. Prepare analytical study on strengths and weaknesses of current feedback mechanism.

3. Conduct a presentation by municipalities to citizens on communication strategy.

4. Select a public information focal point within municipalities and implement the communication strategy.

5. Hold a workshop with pilot municipalities concerning findings of analytical report and other citizen feedback mechanisms.

6. Select and implement new/improved citizen feedback mechanisms.

7. Conduct study on existing practices in two pilot municipalities, document strengths and weaknesses of system and provide recommendations for improvement.

8. Discuss findings of study with two municipalities and implement agreed upon recommendations.

9. Support community in self‐organization efforts through provision of examples/models utilized in other countries and elsewhere in Georgia.

Strategic planning: Different issues under this section are the following: 1. Lack of central government issued methodology/guidelines for data collection, storage and analysis.

2. Lack of planning methodology and guidelines from the central government for the municipalities.

3. Lack of proper participatory planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for projects and activities.

UNDP | 13

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

4. Lack of practice to share information with other municipalities within the Kvemo Kartli region in relation to strategy development and planning.

5. Lack of technical and experienced staff to carry out the planning and budgeting activities.

Under the enabling environment point of entry, the short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities are the following: 1. Conduct a review of current municipal, line ministry and statistics department practices in the area of data collection, etc. and provide recommendations for improvement.

2. Hold a workshop for relevant central and regional government authorities and municipalities to present findings and recommendations for review.

3. Conduct a study on current planning methodologies in use and provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by the national government.

4. Establish a working group at the national level on local level data collection, sharing, storage and analysis.

5. Conduct pilot testing in two or three municipalities based on recommendations made in the review.

6. Hold a workshop for relevant national and local stakeholders to discuss findings of the study and endorse a standardized planning methodology.

7. Conduct training of trainers of relevant national government staff to ensure that local level staff will be trained in new methodology.

Under the organizational point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to have series of initiatives under the strategic planning cluster. Some of the short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities are the following: 1. Conduct stakeholder analysis, form working groups, and provide training on participatory planning.

2. Conduct data collection to analyse the situation.

3. Conduct study on the best practices in inter‐municipal cooperation in Georgia and new EU member states and accession countries.

4. Hold a symposium for interested municipal stakeholders on study findings.

UNDP | 14

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

5. Train departments on participatory planning, budgeting, implementation, and M&E methodology.

6. Implement selected pilot projects.

7. Implement selected pilot projects with criteria that will encourage inter‐municipal cooperation in terms of planning and implementation.

8. Document and disseminate lessons learned and best practices from the pilot projects to other municipalities.

UNDP | 15

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

1. Introduction

During the “Rose Revolution” of November 2003, many Georgians—spurred on by a state failing to deliver basic services and rampant corruption—took to the streets to demand reform. A new government was formed and, utilizing an amended constitution, began to undertake a series of dramatic governance reforms targeting combating corruption, improving macro‐economic stability, attracting foreign direct investment, balancing the budget, and re‐structuring governance with an increased focus on municipalities and their role in providing basic services. The results of this first wave of reforms have been impressive in terms of economic growth, though this has not translated into broader human development gains.

In terms of economic performance, growth has averaged five percent from 2004 to present.

General data on development within the country denotes a middle income level of a per capita GDP of USD 3,365 annually, a high life expectancy of 70.2 years, and a 76.3 percent combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary education. Other data, however, illustrates the depth of human poverty with 61.9 percent of the population living on less than USD 4 a day (according to 2004 data), a low expenditure per person on public health (USD 171), a decrease in the percent of the population using improved sanitation (from 97 percent in 1990 to 94 percent in 2004), and a relatively high infant mortality rate (41 per 1,000 live births). Poverty in the rural areas and unemployment remain chronic issues which have been exacerbated by the recent Russian embargo on Georgian agricultural products.

Within this context, the Georgian government began a second wave of reforms in 2005 and 2006 to create a solid legal basis for self‐governance. Numerous laws were passed outlining the broad responsibilities of the regional and municipal levels of government and attempting to delineate their functions. Following the 2006 elections, and as a result of subsequent studies and analysis, it became clear that the local government (both regional and municipal levels) was having difficulties in fulfilling its functions according to law.

2. Context

The project aims to strengthen the local and regional governance structures in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia. Through a combination of capacity development tools, the project tries to enhance the seven municipalities and the region’s ability to become both better governed and to deliver services to the full spectrum of local citizens, thus counteracting poverty and disadvantage in the region.

The project provides the necessary assistance to new municipalities in assuming their new roles and responsibilities while, at the same time, overseeing the delivery of local services in UNDP | 16

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

an effective and efficient manner. Currently, very few local government officials (an estimated 30 percent) have experience in local government. Even those that do have such experience are operating in a completely different environment to that of the pre‐election environment of October 20061. Consequently, the proposed project is essentially a capacity development assistance project which focuses on the following objectives:   

Improved regional governance: Increased capacity of the regional government to coordinate and facilitate the formulation and implementation of the regional development strategy and plans.

Improved local governance: Improved capacity of municipality officials to streamline administrative procedures and systems for efficient delivery of public services.

Secure policy mainstreaming of the project’s experience: Policy experience of the project is documented. Attempts taken in ensuring that the experience of the project is utilized by other districts in the country, as well as by policymakers at the national level.

UNDP, with support from SIDA, started a series of projects in Georgia in the area of Democratic Governance. One of these projects was Strengthening Local and Regional Governance in the Kvemo Kartli Region.

The Kvemo Kartli project will contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) outcome, which is related to strengthening the efficiency and accountability of governance structures at the central and local levels to build an inclusive and participatory decision‐making process. This is translated into the UNDP Country Programee Action Plan (CPAP) outcome as “increased capacities of regional and local governments in line with national decentralisation strategy and efforts. Local government institutions stregthened and able to undertake new responsiblities once decentralisation actions (including fiscal decentralisation) are carried out.” On the outcome level, this involves increasing the capacity of the local administration to perform new competencies. It will contribute to poverty reduction by strengthening the local and regional governance structures in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia. Through a combination of capacity development responses, the project will enhance the seven districts’ and region’s ability to become both better governed and to deliver services to the full spectrum of local citizens, thus counteracting poverty and disadvantage in the region.

The project is providing the necessary assistance to new municipalities in assuming their new roles and responsibilities while, at the same time, overseeing the delivery of local services in an effective and efficient manner. The Kvemo Kartli project is essentially a capacity development investment which focuses on the following themes:

1

“Strengthening regional and local governance in the Kvemo Kartli region (Project Document), UNDP, 2007

UNDP | 17

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

    

Capacity development of newly elected officials not only to understand fully their duties and responsibilities, but to develop appropriate policies and oversee the delivery of the full palette of local government services.

Capacity development to design and put in place the new organizational structure (departments, companies, links to central government and other players, etc.) consistent with the new remit of districts, customized to the nature of the locality.

Capacity development of the mayors and their civil servant staff. These are expected to become permanent and, as such, will represent a key focus of project support.

Capacity development of local citizens to engage with the governance structures and, in particular, to assist vulnerable groups to access local government services.

Capacity development of the governors and their offices to coordinate regional development, thus fulfilling a critical regional governance function.

The project started its operation in September 2007.

3. Methodology and process 3.1 UNDP’s approach to Capacity Development and Capacity Assessment

UNDP defines capacity as “the ability of individuals, institutions and societies to perform functions, solve problems, and set and achieve objectives in a sustainable manner.”

Capacity Development is thereby the process through which the abilities to do so are obtained, strengthened, adapted and maintained over time. Capacity development is seen

by UNDP as a primarily endogenous and domestically driven process.2 A capacity assessment is integral to the planning and programming process. The insights into capacity assets and needs serve as key inputs into the formulation of capacity development response strategies, and the indicators used to measure capacity assets serve as a foundation for the subsequent monitoring and evaluation of capacity development.3 The Capacity Assessment Framework4 is composed of three dimensions: 



Points of Entry: UNDP recognizes that a country’s capacity resides on different levels—enabling environment, organizational and individual—and thus needs to be addressed across three levels.

Core Issues: These represent issues that UNDP is most often called upon to address.

Not all of these issues will necessarily be analysed in any given assessment, but they provide a comprehensive set of issues a capacity assessment team may consider as it defines its scope:

2

Capacity Development practice note, UNDP, September 2007 Capacity Assessment practice note, UNDP, September 2007 4 Capacity Assessment Framework, UNDP, September, 2007 3

UNDP | 18

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

o o o o 

Institutional arrangements and incentives Leadership Education, learning and knowledge Mutual accountability

Functional Capacities: Specific functional capacities are necessary for the successful creation and management of policies, legislations, strategies and programs. UNDP has chosen to prioritize the following functional capacities, which can be applied to all three points of entry and core issues. o Engage with stakeholders o Assess a situation and define a vision and mandate o Formulate policies and strategies o Budget, manage and implement o Monitor and evaluate

UNDP Georgia and the Kvemo Kartli project decided to use UNDP’s capacity development framework for the regional and local governance reform in the Kvemo Kartli region. The capacity development framework of UNDP suggests that the capacity development process should go through five steps: 1. Engage stakeholders on CD process 2. Assess capacity assets and needs 3. Formulate capacity development strategies 4. Implement capacity development strategies 5. Monitor and evaluate capacity development strategies

UNDP’s capacity development framework also suggests a capacity assessment methodology and a practice tool to diagnose capacity assets and needs at three levels where a country’s capacity resides: individual, organizational and enabling environment. The Kvemo Kartli project adapted the capacity assessment tool to factor in local requirements. According to the CA methodology, three sources of information were used to collect data, namely interviews with beneficiaries and stakeholders (using open ended questions), self‐ assessment questionnaires and focused group discussions.

3.2 Process followed

The capacity assessment process started with an institutional baseline mapping exercise having the following objectives: 1. to understand the “current situation” and “state of affairs” of different layers of government, starting from the regional office of the governor, local level municipalities, UNDP | 19

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

community members—especially from women and vulnerable communities and other stakeholders such as the private sector, civil society and international organizations. to have better understanding of the requirements of the regional and local governments and vulnerable communities (such as Azeris, Greeks and Armenians) to collect more information on the existing players in the region already active or interested in any future collaboration to modify the targets (end of 2008 and end of 2009) already mentioned in the results and resources framework of the project to prioritize needs of the regional, local governments and vulnerable communities to be reflected in the action plan or annual work plan of the project to fix indicators against each area of work mentioned below to measure the success of the project during the midterm and final project evaluation. to find out sources and availability of information for regional development strategy

The institutional baseline mapping exercise covered the following thematic areas: 1. Organizational and human resource management issues 2. Planning and coordination 3. Budgeting and financial management 4. Procurement and service delivery 5. Monitoring and evaluation 6. Communication and implementation

There is also a separate chapter of questionnaires covering issues and challenges related to the representative body (Sakrebulo).

In the inception phase of the project, the Kvemo Kartli project built rapport with the regional and local administration and each municipality nominated one person each from the executive and representative bodies as focal points to work closely with the project.

Before starting the institutional baseline mapping exercise, the project introduced the concept of the exercise and clarified different issues with the local and regional administration. All the focal points were asked to extend full support to the project in undertaking this exercise.

At the project level, the Capacity Development Advisor developed the questionnaires, which were translated into Georgian and discussed with all the staff for feedback before they were finalized. Because of the technicality of the questions, the Kvemo Kartli project decided to complete the questionnaires using the project officers rather than hiring volunteers or external contractual staff. Two project officers were given the responsibility of three to four municipalities each to explain the questionnaires, work closely with focal points and different departments, ensure accurate filling of information and compilation. First of all, the questionnaires were circulated to all the departments of the executive and different committees of the representative body, and the procedures for filling in the questionnaires were explained to them. The departments and committees organized a series of meetings UNDP | 20

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

to discuss different issues and to fill in the questionnaires. All the information received through these questionnaires was compiled by the project officers, and a single filled in questionnaire was prepared for each municipality. Although it took up to two months, in retrospect, the project feels that it was a good decision to do it internally using the project officers.

It was very important for the Kvemo Kartli project to get an idea of the responses of the community about service delivery. Two villages in each municipality were selected on a random sampling basis, where project officers conducted focused group discussion and raised a series of issues, which were prepared by the capacity development advisor. These discussions were compiled into reports by the project officers.

All information gathered through the questionnaires and focused group discussions was handed over to the capacity development advisor, who compiled them into an institutional baseline mapping report.

After this, with support from UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre, training on a UNDP capacity development framework was organized for the project staff, and on the job training was provided to all the project staff in two municipalities and the regional development unit of the regional office of governor. A self‐assessment questionnaire was designed and circulated to a few departments of the two municipalities and regional development unit on a pilot basis and then circulated to selected departments in all the municipalities. Analysis of the questionnaires, focused group discussions and results of the self‐assessment questionnaires were reviewed and made available for the preparation of the capacity development response strategy.

The process of designing the capacity development response strategy went through all the steps prescribed in the capacity assessment methodology user’s guide5.

1. Engage partners and build consensus: Just after the beginning of the project in September 2007, the entire project team went to the regional office of the governor and all seven municipalities to introduce the project and explain that the capacity development approach will be used to implement all the activities. Presentations were also made to explain and provide more information about this approach. The municipalities and the regional office of the governor showed interest for this approach, and steps were discussed to carry this activity forward.

2. Assess capacity assets and needs: Under this step, as mentioned above, the objectives and expectations of this exercise were explained to the clients. The team was formulated, which consisted of the project officers from the project, focal points from the municipality and a representative of the regional office of the governor. The default capacity assessment was studied properly and adapted to the local needs. Under the core issues, it was decided to cover:

5

Capacity Assessment Methodology, User’s Guide, UNDP, May 2007

UNDP | 21

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

a. Institutional arrangements and incentives i. Human resources ii. Business processes iii. ICT and physical resources iv. Mission and strategy b. Leadership c. Mutual accountability.

Similarly, under functional capacities, the following functions were agreed to be covered: a. b. c. d. e. f.

Assess a situation (visioning and stakeholder mobilization) Formulate policy and strategy Plan, budget and implement Monitor and evaluate Communicate and coordinate Procurement and service delivery

Through the institutional baseline mapping exercise and self‐assessment questionnaires, the project conducted the capacity assessment.

3. Summarize and interpret results: Through the capacity assessment process, the Kvemo Kartli project identified a set of capacity assets and capacity gaps. While summarizing and interpreting results, the project deliberately started with capacity assets, which built confidence among the local and regional administration. Both the project and regional and local administrations agreed to build upon the capacity assets and address the capacity gaps. For each of the activities, the Kvemo Kartli project worked very closely with the regional and local administrations. In the beginning of this step, representatives of the local administration were asked to group different gaps under different core and sub‐core issues and under different functional capacities. In a workshop organized by the Kvemo Kartli project, they were divided into different groups and asked to prioritize the capacity gaps under each core issue. Then, they (all participants together) were asked to prioritize the capacity gaps from the municipality requirement point of view across all the core issues. The representatives from the municipalities identified eight priority areas (please refer annex V for details). A similar exercise was repeated for the regional administration.

4. Formulate Capacity Development Response Strategies: As mentioned above, all those capacity gaps (mentioned in annex V) were grouped into four following clusters: a. Human Resources b. Organizational Arrangements c. External Accountability d. Strategic Planning UNDP | 22

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

At this stage, the Kvemo Kartli project got support from the UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre to design a capacity development response strategy matrix (Please refer to annex IV to see four matrix). In separate consultations with the municipal and regional administrations, Kvemo Kartli facilitated formulation of strategies from those clustered gaps, having short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities. For each of the agreed activities, responsible parties were also chosen to implement or support the activities. Each activity was linked to outputs and output indicators, which will help the local, regional administration and the project to monitor the progress made on implementation.

4. Summary of capacity assets and gaps

By using the tools mentioned above, the Kvemo Kartli project collected all the information, which consisted of capacity assets and gaps for both the regional and municipal administrations.

4.1. Regional administration Organization and human resource management

Some of the capacity assets under organization and resource management are: 1. Function and responsibilities are clearly defined by presidential decree and the law on state supervision, and most of the departments under the Kvemo Kartli regional administration are clear about their roles and responsibilities.

2. Almost all the staff have graduated from universities, and fifty percent of the staff have more than ten years of work experience.

3. The regional office of the governor has good physical and technical (computers, telephones etc) infrastructure. They also have a website.

Some of the capacity gaps are the following: 1. The regional office of the governor does not have clear and appropriate Human Resources Management practices (recruitment, performance assessment and promotion).

2. Some of the staff do not have well defined job descriptions.

3. There is a clear lack of gender balance in different departments under the regional office of governor. Only six out of twenty‐three staff are females. None of the female staff are in senior positions.

UNDP | 23

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

4. Even though most of the staff are graduates from the universities, they do not have enough technical and functional capacity to carry out their daily business.

Planning and coordination Under the planning and coordination component, the following capacity assets were identified: 1. During the institutional baseline mapping exercise, it was discovered that there is an existence of informal horizontal and vertical coordination mechanisms within different departments of the regional office of the governor and between the regional office of the governor and municipalities.

2. The regional office of the governor has prepared a draft regional development strategy with support from UNDP, EC, ACH and OSCE. 3. According to the law, the regional development unit within the regional office of the governor has been created, which is responsible for preparation of the regional development strategy.

4. It was also learned during the institutional baseline mapping exercise that a mechanism within the regional administration office exists to collect information from municipalities (done separately by different departments), compile the information and send it to the central government.

Some of the capacity gaps are the following: 1. Even though horizontal and vertical coordination mechanisms exist within different departments of the regional office of the governor or between the regional and local administration, they need substantial improvement.

2. Similarly, a basic system of coordination and information sharing between the local and regional administration exists.

3. Even though the regional development unit has been created according to the law, there is insufficient organizational structure in the regional administration office for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, and implementation.

4. The central government has not issued any methodology for data collection, storage and analysis. That is why the regional office of the governor finds it difficult to systematize the process.

5. During the institutional baseline mapping exercise, it was observed that planning at the regional office of the governor happens on an ad hoc basis and is not supported by systematically collected socioeconomic data.

UNDP | 24

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

6. The regional office of the governor does not have the formal structure to involve different stakeholders in preparing a long‐term strategy.

7. Lack of supporting documents or regulations regarding strategic planning (such as a manual, methodology, or guidelines for approval and formation of a working group) Budgeting and financial management Some of the capacity assets under budgeting and financial management are: 1. According to the law, the regional office of the governor supervises activities as well as financial activities, including budget expenditure of activities at the municipal level supported by central government.

2. The regional office of the governor participates in defining priorities of municipalities for the annual budget plan and also receives analysed information on municipal revenues and expenditures every month. But, the regional office of the governor does not have any power or authority over the finances of municipalities.

3. There is a system in the central government which regularly undertakes an audit of the finances of the regional office of the governor.

Some of the capacity gaps are the following: 1. The regional office of the governor does not receive any budget from the central government to implement the socioeconomic development strategy.

Communication and implementation Some of the capacity assets under communication and implementation are the following: 1. During the institutional baseline mapping exercise, it was learned that the regional office of the governor has a basic system in place to share information with community.

2. The regional office of the governor has a basic paper filing system to store official information.

Some of the capacity gaps are the following: 1. Even though the regional office of the governor has basic systems in place for

communication within community, it needs substantial improvement.

UNDP | 25

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

4.2. Municipal administration The project has identified some capacity assets and gaps for the local administration through the institutional baseline mapping and self‐assessment questionnaires. They have been summarized in the following paragraphs.

Organization and human resource management issues The following organizational/human resource management issues have been documented: 

Organization structure



Functional responsibilities



Staffing and qualifications



Training and development



Job descriptions



Recruitment, appraisal and promotion



Office equipment/facilities

Some of the capacity assets can be summarized as follows: 1. Organic law of local self‐government defines and regulates legal, financial and economic foundations for local self‐government, state guaranties and rule of establishing self‐government bodies, their authority, responsibilities, accountabilities and relationships with state bodies. The roles and responsibilities of each department in a municipality have been clearly defined by the statute of the representative body.

2. During the institutional baseline mapping exercise, it was learned that there is a smaller number of contractual staff and vacant positions in the municipalities. Most of the staff are at least graduate and above, which reflects the high standard of the workforce in the civil service.

3. The staffing structure and number is decided by the local administration, which gives a lot of scope to manoeuvre assignments of staff depending on the priorities of a particular municipality.

4. A few ministries, such as the Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs provided some training to different municipalities. Some departments organize trainings on their own and do not require support from any private training provider at the municipal level.

5. According to Georgian law, all staff must have job descriptions. Job descriptions are derived from the functions of departments, which are defined in the statute of the executive. While conducting the baseline mapping exercise, it was learned that

UNDP | 26

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

some of the departments within the municipalities have completed job descriptions for individual staff, although they need substantive improvement.

6. Sometimes, the community members express their dissatisfaction or satisfaction regarding a particular project or service through the representative of executive.

But, they are not sure whether or not that information is communicated to the right authorities.

Some broad conclusions on gaps can be made based on the above: 

The structure and number of staff within departments vary in each municipality.

Names and functions of departments in different municipalities are not clarified regarding provision of service delivery. Even if the roles and responsibilities of departments are clearly defined by law, it is not clear to most of the departments.



The functions of the regional administration are defined in law in very general terms.

The governance system of the region and municipalities as a whole is based on a strong upward accountability. Efficiency in administration and ultimately in service delivery is compromised as there is considerable degree of lack of clarity of functional responsibilities. Civil servants are occupied with ad hoc activities given by the head of the executive.



The ratio of civil servant and population is 1:891, and most of the civil servants are young, having between one to 10 years of experience. The percentage of minority staff to the total staff is very low, even though the minority population in particular municipalities is very high. Local authorities decide their staffing structure and cover the salary cost.



There is significant training focused on the dissemination of information about new rules, regulations and policies. There is not, however, a sequenced program of training targeting a broad base of staff that is linked to wider policy objectives.

Moreover, training is also not systematically provided on the basis of identified training needs. Rather, levels of training vary annually depending upon the availability of funding (including external project related funding).



In a significant number of departments reviewed, staff had not received the required technical training (for example in the use of computers or in financial management).

There does not appear to be any performance orientation in the current training system, which means that none of the training is organized systematically to enhance the skills and increase the performance of the staff.



The decree of Sakrebulo (representative body) defines functions of departments, which determine individual job descriptions. But some of the departments within different municipalities do not have individual job descriptions.

UNDP | 27

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY



There is no formalized system of recruitment, promotion and performance evaluation of civil servants. Recruitment of civil servants is done by the head of the executive6 with recommendations from the heads of different departments.

Performance of the civil servants is measured by the head of the executive.

However, there are no formalized procedures or criteria for evaluation. The recruitment of civil servants is done by the head of the executive. According to law, the recruitment of staff is the exclusive responsibility of the head of the executive body. However, the heads of departments also give their recommendations for the person who is seeking for the job. In most of the cases, personal recommendations are taken into consideration by the head of the executive.

Planning and coordination This section reviews the current planning process at municipal level. 

 







Some of the municipalities, such as Tetritskaro, Dmanisi and Rustavi are in the process of developing their strategies. While this attempt is worth mentioning here, it is also important to mention that substantial improvement is required regarding the process and the content of the document.

At the regional level, long‐term strategic plans are being prepared. Initially, it was supported by EC, OSCE and ACH. UNDP joined this process from 2007 onwards.

It was observed that the process followed to prepare the annual plans is ad‐hoc in nature. The representative of executive speaks to the community and collects the information regarding their requirement in an informal manner. This information collection at the community level is not done in a participatory fashion.

The Ministry of Finance reviews the municipal plans and discusses with municipalities directly in case they have any questions before allocating the money for implementing the annual plan.

In municipalities like Dmanisi and Tsalka, the executives receive reports from the village at least once every month. Most of the municipalities mentioned during the baseline mapping exercise that they send regular reports to the regional office of the governor.

The head of the executive of most of the municipalities calls for weekly meetings among various departments to discuss different issues, which are considered the main coordination mechanism at the municipality level. The regional office of the governor invites the head of the executive and sometimes a few heads of other departments for a coordination meeting.

6

In this document Gamgeoba will be referred as executive

UNDP | 28

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Some of the capacity gaps are listed below. 

All municipalities mentioned the lack of a short‐, mid‐, or long‐term socioeconomic development strategy or plan, except Tetriskaro, Dmanisi and Rustavi, where they have recently started this process; however, in the municipalities where it has started, the process does not follow a particular methodology.



Municipal plans are prepared on an ad‐hoc basis. The primary purpose of the municipal annual planning process is to define financial priorities as a part of the annual budgeting process. During the baseline mapping exercise, it was mentioned that work plans are prepared in order to submit information about future intentions to central and regional authorities.



In some municipalities the Decree of the Representative Body on the Regulation of the Activities of Executive does not define clearly exactly which department is responsible for the development and implementation of annual, medium‐ and long‐ term socioeconomic development plans.



The problems in the planning process can be summarized as a lack of legislation and supporting decree or documents to enable local authorities to prepare their socioeconomic development plans; a lack of linkage between planning and budgeting processes; and a lack of authentic data for the analysis and lack of involvement of all stakeholders.



No formal coordination mechanism exists within the municipalities. The head of the executive calls for weekly meetings among various departments to discuss a variety of issues. Most of the time, different departments try to coordinate with other departments informally rather than by sending formal letters.

Budgeting and financial management The following elements of budgeting and financial management have been documented: 

The budget preparation process



Accounting and financial reporting systems



Internal audit mechanisms



Arrangements for cash management

UNDP | 29

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Some of the capacity assets under this section are the following: 

  







Most of the municipalities follow the planning and budgeting cycle described in the law on local self‐government unit budget and law on budget system. The budgeting process starts at the end of February every year. The department of finance coordinates all the budgeting activities at the municipal level under the responsibility and guidance of the head of the executive. In February and March all the departments and organizations at the municipal level are asked to prepare their own budget for the next year and submit it to the department of finance for compilation.

While designing the budget for the departments, the opinion or the need of the community is also taken into consideration through the executive representatives at the community level.

Local authorities decide their staffing structure (number of staff and positions) and they also cover the salary costs of the local staff from the local revenue.

In practice, the executive has some discretion to move funds between budget lines (up to five percent of the total budget) but cannot exceed the total level of funding.

Capital funds are held at the municipal level, and payments are released when certification is given that works have met the required standards defined in the contract between the executive and the implementer.

All departments within a municipality send their financial reports related to the project status to the department of finance. The department of finance compiles and submits them to the head of the executive on a monthly basis. The office of the executive compiles all the information in a comprehensive report and submits it to the regional office of the governor and central ministries on a quarterly basis.

In most municipalities, cash is managed by a commercial bank, and civil servants have their individual bank accounts and receive their salaries through a bankcard.

However, there are also exceptions to this. In Tetriskaro municipality, cash management and salary transactions are not done by a commercial bank.

In most of the municipalities, they have three kinds of audit mechanisms: o Inbuilt audit, which is done by the department of finance by tracking the expenditures within the different departments in a particular municipality. o External audit, hired by the representative body to review finances within different executive departments in the municipality, and o Central audit from the state chamber of control to audit special projects and programs undertaken by the different municipalities.

The review highlights a series of weaknesses in the current system, in relation to procedures, reporting and capacity issues. For example: 

Weak linkages between capital and recurrent expenditure systems and misclassifications of capital and recurrent schemes;

UNDP | 30

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY



A significant degree of central control combined with lack of local funds



In some municipalities recurrent expenditure is very high. This gives very little scope to the municipal administration to plan for their developmental activities.



The current internal auditing mechanism looks strong, having three types of auditing practices: inbuilt audit, which is done by the department of finance; external audit, which is done by external auditors hired by representative body; and finally, central audit from state chamber of control, which audits special projects.

Procurement and service delivery This section is concerned with the procurement and service delivery processes at both the regional and municipal levels. Some of the capacity assets in this section can be summarized as follows:  



In Bolnisi municipality, they have additional regulations in addition to the law on state procurement for social assistance activities.

Some of the public services of the municipality, which are delivered with support from the private sector, are electricity, gas, water supply, road construction, garbage collection, public health, sport, cultural and youth services.

In some municipalities, oversight of the public service provision is done by a special unit established in the office of the executive, which controls the quality of the services provided to the community.

The capacity gaps under the procurement and service delivery section are mentioned below: 

There is considerable misunderstanding and misinformation concerning present procurement practices.



Some municipalities have established permanent committees, and some of the municipalities have temporary committees having no permanent members.



Private sector capacity is variable across the region. Some of the public services, which are delivered with support from private sector, are electricity, gas, water provision, road construction, garbage collection, public health, sport, cultural and youth services. Some of the public services are provided by organizations (LTDs), which are established by municipalities.



Existing operation and maintenance of services by the regional and municipal administrations is limited. Some operations and maintenance expenditures are budgeted under capital projects, which are not assured or regular. There is no scheduling of operations and maintenance. All municipalities are using an ad‐hoc, reactive approach in this.

UNDP | 31

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Communication strategy and implementation The following are some of the highlights under the capacity assets under communication strategy and implementation:  







The formal sharing of information is done via regular meetings with the head of the executive and by official letters Sharing of information between the municipality and local population is done by: o Representatives of executive within the community o Local newspaper, television or radio, promotional posters o Members of representative body Future municipal plans are delivered to the population by regular meetings and discussions. Community members can receive information from different departments of the executive by paying a nominal fee.

The maintenance of collected information and data is ensured by the organization of municipal archives. All official letters as well as requests received from citizens are archived on annual basis.

In Dmanisi municipality, Concor limited, a private company, provides updated information regarding government laws and decrees to different departments within a municipality.

The capacity gaps under this section can be summarized as follows: 

The information among different departments of the executive is shared formally and informally. The formal sharing of information is done via regular meetings with heads of the executives and by official letters. Information from the community is collected by the executive representatives based within the community.



It is not a common practice to share information with other municipalities.



Sharing of information between a municipality and the local population is done by representatives of the executive within the community; local newspaper, television, radio, and/or promotional posters; and by members of representative body.



Information sharing practices of municipalities are reactive and not proactive in nature. According to the law, information is open for public. Citizens can write an official request to municipalities or the regional office of the governor and collect information. However, they have to pay a nominal fee for this.

Monitoring and evaluation The capacity assets and gaps under the monitoring and evaluation section are the following: 

In general, there is no special mechanism in place for monitoring and evaluation.

UNDP | 32

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY



Some of the activities, which are monitored at the municipal level, are the following: o A contract is signed between the executive and different organizations to undertake certain service delivery activities. Standards and conditions towards project or service delivery are clearly defined in these contracts. A special commission of the executive inspects and assesses implemented works, conducts field visits, and prepares reports. The commission recommends the department of finance to release payment after monitoring the performance of the project. o Each department prepares an annual work plan and implements activities on the basis of that. The departments report to the head of the executive on a monthly basis, and the head of the executive monitors different activities undertaken by the departments. This report also gives enough scope to different heads of departments to monitor performance of individual staff members.



Some of the indicators used by municipalities to monitor results are time, quality and opinion of local population.

Representative body of local self‐government The capacity assets and gaps of representative body of municipalities can be summarized as follows: 

Within a local self‐government, a representative body is the final approving authority. Different departments within the executive prepare plans, which are compiled and sent to the representative body for approval. In case the representative body does not have any suggestions/clarifications, the plan is approved. The representative body signs the document and sends a copy to the regional office of the governor or central ministries and one copy back to the executive for implementation.



Lack of knowledge of Georgian language is an impediment.



Members of the representative body do not have even the basic equipment to make their work efficient and effective.



The understanding of local self‐governance was very low among representative body members.



Members also find it difficult to visit the community regularly due to lack of budget to cover their travel expenses.



Lack of high qualification and understanding the nuances of law.

UNDP | 33

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY



Support of the regional office of the governor for the executives makes the representative much weaker.

In order to address some of the gaps, the project, in consultation with the local and regional administrations, has come up with capacity development response strategies. These strategies have been categorized as short‐, medium‐ and long‐term activities (Please refer annex I for details). The Kvemo Kartli project will try to address some of the short‐ and medium‐term capacity development response strategies within its project duration of two years and initiate a few long‐term capacity development response strategies, which will be undertaken and completed by the regional and local administration in future.

5. Capacity Development Response Strategy

As mentioned above, all the capacity gaps were grouped into four clusters for both the regional and municipal administrations such as: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Human resources Organizational arrangements External accountability Strategy and planning

For each of the clusters, the Kvemo Kartli project in consultation with other stakeholders came up with short‐, medium‐ and long‐term strategies at three levels: enabling environment, organizational and individual.

The capacity development response strategy will be described separately for both the regional and local administrations. During the formulation of the capacity development response strategy for the Kvemo Kartli region, it was realized that it is very difficult for one project to implement all the activities during the shorter duration of the project. Capacity Development Strategies require broad partnerships with a variety of actors and go beyond the mandate of the project alone. The project endeavours to act as a catalyst to spur others to support the local and regional administration.

5.1 Regional Administration 5.1.1 Human Resources

Some of the issues under this section are the following: 1. Unclear or inappropriate HR regulations and rules, which are necessary to implement functions properly

UNDP | 34

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Enabling Environment: Under this section, the project tries to support some activities in the short‐term and midterm to strengthen the processes related to recruitment, performance assessment and promotion. Although, the number of staff to be recruited is clearly mentioned by the central government, there are no clear guidelines on the processes to be followed. Under the short‐term activities, the project will try to map the existing practices and discuss suggested improvements with the regional administration. These suggestions will be implemented as midterm activities.

Short‐term activities i) Map the processes related to recruitment, performance assessment and promotion, and suggest improvements

Mid‐term activities

Long‐term activities

i) Support implementation There are no long‐term of recommendations activities related to recruitment, performance assessment and promotion

Short‐term activities

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Map the processes related to recruitment, performance assessment and promotion, and suggest improvements

i) Increase stakeholders awareness of the HR deficiencies of the regional office of the governor

i) Key stakeholders attend awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

Outputs

Output indicators

Mid‐term activities

Recommendations i) Support implementation of i) recommendations related to discussed and implemented recruitment, performance assessment and promotion

i) Clear recruitment, performance assessment and promotion criteria document produced and applied

There are no long‐term activities.

Organizational There are no activities under this section.

Individual UNDP | 35

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

There are no activities under this section 5.1.2

Organizational Arrangements

Some of the issues under this section are the following: 1. Weak horizontal coordination and information sharing between departments 2. Lack of coordination and information sharing between regional and local administrations 3. Inappropriate organizational structure for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation 4. Lack of central government issued methodology/guidelines for data collection, storing and analysis.

Enabling Environment: Under this point of entry, the project tries to address the issues of data collection, storage and analysis mechanisms. The project envisages conducting a review under the short‐term activities, followed by a discussion on the recommendations of the study with both regional and local administrations as midterm activities. As one of the objectives of the project is to influence central level policy, under the long‐term activities, the project plans to formulate a working group to share the experiences of the Kvemo Kartli region and discuss with relevant central ministries for necessary changes in the policies.

Short‐term activities

Mid‐term activities

Long‐term activities

i) Conduct review of current municipal and regional offices of the governor, line ministry and statistics department practices in the area of data collection, etc. and provide recommendations for improvement

i) Discuss the recommendations of the study with the regional administration and support implementation

i) Establish a working group at the national level on local level data collection, sharing, storage and analysis

ii) Organize workshop for relevant central and regional government authorities and municipalities to present findings and recommendations for review UNDP | 36

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Short‐term activities

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Conduct a review of current municipal and regional offices of governor, line ministry and statistics department practices in area of data collection, etc. and provide recommendations for improvement

i) Increased stakeholder awareness of existing data collection, sharing, storage and analysis practices

i) Key stakeholders attend awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

Outputs

Output indicators

ii) Organize workshop for relevant central and regional government authorities and municipalities to present findings and recommendations for review

Mid‐term activities

i) Discuss the i) Recommendations from i) Recommendations from the recommendations of the the study are implemented study are clearly documented and implemented study on the current practice of data collection with the regional administration and support implementation

Long‐term activities

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Establish a working group at the national level on local level data collection, sharing, storage and analysis

i) National policy concerning data collection, sharing, storage and analysis influenced

i) Formal instructions on the formation of the working groups issued by the relevant ministry ii) At least two meetings of the working group are organized and minutes are documented.

UNDP | 37

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Organizational: Under the organizational point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region will try to address issues of communication, coordination and the appropriate organizational framework for strategic planning. The UNDP project will support the regional administration in undertaking a study to find out the right organizational framework for the Kvemo Kartli region on the basis of experiences that exist within Georgia or from international experiences from Europe and the CIS region. These recommendations will be discussed with the appropriate authorities as midterm activities and the experiences from the Kvemo Kartli region will be documented and shared with other regions and central ministries under the long‐term activities.

The UNDP project plans to undertake a functional analysis and business process reengineering to strengthen the communication and coordination mechanisms within different departments of regional administration, between regional administration and municipalities.

Short‐term activities

Mid‐term activities

Long‐term activities

i) Functional Analysis and business process mapping and reengineering on communication and coordination

i) Develop guidelines on why and how information sharing between departments can occur

i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from the Kvemo Kartli experience

ii) Organize briefing ii) Study to find out the workshop on the draft appropriate organizational guidelines framework iii) Implementation of the recommendations on data collection, analysis and storage

Short‐term activities i) Functional Analysis and business process mapping and reengineering on communication and coordination ii) Study to find out the appropriate organizational

Outputs i) Awareness of departments on the need for improved communication and information sharing increased

Output indicators i) At least one workshop was organized to raise awareness ii) At least one workshop was organized to raise awareness on coordination

ii) Awareness of the departments on the need UNDP | 38

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

framework

for improved coordination increased iii) Stakeholder awareness on issues concerning coordination and information sharing between municipal and regional administrations increased. iv) Increased awareness of the regional office of the governor on the appropriate organizational framework for the regional strategy for development, monitoring, and evaluation.

Mid‐term activities i) Develop guidelines on why and how information sharing between departments can occur

Outputs i) Improved coordination and information sharing between departments in the regional office of the governor

ii) Organize briefing workshop ii) Guidelines endorsed and on the draft guidelines applied by the regional iii) Implementation of the office of governor recommendations on data collection, analysis and iii) Recommendations on storage data collection is endorsed by the regional office of the governor

Output indicators i) At least two coordination meetings organized with the recommendations and minutes documented. ii) Key stakeholders attend briefing workshop on guidelines and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires iii) Experience of implementation of the recommendations on data collection, analysis and storage documented.

UNDP | 39

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Long‐term activities i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from the Kvemo Kartli experience

Outputs i) Endorsement and application of guidelines by the regional administration scaled up across Georgia

Output indicators i) Experience of application of guidelines documented

There are no activities under the individual level.

4.1.2

External Accountability

The issues under this cluster are the following: 1. The regional office of the governor has a weak communication culture concerning consultation with and dissemination of information to communities.

2. The regional office of the governor has a weak system to receive feedback from the community.

There are no activities under enabling environment section.

Organizational: Under the organizational point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region will try to address the communications issues between the regional administration and community and vice versa.

The UNDP project will try to address the communication issue by undertaking a business process mapping exercise as a short‐term activity. The findings of the mapping exercise will be discussed and implemented as midterm activities.

Short‐term activities

Mid‐term activities

Long‐term activities

i) Implement the There are no long‐term i) Functional analysis and activities business process mapping and recommendations on the reengineered processes reengineering on communication ii) Hold workshop concerning findings of ii) Preparation of analytical analytical report and other study on strengths and citizen feedback weaknesses of current mechanisms feedback mechanism iii) Select and implement new/improved citizen UNDP | 40

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

feedback mechanism

Short‐term activities

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Functional analysis and business process mapping and reengineering on communication

i) Strengthened external communication system of the regional office of the governor

i) External communication system established and functioning within two pilot municipalities

ii) Preparation of analytical study on strengths and weaknesses of current feedback mechanism

ii) Increased stakeholder awareness of issues related to existing community feedback mechanism

ii) Key stakeholders attend workshop on existing community feedback mechanisms and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

Mid‐term activities

Outputs

i) Recommendations i) Implementation of the agreed and implemented recommendations on the reengineered communication ii) Suggested community processes feedback mechanism ii) Hold workshop concerning implemented findings of analytical report and other citizen feedback mechanisms iii) Select and implement new/improved citizen feedback mechanisms

Output indicators i) Current communication practices of (regional office of governor) between departments and with the community improved ii) Key stakeholders attend workshop on existing community feedback mechanism and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

There are no long‐term activities under this section There are no activities under individual categories of the external accountability cluster.

4.1.3 Strategy and Planning Different issues under this section are the following: UNDP | 41

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

1. Lack of technical and experienced staff to carry out the planning and budgeting activities 2. Lack of formal structure for involving different stakeholders in strategy preparation 3. Lack of supporting document or regulations to prepare strategic document (such as a manual, guidelines of approving strategic documents and formation of working groups for the preparation of strategic documents) 4. Lack of appropriate methodology to design the strategic plan 5. Inappropriate organizational structure for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation (addressed above under organizational arrangements) Enabling Environment: Under the enabling environment point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli project plans to conduct a study on the current planning methodologies in use as a short‐term activity and to provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by national government. Some of the organizations working in Georgia have already come up with manuals on “How to Prepare a Regional and Municipal Strategy.” If there is a need, the UNDP project plans to support the regional and local administration in the preparation of such a manual, which will be helpful for them in the future to prepare such strategies without any external assistance.

Short‐term activities

Mid‐term activities

i) Preparation of the i) Conduct study on current planning methodologies in use manual on “How to Prepare a Regional ii) Provide recommendations Strategy” on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by national government

Long‐term activities There are no long‐term activities

Short‐term activities i) Conduct study on current planning methodologies in use ii) Provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Increased stakeholder understanding of current planning methodologies in use

i) Key stakeholders attend workshop and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

ii) Increased stakeholder

UNDP | 42

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

methodology for consideration by the national government

understanding on impediments to strategy implementation

iii) Increased understanding of the supporting documents required for preparation of a long‐term strategy by the regional office of the governor Mid‐term activities i) Preparation of the manual on “How to Prepare a Regional Strategy”

Outputs

Output indicators

i) The need of a manual on i) Manual on “How to Prepare a Regional Strategy” “How to Prepare a discussed and prepared.

Regional Strategy” with the regional administration discussed

There are no long‐term activities under this section.

Organizational: Activities under this point of entry are linked to activities under organizational arrangements.

Short‐term activities i) Conduct study on the organizational framework on strategic planning including involvement of different stakeholders (linked to the activity mentioned above)

Mid‐term activities i) Implement the agreed recommendations

Long‐term activities There are no long‐term activities

Short‐term activities i) Conduct study on the organizational framework on strategic planning including involvement of different

Outputs i) Stakeholders increased understanding of the advantages of having a formal structure of

Output indicators i) Key stakeholders attend workshop and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop UNDP | 43

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

stakeholders (linked to the activity mentioned above)

involving different stakeholders in the strategic process.

questionnaires

Mid‐term activities i) Implement the agreed recommendations

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Recommendations of the i) Document prepared study with the regional capturing the experience of administration discussed the implementation of the recommendations.

There are no long‐term activities under this section.

Individual: There are no short‐term activities under this section. Most of the activities under the individual point of entry will be implemented by the regional administration with support from the UNDP project as midterm activities. According to the law, the regional development unit is responsible for the preparation and implementation of the long‐term strategies. The regional office of the governor, with support from the UNDP project, plans to organize a training program on strategic and participatory planning and to organize an exposure visit to a country in this region which has similar experiences.

Short‐term activities There are no short‐term activities

Mid‐term activities i) Organize trainings for staff of regional development unit on strategic and participatory planning

Long‐term activities There are no long‐term activities

ii) Organize exposure visit to one of the European countries having similar experiences

Mid‐term activities

Outputs

i) Organize training for staff of i) Generic and specific regional development unit on trainings for the staff of

Output indicators i) Key staff attend training and demonstrate increased UNDP | 44

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

strategic and participatory planning

regional development unit knowledge through pre‐ and designed post‐training questionnaires

ii) Organize exposure visit to one of the European countries having similar experiences

ii) At least one workshop organized after the exposure visit to share the experiences with other regional and municipal administration staff and to agree upon a plan of action to change at least two ongoing activities based on the lessons learned from the experience in the other country.

There are no long‐term activities under this section.

5.2 Municipal Administration 5.2.1 Human resources A robust human resources management system and the requisite policies are essential for all organizations. Ensuring that the workforce is motivated, that the right person is doing the right job and that the learning and career growth for the best and brightest are available are the cornerstones to the effective performance and relevancy of all organizations. Some of the capacity issues and corresponding activities are mentioned below.

Enabling environment Under this level, some of the capacity issues are: 

Unclear or inappropriate criteria in municipalities for staffing structure (level and number) – referring to executive



Lack of enforcement of the civil service code (permanent staff being forced out when there are political changes)



No criteria for determining which recruitment process to use (professional vs. short term) and lack of awareness at the municipal level of the recruitment procedures



Promotion criteria not clearly defined in civil service code UNDP | 45

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY



Performance evaluation criteria not explained

Under this point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to implement activities to streamline the human resource management system. As a short‐term activity, with support from UNDP, the project will provide technical assistance in undertaking functional analysis for two of the municipalities to develop guidelines for the staffing structure of the municipalities and organize a workshop to raise awareness on the current civil service code and existing practices related to human resources management. Under the midterm activities, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to implement a functional analysis in two municipalities, apply the recommended guidelines for recruitment in two municipalities and provide technical support to municipal authorities on performance assessment and promotion of civil servants. Most of the activities under the long‐term strategy are related to influencing policy by organizing workshops on all aspects of human resources management and sharing experiences on the basis of the pilot experience in the two municipalities.

Short‐term activities

Mid‐term activities

i) Functional analysis in i) Develop criteria for collaboration with CEGSTAR selection of municipalities and subsequent selection ii) Design guidelines for of the two pilots staffing structure of municipalities ii) Application of guidelines in the two pilots iii) Workshop organized for municipal staff members, iii) Codify process and specialized governance make recommendations organizations, and Ministry of for improvement Regional Development, concerning the application Governor’s office of guidelines iv) Workshop on current status/difficulties in enforcement of the civil service code v) Workshop with municipal and regional authorities to increase understanding of recruitment procedures

iv) Provide advice to municipal authorities on how to improve civil service code, experiences from new EU member states on civil service code reform and best practices v) Define criteria for application of appropriate

Long‐term activities i) Develop criteria for selection of municipalities, and subsequent selection of the two pilots ii) Application of staffing structure guidelines in the two pilots iii) Codify process and make recommendations for improvement concerning the application guidelines iv) Pilot test suggested civil service code improvements as noted by consultant v) Organize workshop and present results to other municipalities, regional authorities and minister of regions and NALA

UNDP | 46

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

recruitment processes (whether to choose permanent recruitment or short‐term recruitment) vi) Conduct research on promotion policies relevant to the Georgian context

vi) Support preparation of decree on scaling up and application of criteria vii) Apply guidelines in remaining municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region viii) Organize workshop and present municipal perspectives and results of research on different promotion policies to national stakeholders ix) Organize workshop to present experiences of pilot municipalities in applying performance evaluation criteria

Short‐term activities i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR ii) Design guidelines for staffing structure of municipalities iii) Workshop organized for municipal staff members, specialized governance organizations, and Ministry of Regional Development, and Governor’s office iv) Workshop on current status/difficulties in enforcement of the civil service code v) Workshop with municipal and regional authorities to increase understanding of recruitment

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Increased stakeholder i) Key stakeholders attend understanding of staffing awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increased structure deficiencies knowledge through pre‐ and ii) Appropriate staffing post‐workshop structure for questionnaires municipalities defined ii) Model/template for iii) Generic/template job municipal staffing structure descriptions developed elaborated for department heads and two key staff in eight iii) 24 job descriptions department in two pilot including competency profiles municipalities developed (three per department x eight

departments)

UNDP | 47

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

procedures

Med‐term activities

Outputs

i) Staffing structure i) Develop criteria for selection of municipalities and guidelines implemented in two municipalities subsequent selection of two pilots ii) Experience of pilot tests ii) Application of guidelines in of staffing structure two pilots implementation codified and lessons learned iii) Codify process and make documented recommendations for improvement concerning the iii) Increased stakeholder application of guidelines awareness of options and best practices for civil iv) Provide advice to service code reform municipal authorities on how to improve civil service code, iv). Recruitment criteria experiences from new EU defined and piloted in two member states on civil service municipalities. code reform and best v) Increased stakeholder practices knowledge concerning different options of v) Define criteria for promotion policies. application of appropriate recruitment processes (whether to choose permanent recruitment or short‐term recruitment) vi) Conduct research on promotion policies relevant to Georgian context

Output indicators i) Two municipalities apply staffing structure guidelines with impact upon number and placement of staff in departments. ii) Concise and reader‐friendly document produced outlining process and lessons learned iii) Stakeholders demonstrate increased knowledge in this area through a pre‐ and post‐ information provision questionnaire iv) Clear recruitment criteria document produced and applied in the two pilot municipalities with positive impact upon recruitment procedures v) Key stakeholders attend workshop and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

Long‐term activities i) Develop criteria for

Outputs i) Experience of functional

Output indicators i) Five municipalities of the UNDP | 48

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

selection of municipalities, and subsequent selection of the two pilots ii) Apply staffing structure guidelines in two pilots iii) Codify process and make recommendations for improvement concerning the application guidelines

analysis scaled up to other Kvemo Kartli region piloted municipalities and regions functional analysis ii) National policy and guidelines influenced iii) Civil service code amendment influenced iv) National policy concerning promotion in civil service influenced

ii) At least one central level workshop organized to share the findings on the guidelines on recruitment, promotion, and civil service code

iv) Pilot test suggested civil v) Policy dialogue based on service code improvements as pilot experiences noted by consultant influenced v) Organize workshop and

present results to other municipalities, regional authorities and minister of regions, NALA. vi) Support preparation of decree on scaling up and application of criteria vii) Apply guidelines in remaining municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region viii) Organize workshop and present municipal perspectives and results of research on different promotion policies to national stakeholders ix) Organize workshop to present experiences of pilot municipalities in applying performance evaluation criteria

UNDP | 49

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Organizational The issues learned under this section are the following: 

Lack of job descriptions and standardized format (coverage, quality and inconsistency in format)



Lack of standardized and transparent recruitment guidelines for short‐term posts (duration of advertisement, what details are required in a ToR, where advertised, selection panel)



Fiscal and non‐fiscal incentives are subjective – no objective criteria that determine which staff will receive them nor specification of type/amount of incentive



Performance criteria for staff are not yet defined nor linked to annual work plans (which are subsequently linked to department work plans)

Under the organizational point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region focuses on streamlining the number of departments and review functions of each of those departments, develop job descriptions for all the civil servants working in two pilot municipalities as short‐term activities. Most of the activities under the mid‐term range are related to preparation for up scaling job descriptions, such as the development of a training manual and organization of a workshop to train municipal administration. Under the longer‐term activities, training will be organized for the civil servants of the remaining five municipalities to develop job descriptions for all the staff in the municipalities on their own.

Short‐term activities i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED) ii) Develop job descriptions in cooperation with relevant municipal HR focal points based on accurate description of the post's functions

Mid‐term activities i) Develop training manual on job description formulation ii) Hold workshop to train municipal administration in two pilots and regional administration on job description formulation

Long‐term activities i) Organize workshop to train administration in five other municipalities on how to formulate job descriptions ii) Document best practices and lessons learned from pilot and disseminate to relevant stakeholders

iii) Conduct study on current incentives being offered and iii) Pilot testing of range of options based on performance evaluation in staff feedback and best one municipality practices in new EU member iv) Documentation and UNDP | 50

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

states iv) Hold workshop for municipal executive and legislative representatives to gain buy‐in on application of policy

dissemination of lessons learned

v) Implement the pilot testing vi) Conduct study on current practices in performance assessment in Georgia and new EU member states

Short‐term activities i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED) ii) Develop job descriptions in cooperation with relevant municipal HR focal points based on accurate description of the post's functions

Outputs i) Improved understanding within departments in two pilot municipalities on need for enhanced communication and information sharing

Output indicators i) Key stakeholders show increased knowledge through fielding of pre‐ and post‐ activity questionnaires

ii) Key stakeholders show increased knowledge ii) Increased awareness of through fielding of pre‐ and departments and head of the post‐ activity questionnaires executive in two pilot iii) Reporting line diagrams municipalities on need for and descriptions formulated improved coordination for 16 departments (eight departments x two iii) Mapping of existing reporting lines conducted in municipalities) all departments in two iv) Functions mapped to 16 municipalities departments (eight departments x two iv) Mapping existing municipalities) department functions vis‐à‐ vis services in two pilot v) Budgeting and financial municipalities conducted management processes v) Mapping of existing mapped and analyzed UNDP | 51

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

budgeting conducted and financial management process documented in all departments in two municipalities

within 16 departments (eight departments x two municipalities)

Outputs

Output indicators

Mid‐term activities i) Develop training manual on job description formulation ii) Hold workshop to train municipal administration in two pilots and regional administration on job description formulation iii) Conduct study on current incentives being offered and range of options based on staff feedback and best practices in new EU member states iv) Hold workshop for municipal executive and legislative representatives to gain buy‐in on application of policy

i) Capacity of Administration Unit developed to formulate job descriptions

i) Training manual developed ii) Administration Unit staff attend workshop and demonstrate acquisition of knowledge in this area through a pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaire

ii) Fiscal and non‐fiscal incentive policy developed, and criteria for application of these iii) Incentive policy developed incentives mechanisms in and mechanisms established the executive established iii) Incentive policy tested in one municipality targeting executive and administrative unit of Sakrebulo iv) Performance evaluation guidelines and procedures developed

iv) Incentive policy applied in one municipality as demonstrated through staff survey v) Guidelines developed and disseminated to relevant stakeholders

v) Implement the pilot testing vi) Conduct study on current practices in performance assessment in Georgia and new EU member states

Long‐term activities i) Organize workshop to train

Outputs i) Training on job

Output indicators i) At least one training having UNDP | 52

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

administration in five other municipalities on how to formulate job descriptions ii) Document best practices and lessons learned of pilot and disseminate to relevant stakeholders iii) Pilot testing of performance evaluation in one municipality

descriptions to five other municipalities organized

representatives of five municipalities organized

ii) National policy and guidelines influenced

ii) At least one workshop organized at the national level to influence the policies and guidelines

iii) National policy influenced based on experience from the pilot iv) Policy on performance evaluation influenced

iv) Documentation and dissemination of lessons learned

Individual Some of the issues under the individual level are the following: i). Lack of technically skilled staff in certain sectors (no response in short‐, medium‐ and long‐term as this is beyond scope of project) related to education reform and other factors.

5.2.2 Organizational arrangements Enabling environment Some of the issues under this cluster are the following: 

Lack of alignment of local priorities and budget allocation provided by the central government



Information fragmentation: Municipalities lack access to and/or understanding of key guidelines issued by the central government (including budgeting, procurement, public expenditure management/accounting and reporting, financial control, audit, laws and decrees, and delegated responsibilities)

There are no short‐term activities under this section. Under the mid‐term activities, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to hold a workshop on BDD and MTEF processes for municipalities to raise awareness and develop an inventory of all applicable laws. Most of the initiatives under the long‐term activities are related to dissemination of results of the study and workshop at national level.

UNDP | 53

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Short‐term activities There are no short‐term activities

Mid‐term activities

Long‐term activities

i) Hold workshop on BDD and MTEF processes for municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region to ascertain impediments to their participation and understanding and to increase dialogue between national stakeholders and municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region.

i) Disseminate findings/results of workshop to relevant stakeholders at the national level ii) Analyse laws, decrees, legal acts, procedures, etc.

ii) Develop an inventory of all applicable laws, decrees, processes/procedures relevant to municipal functions and responsibilities. iii) Establish physical and e‐ library of information

Mid‐term activities

Outputs

i) Hold workshop on BDD and MTEF processes for municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region to ascertain impediments to their participation and understanding and to increase dialogue between national stakeholders and municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region.

i) Increased awareness of municipal and central level stakeholders on lack of alignment and its impact on development at the local level

ii) Develop an inventory of all applicable laws, decrees, processes/procedures relevant to municipal

ii) Establish a clearinghouse of information related to municipal functions, responsibilities, and processes/procedures

Output indicators i) Key stakeholders attend workshop and demonstrate knowledge acquisition through a pre‐ and post‐ workshop questionnaire ii) Inventory listing all applicable laws, decrees, processes, procedures iii) Physical and/or e‐library containing the inventory in an easily searchable format.

UNDP | 54

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

functions and responsibilities. iii). Establish physical and e‐ library of information

Long‐term activities

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Disseminate findings/result of workshop to relevant stakeholders at the national level

i) National policy influenced concerning BDD and MTEF processes vis‐à‐vis municipalities

i) At least one national level workshop to influence national policy concerning BDD and MTEF

ii) Analysis of laws, decrees, legal acts, procedures, etc.

ii) Functions, responsibilities, procedures and processes of municipalities clearly defined

ii) At least five municipalities define functions, responsibilities, procedures and processes clearly

Organizational The following issues were learned under this section: 

Weak horizontal coordination and information sharing between departments



Lack of coordination between the head of the executive and departments



Lack of clear reporting lines within departments



Lack of alignment and overlap of department’s functions to the services the municipality has to provide



Limited transparency and understanding of financial management process within the municipality



Lack of coordination and information sharing between regional and local administrations

Under the organizational point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region, with support from the UNDP project, plans to undertake a functional analysis and business process mapping for coordination among different municipal departments as short‐ and midterm activities.

Under the long‐term activity, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to document the experience of the business process mapping, implementation of the proposed recommendations in two municipalities and discuss with central ministries for influencing policy at national level.

UNDP | 55

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Short‐term activities i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR

Mid‐term activities i) Develop guidelines on why and how information sharing between departments can occur

Long‐term activities i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience

ii) Conduct study on existing practices and impediments to coordination and information ii) Organize briefing workshop on the draft guidelines ii) Implement the process sharing mapping across iii) Develop guidelines on why municipalities and how coordination should occur iv) Organize briefing workshop on the draft guidelines v) Codification of lessons drawn from functional analysis vi) Implementation in remaining five municipalities vii) Workshop with all the Kvemo Kartli regional municipalities on the findings of the mapping and the proposed changes viii) Implement changes in department structure and functions in two municipalities ix) Workshop with all the Kvemo Kartli region municipalities on findings of functional analysis and proposed changes x) Implement changes in two municipalities UNDP | 56

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

xi) Workshop with all the Kvemo Kartli region municipalities on findings study and positions xii) Implement changes in all municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region

Short‐term activities

Outputs

i) Improved understanding within departments in two pilot municipalities on need ii) Conduct study on existing for enhanced communication practices and impediments to and information sharing coordination and information ii) Increased awareness of sharing departments and head of the executive in two pilot municipalities on the need for improved coordination i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR

iii) Mapping of existing reporting lines conducted in all departments in two municipalities

Output indicators i) Key stakeholders show increase in knowledge through fielding of pre‐ and post‐activity questionnaires ii) Key stakeholders show increase in knowledge through fielding of pre‐ and post‐activity questionnaires iii) Reporting line diagrams and descriptions formulated for 16 departments (eight departments x two municipalities)

iv) Mapping of existing department functions vis‐à‐vis services in two pilot iv) Functions mapped to 16 municipalities conducted departments (eight departments x two v) Mapping of existing municipalities) budgeting conducted and financial management v) Budgeting and financial process documented in all management processes departments in two mapped and analyzed within 16 departments municipalities (eight departments x two vi) Increased stakeholder municipalities) awareness on issues UNDP | 57

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

concerning coordination and information sharing between municipal and regional administrations

vi) Key stakeholders attend awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increased knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

Mid‐term activities i) Develop guidelines on why and how information sharing between departments can occur

Outputs i) Guidelines on information sharing developed

ii) Guidelines endorsed and applied by two municipalities ii) Organize briefing workshop leading to improved coordination on the draft guidelines

Output indicators i) Concise and pragmatic guidelines for information sharing produced in Georgian language

ii) 16 departments in two municipalities respond positively to a pre‐ and iii) Develop guidelines on why iii) Guidelines on coordination post‐guideline and how coordination should mechanisms and information questionnaire concerning occur sharing developed improved coordination iv) Organize briefing workshop on the draft guidelines v) Codification of lessons drawn from functional analysis vi) Implementation in remaining five municipalities vii) Workshop with all the Kvemo Kartli regional municipalities on the findings on mapping and proposed changes viii) Implement changes in department structure and functions in two

iv) Guidelines on improved coordination endorsed and applied by two municipalities leading to improved coordination between the head of executive and departments in two municipalities

iii) Guidelines on executive department coordination produced in the Georgian language and disseminated

iv) Two municipalities apply guidelines with a positive result as v) Lessons learned from illustrated through pre‐ functional analysis codified and post‐process vi) Guidelines implemented in questionnaires the five remaining v) Codification document municipalities produced and vii) Functions of departments disseminated rationalized with the services to be provided

vi) Five municipalities apply guidelines and demonstrate the positive UNDP | 58

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

municipalities ix) Workshop with all the Kvemo Kartli regional municipalities on the findings of the functional analysis and proposed changes x) Implement changes in two municipalities xi) Workshop with all the Kvemo Kartli regional municipalities on findings study and positions xii) Implement changes in all municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region

viii) Improved transparency and understanding of financial management processes within departments in two pilot municipalities

impact of the process through pre‐ and post‐ process questionnaires

vii) Functions of departments aligned with ix) Improved coordination and the services provided by information sharing between municipality with clear municipal and regional areas of responsibility and administration in the Kvemo lines of accountability Kartli region. vii) Sixteen departments demonstrate positive changes and improved understanding of processes through pre‐ and post‐process questionnaires viii) Key stakeholders in municipal and regional administrations demonstrate improved coordination processes through a pre‐ and post‐ implementation questionnaire

Long‐term activities i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience

Outputs i) Endorsement and application of guidelines by municipalities across Georgia scaled up

Output indicators i) At least five municipalities apply the guidelines

ii) Five municipalities of ii) Process mapping in other the Kvemo Kartli region ii) Implement the process replicate process mapping mapping across municipalities five municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region replicated exercise iii) National level stakeholders iii) At least one workshop influenced to endorse and organized to influence the replicate coordination and UNDP | 59

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

information sharing practices

national level stakeholders

5.2.3 External accountability Some of the issues under this section are the following: 

Lack of knowledge and understanding of the Georgian language for many citizens



Municipalities have weak communication culture concerning consultation with and dissemination of information to communities



Weak system among the municipalities to receive feedback from the community



Lack of horizontal accountability between executive and representative bodies



Weak citizen participation in accountability mechanisms

Enabling Environment This section does not have any short‐term or long‐term activities. During the institutional baseline mapping exercise, it was learned that a number of people in the different municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region do not communicate in Georgian. So under the midterm activities, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to prepare an information package on citizens’ rights and responsibilities in languages other than Georgian.

Short‐term activities

There are no short‐term activities

Midterm activities

Long‐term activities

i) Prepare information package on citizens’ rights and There are no long‐term responsibilities in languages activities other than Georgian and distribute across the Kvemo Kartli region

Mid‐term activities i) Prepare information package on citizens’ rights and responsibilities in languages other than Georgian and

Outputs i) Increased awareness of municipal stakeholders to provide unofficial translation of documents for those who

Output indicators i) At least five key documents are translated into other languages and disseminated

UNDP | 60

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

distribute across the KK region

do not speak or read Georgian

No long‐term activities.

Organizational Under the organizational point of entry, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to develop communication strategies for two municipalities on a pilot basis as short‐term activities.

Under the mid‐term activities, the Kvemo Kartli region will implement the communication strategy, especially those that will strengthen the feedback mechanism between the community and the local administration. The UNDP project plans to bring in experiences from the region on similar issues, which will be discussed with local administration for consensus and implementation.

Short‐term activities i) Develop a draft communication strategy for two municipalities concerning consultation and information dissemination (including budget process and result) ii) Prepare an analytical study on strengths and weaknesses of current feedback mechanism

Mid‐term activities i) Presentation by municipalities to citizens on communication strategy ii) Select public information focal point within municipalities

Long‐term activities i) Document experiences of two pilot municipalities and share strategy and lessons learned

iii) Implement communication strategy iv) Hold workshop with pilot municipalities concerning findings of the analytical report and other citizen feedback mechanisms v) Select and implement new/improved citizen feedback mechanism vi) Conduct study on existing practices in two pilot municipalities, document strengths and weaknesses of system and provide recommendations for UNDP | 61

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

improvement vii) Discuss findings of study with two municipalities and implement agreed upon recommendations viii) Support community in self‐organization efforts through provision of examples/models utilized in other countries and elsewhere in Georgia

Short‐term activities

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Two communication i) External communication system of strategies for two municipalities municipalities developed strengthened ii) At least one workshop ii) Stakeholder awareness organized to raise awareness of issues related to on existing community ii) Prepare analytical study on existing community feedback mechanism strengths and weaknesses of feedback mechanism current feedback mechanism increased i) Develop draft communication strategy for two municipalities concerning consultation and information dissemination (including budget process and result)

Mid‐term activities i) Presentation by municipalities to citizens on communication strategy ii) Select public information focal point within municipalities iii) Implement communication strategy

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Communication strategy approved and implemented by two pilot municipalities

i) Communication strategy developed, approved and distributed in Georgian language

ii) New/improved citizen feedback mechanism pilot tested in two municipalities

ii) Two public information focal points selected in municipality

iii) Oversight mechanism

iii) Pilot mechanism developed, tested and evaluated in two municipalities through UNDP | 62

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

iv). Hold workshop with pilot municipalities concerning findings of analytical report and other citizen feedback mechanisms v) Select and implement new/improved citizen feedback mechanism

strengthened and operationalized iv) Increased citizen participation in accountability mechanisms

community survey iv) Current oversight mechanism improved and operationalized as demonstrated through positive citizen feedback gathered through a questionnaire v) Increase in the number of citizens (including an increase marginalized citizens) participating in the accountability mechanism as illustrated in a pre‐ and post‐ activity survey

vi) Conduct study on existing practices in two pilot municipalities, document strengths and weaknesses of system and provide recommendations for improvement vii) Discuss findings of study with two municipalities and implement agreed upon recommendations viii) Support community in self‐organization efforts through provision of examples/models utilized in other countries and elsewhere in Georgia

Long‐term activities i) Document experiences of two pilot municipalities and share lessons learned and strategy

Outputs i) Raised awareness among other municipalities in Georgia on the need for a communication strategy, new community mechanism, new oversight mechanism and community self‐

Output indicators i). At least one workshop organized to increase awareness on need for a communication strategy, new community mechanism, new oversight mechanism and community self‐organization efforts.

UNDP | 63

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

organization efforts

5.2.4 Strategic planning Different issues under this section are the following: 

Lack of central government issued methodology/guidelines for data collection, storage and analysis



Lack of planning methodology and guidelines from the central government for the municipalities



Lack of proper participatory planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for projects and activities



Lack of practice to share information with other municipalities within the Kvemo Kartli region in relation to strategy development and planning



Lack of technical and experienced staff to carry out the planning and budgeting activities

Enabling Environment Under this point of entry, as a short‐term activity, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to review the current municipal, line ministry and statistics department practices in the area of data collection, etc. and provide recommendations for improvement. This review will be done at the local, regional and central levels (Please find reference to similar activity under the strategic planning section and the regional administration capacity development response strategy). Other than this, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to conduct a study on the current planning methodologies in use and provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by national government as a short‐term activity. All the recommendations of the above studies will be implemented as midterm activities with support from the UNDP project. If some of the recommendations work well in the municipalities, then the Kvemo Kartli project plans to influence the national policy.

Short‐term activities i) Conduct review of current municipal, line ministry and statistics department practices in the area of data collection, etc. and provide recommendations for

Mid‐term activities

Long‐term activities

i) Establish a working group at the national level on local level data collection, sharing, storage and analysis.

i) Conduct training of trainers of relevant national government staff to ensure that local level staff will be trained in new methodology

UNDP | 64

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

improvement ii) Workshop for relevant central and regional government authorities and municipalities to present findings and recommendations of review iii) Conduct study on current planning methodologies in use and provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by the national government.

ii) Pilot testing in two or three municipalities based on recommendations made in the review iii) Workshop for relevant national and local stakeholders to discuss findings of study and endorse a standardized planning methodology.

Short‐term activities i) Conduct review of current municipal, line ministry and statistics department practices in area of data collection, etc. and provide recommendations for improvement ii) Workshop for relevant central and regional government authorities and municipalities to present findings and recommendations of review iii) Conduct study on current planning methodologies in use and provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Increased stakeholder understanding of existing data collection, sharing, storage and analysis practices

i) Key stakeholders attend awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increase in knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop survey

ii) Increased stakeholder understanding of current planning methodologies in use

ii) Key stakeholders attend awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increase in knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaire

iii) Increased stakeholder understanding of impediments to strategy implementation

iii) Key stakeholders attend awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increase in knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

UNDP | 65

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

consideration by the national government.

Mid‐term activities

Outputs

i) Establish a working group at the national level on local level data collection, sharing, storage and analysis.

i) National policy influenced concerning data collection, sharing, storage and analysis

ii) Pilot testing in two or three municipalities based on recommendations made in the review

ii) National policy influenced concerning standardized planning methodology

iii) Workshop for relevant national and local stakeholders to discuss findings of study and endorse a standardized planning methodology.

Output indicators i) Working group established and functioning at national level producing at least two key recommendations on how to improve national policy towards data collection, sharing and analysis. ii) Workshop held with key stakeholders and standardized planning methodology endorsed

Long‐term activities i) Conduct training of trainers of relevant national government staff to ensure that local level staff will be trained in new methodology

Outputs i) Standardized planning methodology across Georgia applied

Output indicators i) At least five municipalities applied the standardized planning methodology

Organizational The Kvemo Kartli region plans to have a series of initiatives under the organizational point of entry under the strategic planning cluster. To start with, as short‐term activities, the Kvemo Kartli region plans to conduct stakeholder analysis and form working groups followed by data collection and situation analysis at the municipal level, which will lead to a longer term strategy. Some of the activities, like roads, cannot be implemented by one municipal administration. There is a need for strong inter‐municipal cooperation, which can be UNDP | 66

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

initiated by undertaking a study as a short‐term activity and coming up with recommendations for implementations later on.

Short‐term activities i) Conduct stakeholder analysis and form working groups ii) Provide training for working groups on participatory planning iii) Data collection and situation analysis iv) Conduct study on best practices in inter‐municipal cooperation in Georgia and new EU member states and accession countries

Mid‐term activities i) Train departments on participatory planning, budgeting, implementation, and M&E methodology

Long‐term activities i) Documentation and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices from the pilot projects to other municipalities

ii) Implementation of selected pilot projects iii) Implement selected pilot projects with criteria that will encourage inter‐ municipal cooperation in terms of planning and implementation

v) Hold symposium for interested municipal stakeholders on findings of study

Short‐term activities i) Conduct stakeholder analysis and form working groups ii) Provide training for working groups on participatory planning iii) Data collection and situation analysis iv) Conduct study on best practices in inter‐municipal cooperation in Georgia and

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Increase stakeholder awareness concerning participatory planning implementation guidelines and need for/purpose of monitoring and evaluation

i) Key stakeholders attend awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increase in knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

ii) Introduce concepts of inter‐municipal cooperation and partnership to facilitate more effective and efficient strategy

ii) Key stakeholders attend awareness raising workshop and demonstrate increase in knowledge through pre‐ and post‐workshop questionnaires

UNDP | 67

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

new EU member states and accession countries

development, planning and implementation

v) Hold symposium for interested municipal stakeholders on findings of study

Mid‐term activities i) Train departments on participatory planning, budgeting, implementation, and M&E methodology

Outputs

Output indicators

i) Participatory planning, implementation, and M&E culture introduced in at least two municipalities and regional government

i) Two municipalities and regional government have operational participatory planning, implementation and M&E system in place by the end of 2010

ii) Implementation of selected pilot projects ii) Inter‐municipal cooperation established in iii) Implement selected pilot regards to strategy projects with criteria that will development and project encourage inter‐municipal implementation cooperation in terms of planning and implementation

ii) At least two inter‐municipal cooperation projects developed and in initial stages of implementation

Long‐term activities i) Documentation and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices from the pilot projects to other municipalities

Outputs i) Experience of participatory planning, budgeting, implementation, and M&E methodology scaled up

Output indicators i) Scaling up of four to five other municipalities in the Kvemo Kartli region

UNDP | 68

Appendices Appendix‐ I

Cluster

Capacity Development Response Strategy Matrix (Regional Administration)

HR

Issues

i) Unclear or inappropriate HR regulations and rules, which are necessary to implement functions properly

CD Level

Enabling Environment

Organizational

Individual

Short-Term responses

Short-Term activities

Responsible parties

Medium-Term responses

i) Increase stakeholders awareness on HR deficiencies of regional office of governor

i) Map the processes related to recruitment, performance assessment and promotion and suggest improvements

KK project team and CEGSTAR advisors

i) Discussion and implementation of the recommendations

No short-term response

No short-term activities

No short-term response

No short-term activities

Medium-Term activities

i) Support implementation of recommendations related to recruitment, performance assessment and promotion

No medium-term response

No medium-term activities

No medium-term response

No medium-term activities

Responsible parties

Long-Term responses

Long-Term activities

KK project team

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

Responsible parties

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Organizational Arrangements

i) Weak horizontal coordination and information sharing between departments ii) Lack of coordination and information sharing between regional and local administrations iii) Inappropriate organizational structure for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation iv) Lack of central government issued methodology/guidelines for data collection, storage and analysis

i) Conduct review of current municipal, regional office of governor, line ministry, and Statistics Department practices in area of data collection, etc. and provide recommendations for improvement ii) Organize workshop for relevant central and regional government authorities and municipalities to present findings and recommendations of review Enabling Environment

i). Increase stakeholder awareness of existing data collection, sharing, storage and analysis practices

Consulting firm and KK project team

i) Implementation of recommendations through the study

i) Discuss the recommendations of the study with the regional administration and support implementation

UNDP | 70

KK project team

i) Influence national policy concerning data collection, sharing, storage, and analysis

i) Establish a working group at the national level on local level data collection, sharing, storage, and analysis

i) UNDP CO and UN Country team, relevant national government stakeholders ii) KK Project team

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

i) Increase awareness of departments on need for improved communication and information sharing ii) Increase awareness of departments on need for improved coordination iii) Raise stakeholder awareness on issues concerning coordination and information sharing between municipal and regional administrations iv). Increase awareness of the regional office of the governor on the appropriate organizational framework for regional strategy development, monitoring and evaluation

i) Functional analysis and business process mapping and reengineering on communication and coordination ii) Study to find out the appropriate organizational framework

Individual

No short-term response

Enabling Environment

No short-term response

External Account ability

Organizational

i). The regional office of the governor has weak communication culture concerning consultation with and dissemination of

i) Improve coordination and information sharing between departments in the regional office of the governor ii) Guidelines endorsed and applied by the regional office of the governor iii) Recommendations on data collection is endorsed by regional office of governor

i) Develop guidelines on why and how information sharing between departments can occur ii) Organize briefing workshop on the draft guidelines iii) Implementation of the recommendations on data collection, analysis and storage

No short-term activities

No medium-term response

No short-term activities

No medium-term response

KK project team and CEGSTAR advisors and consultant

i) Scale up endorsement and application of guidelines by regional administration across Georgia

i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from Kvemo Kartli experience

No medium-term activities

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

No medium-term activities

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

UNDP | 71

KK project team

i) Central government, NALA

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

information to communities ii) Weak system at the regional office of the governor to receive feedback from the community

Organizational

Strategy and Planning

Individual

i) Lack of technical and experienced staff to carry out the planning and budgeting activities ii) Lack of formal structure for involving different stakeholders in strategy preparation iii) Lack of supporting document or regulations to prepare strategic document (such as manual, guidelines for approving strategic documents and formation of working groups for the preparation of strategic documents) iv) Lack of appropriate methodology to design the strategic plan v) Inappropriate organizational structure for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation (addressed above under organizational arrangements)

Enabling Environment

i). Strengthen external communication system of the regional office of the governor ii) \Increase stakeholder awareness of issues related to existing community feedback mechanism

i) Functional analysis and business process mapping and reengineering on communication (linked to other activities) ii) Prepare analytical study on strengths and weaknesses of current feedback mechanism

No short-term response

No short-term activities

i). Increase stakeholder understanding on current planning methodologies in use ii) Increase stakeholder understanding on impediments to strategy implementation iii) Increase regional office of governor's understanding on the supporting document required for preparation of long-term strategy

i) Conduct study on current planning methodologies in use ii.) Provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by national government

KK project team and CEGSTAR advisors

Consultant and KK project team

i). Agreement on the recommendations and implementation ii) Implementation of suggested community feedback mechanism

i) Implementation of the recommendations on the reengineered processes ii) Hold workshop concerning findings of analytical report and other citizen feedback mechanisms iii) Select and implement new/improved citizen feedback mechanism

No medium-term response

No medium-term activities

i) Discuss the need for a manual on “How to Prepare a Regional Strategy" with the regional administration

i) Preparation of the manual on "How to Prepare a Regional Strategy"

UNDP | 72

KK project team

Consultant and KK project team

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Organizational

Individual

i) Increase stakeholders understanding on the advantages of having a formal structure of involving different stakeholders in the strategic planning process

No short-term response

i) conduct study on the organizational framework on strategic planning including involvement of different stakeholders (linked to the above activity)

No short-term activities

Consultant and KK project team

i) Discuss the recommendations of the study with the regional administration

i) Implement the agreed recommendations

KK project team

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

i) Design generic and specific training for the staff of regional development unit

i) Organize training for staff of regional development unit on strategic and participatory planning ii) Organize exposure visit to one of the European countries having similar experiences

KK project team

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

UNDP | 73

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Appendix ‐II Capacity Development Response Strategy Matrix (Local Administration) CD Response Table

Priority Issue (Description)

CD Level

Cluster

CD Response and Activities

Short-Term Responses (by end 2008)

i) Unclear or inappropriate criteria at municipalities for staffing structure (level and number) referring to executive

Enabling Environment

Human Resources

i) Increase stakeholder awareness of staffing structure deficiencies ii) Define appropriate staffing structure for municipalities

Short-Term Activities

i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED) ii) Design guidelines for staffing structure of municipalities iii) Workshop organized for municipal staff members, specialized governance organizations, Ministry of Regional Development, Governor’s office

Short-Term Responsible Parties

i) KK Project in partnership with CEGSTAR, NALA and municipal authorities ii) KK Project in cooperation with NALA iii) KK project in cooperation with municipal government, NALA

Short -Term Costs

ShortTerm Indicators

MediumTerm Responses (2009 & 2010)

i) Pilot testing implementation in two municipalities ii) Codification of pilot tests and documenting of lessons learned

MediumTerm Activities

i) Develop criteria for selection of municipalities, and subsequent selection of the two pilots ii) Application of staffing structure guidelines in two pilots iii) Codify process and make recommendations for improvement concerning the application guidelines

MediumTerm Responsible Parties

MedTerm Costs

i) KK Project in collaboration with office of the governor and minister of regions, NALA ii) Municipalities with support from KK project iii) NALA with support of KK project

UNDP | 74

MedTerm Indicators

Long-Term Responses (2011 and up)

i) Scale up to all municipalities in KK region ii) Scale up to municipalities in other Regions iii) Influence national policy and guidelines

Long-Term Activities

i) Organize workshop and present results to other municipalities, regional authorities, and minister of regions, NALA ii) Support preparation of decree on scaling up and application of guidelines iii) Apply guidelines in remaining municipalities in KK region

Long-Term Responsible Parties

i) KK project ii) CEGSTAR and NALA iii) KK Project in collaboration with NALA and CEGSTAR

LongTerm Costs

LongTerm Indicators

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

i) Increase stakeholder awareness of civil service code and labour regulations

i) Workshop on current status/difficulties in enforcement of civil service code

i) KK project in partnership with CEGSTAR and NALA

i) Increase stakeholder awareness on options and best practices for civil service code reform

i) Provide advice to municipal authorities on how to improve civil service code, experiences from new EU member states on civil service code reform, and provide project with best practices

i) KK project in cooperation with independent expert(s)

i). Influence amendment of civil service code

i). Pilot test suggested civil service code improvements as noted by consultant

i). KK project in cooperation with NALA and CEGSTAR

i) Increase stakeholder awareness on recruitment procedures as defined in civil service code

i)\ Workshop with municipal and regional authorities to increase understanding of recruitment procedures

i) NALA in cooperation with KK Project, CEGSTAR, and central level authorities

i) Pilot testing of criteria in two municipalities

i) Define criteria for application of appropriate recruitment process (whether to choose permanent recruitment or short-term recruitment)

i) KK project in cooperation with NALA, CEGSTAR, independent experts

i) Scale up testing of criteria to all municipalities in KK Region ii) Influence national policy

i) Organize workshop and present results to other municipalities, regional authorities, and minister of regions, NALA ii) Support preparation of decree on scaling up and application of criteria iii) Apply guidelines in remaining municipalities in KK region

i) KK project ii) CEGSTAR and NALA iii) KK Project in collaboration with NALA and CEGSTAR

ii) Lack of enforcement of civil service code (permanent staff being forced out when there are political changes)

iii) No criteria for determining which recruitment process to use (professional vs. shortterm) and lack of awareness at municipal level of the recruitment procedures

UNDP | 75

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

iv) Promotion criteria not clearly defined in civil service code

No response in short term.

v) Performance evaluation criteria not explained

Organizational

i) Lack of job descriptions and standardized format (coverage, quality and inconsistency in format)

No activities in short term.

No response in short term.

No activities in short term.

i) Develop generic/template job descriptions for department heads and two key staff per department in two pilot municipalities

i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED) ii) Develop job descriptions in cooperation with relevant Municipal HR focal points based on accurate description of the post's functions

N/A

i) Increase stakeholder awareness concerning different options of promotion policies

N/A

No response in mediumterm.

i) KK project in partnership with municipalities, and CEGSTAR

i) Administration unit capacity developed to formulate job descriptions

i) Conduct research on promotion policies relevant to Georgian context ii) Prepare advocacy materials to be shared with relevant stakeholders

No activities in medium-term.

i) Develop training manual on job description formulation ii) Hold workshop to train municipal administration in two pilots and regional administration on job description formulation

i) KK project in cooperation with municipalities, NALA, CEGSTAR, independent experts

N/A

N/A

i) KK Project and CEGSTAR ii) KK Project, NALA, CEGSTAR

UNDP | 76

i) Influence national policy concerning promotion in civil service

i) Organize workshop and present municipal perspectives and results of research on different promotion policies to national stakeholders

i) KK project in cooperation with municipalities, NALA, and CEGSTAR

i) Influence policy dialogue based on pilot experiences

i) Organize workshop to present experiences of pilot municipalities in applying performance evaluation criteria

i) KK project in cooperation with municipalities, NALA, and CEGSTAR

i) Scale up training to remaining five municipalities in KK region ii) Influence national policy and guidelines

i) Organize workshop to train administration in five other municipalities on how to formulate job descriptions.

i) KK project, NALA, CEGSTAR

N/A

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

ii). Lack of standardized and transparent recruitment guidelines for short-term posts (duration of advertisement, what details are required in a ToR, where advertised, selection panel) iii) Fiscal and non-fiscal incentives are subjective no objective criteria that determine which staff will receive them, nor specification of type/amount of incentive

iv) Performance criteria for staff are not yet defined.

Not linked to annual work plans (which are subsequently linked to department work plans)

Addressed at enabling environment level

No response in short term.

No response in short term.

Addressed at enabling environment level

No activities in short term.

No response in short term.

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Addressed at enabling environment level

Addressed at enabling environment level

i) Develop fiscal and non-fiscal incentive policy and criteria for application of these incentives in the executive ii) Pilot testing of incentives policy in one municipality targeting executive and administrative unit of sakrebulo

i) Conduct study on current incentives being offered, and range of options based on staff feedback and best practices in new EU member states ii) Hold workshop for municipal executive and legislative representatives to gain buy-in on application of policy iii) Implement the pilot testing

i) KK project, independent experts, NALA, and municipalities ii) KK Project, NALA iii) KK Project and municipality

i) Influence policy based on experiences of pilot

i) Document best practices and lessons learned of pilot, and disseminate to relevant stakeholders

i) KK Project, NALA

i).- Develop performance evaluation guidelines and procedures

i) Conduct study on current practices in performance assessment in Georgia and new EU member states

i) KK Project, independent experts, CEGSTAR

i) Influence policy on performance evaluation

i) Pilot testing of performance evaluation in one municipality ii)Documentatio n and dissemination of lessons learned

i).CEGSTAR, KK project, and independent consultants.

Ii) KK Project

N/A

N/A

UNDP | 77

N/A

Addressed at enabling environment level

Addressed at enabling environment level

N/A

N/A

N/A

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

i) Lack of technically skilled staff in certain sectors

Individual

No response in the short term. Beyond scope of project related to education reform, and other factors.

No response in short term.

N/A

N/A

N/A

No response in mediumterm.

No activities in medium-term.

N/A

N/A

UNDP | 78

N/A

No response in long term

No activities in long term

N/A

N/A

N/A

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

CD Response Table

Priority Issue (Description)

CD Level

Cluster

CD Response and Activities

Short-Term Outputs (by end 2008)

ShortTerm Activities

Short-Term Responsible Parties

ShortTerm Costs

ShortTerm Indicators

Enabling Environment

Organizational Arrangements

i) Lack of alignment of local priorities and budget allocation provided by central government

No shortterm responses

No shortterm activities

MediumTerm Outputs (2009 & 2010) i) Increase awareness of municipal and central level stakeholders on lack of alignment and its impact on development at the local level

N/A

N/A

N/A

MediumTerm Activities

i) Hold workshop on BDD and MTEF processes for municipalities in KK Region to ascertain impediments to their participation and understanding and to increase dialogue between national stakeholders and municipalities in KK region

Medium Term Responsible Parties

i) KK Project and Ministry of Finance

UNDP | 79

MedTerm Costs

MedTerm Indicators

Long-Term Outputs (2011 and up)

i) Influence national policy concerning BDD and MTEF processes vis-àvis municipalities

Long-Term Activities

i) Disseminate findings/ results of workshop to relevant stakeholders at national level.

Long–Term Responsible Parties

i) Ministry of Finance

LongTerm Costs

LongTerm Indicators

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

ii) Information fragmentation.

Municipalities lack access to and/or understanding of key guidelines issued by central government (including budgeting, procurement, public expenditure management/ accounting and reporting, financial control, audit, laws and decrees, and delegated responsibilities)

ii) Lack of coordination between head of executive and departments

Organizational

i) Weak horizontal coordination and information sharing between departments

i) Establish clearinghouse of information related municipal functions, responsibilities, processes/ procedures

i) Develop an inventory of all applicable laws, decrees, processes/ procedures relevant to municipal functions and responsibilities ii) Establish physical and e-library of information.

i) CEGSTAR and NALA

i) Clearly define functions, responsibilities, procedures and processes of municipalities.

i) Analysis of laws, decrees, legal acts, procedures, etc.

i) Central government

No shortterm responses

No shortterm activities

i) Increase awareness of departments in two pilot municipalities on need for improved communication and information sharing

i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED)

i). KK Project in cooperation with CEGSTAR

i) Improve coordination and information sharing between departments in two municipalities ii) Guidelines endorsed and applied by two municipalities

i) Develop guidelines on why and how information sharing between departments can occur ii) Organize briefing workshop on the draft guidelines

i) KK project and independent consultants

i) Scale up endorsement and application of guidelines by municipalities across Georgia

i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience

i). Central government, NALA

i) Increase awareness of departments and the head of the executive in two pilot municipalities on need for improved coordination

i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED)

i) KK Project in cooperation with CEGSTAR

i) Improve coordination between executive and departments in two municipalities Ii) Guidelines on improved coordination endorsed and applied by two municipalities

i) Develop guidelines on why and how coordination should occur ii) Organize briefing workshop on the draft guidelines

i) KK project and independent consultants

i) Scale up endorsement and application of guidelines by municipalities across Georgia

i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience

i) Central government, NALA

N/A

N/A

N/A

UNDP | 80

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

iii) Lack of clear reporting lines within departments

i) Mapping of existing reporting lines in all departments in two municipalities

i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED)

i) KK Project in cooperation with CEGSTAR and two municipalities

i). Scaling up of application of guidelines to other municipalities in KK Region

i) Codification of lessons drawn from functional analysis ii)Implementation in five remaining municipalities

i) KK Project

i) Scale up endorsement and application of guidelines by municipalities across Georgia

i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience in KK Region

i) Central government, NALA

iv) Lack of alignment and overlap of departments' functions to the services municipality has to provide

i). Mapping existing department functions vis-à-vis services in two pilot municipalities

i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED)

i). KK Project in cooperation with CEGSTAR and two municipalities

i) Rationalize functions of departments with the services to be provided

i) Workshop with all KK Regional municipalities on findings on mapping and proposed changes ii) Implement changes in department structure and functions in 2 municipalities

i) KK Project ii) Two pilot municipalities, and office of governor at regional level

i) Replicate process in other five municipalities in KK region

i).

Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience in KK Region ii) Implement the process across municipalities.

i) KK Project with independent consultants ii) Municipalities and regional administration

v) Limited transparency and understanding of financial management process within municipality

i) Mapping of existing budgeting and financial manageme nt process in all departments in two municipalities

i) Functional analysis in collaboration with CEGSTAR (LINKED)

i) KK Project in cooperation with CEGSTAR and two municipalities

i) Improve transparency and understanding of financial management processes within departments in two pilot municipalities

i) Workshop with all KK regional municipalities on findings of functional analysis and proposed changes ii) Implement changes in two municipalities

i) KK Project ii) Two pilot municipalities, and office of governor at regional level

i) Replicate process in other five municipalities in KK region

i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience in KK Region ii) Implement the process across municipalities.

i) KK Project with independent consultants ii) Municipalities and regional administration

UNDP | 81

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

No issues to address at this level

Individual

vi) Lack of coordination and information sharing between regional and local administrations

i) Raise stakeholder awareness on issues concerning coordination and information sharing between municipal and regional administrati ons

i) Conduct study on existing practices and impediments to coordination and information sharing

N/A

N/A

i) KK Project

N/A

N/A

N/A

i) Improve coordination and information sharing between municipal and regional administration in KK Region

i) Workshop with all KK Region municipalities on findings study and propositions ii) Implement changes in all municipalities in KK Region

i) KK Project ii) Municipalities, and office of governor at regional level

N/A

N/A

N/A

UNDP | 82

N/A

N/A

i) Influence national level stakeholders to endorse and replicate coordination and information sharing practices

i) Documentation and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned from pilot experience in KK Region ii) Implement the process across Georgia

i) KK Project with independent consultants ii) Municipalities and regional administration

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

CD Response Table

i) Municipalities have weak communication culture concerning consultation with and dissemination of information to communities Organizational

External Accountability

i) Lack of knowledge and understanding of Georgian language for many citizens

CD Level

Priority Issue (Description)

Enabling Environment

Cluster

CD Response and Activities

Short-Term Responses (by end 2008)

Short-Term Activities

No short-term responses

No short-term activities

i) Strengthen external communication system of municipalities

i) Develop draft communication strategy for two municipalities concerning consultation and information dissemination (including budget process and result)

Short-Term Responsible Parties

N/A

i). KK Project and two pilot municipalities

Short -Term Costs

N/A

ShortTerm Indicators

N/A

MediumTerm Responses (2009 & 2010)

MediumTerm Activities

MediumTerm Responsible Parties

i) Increase awareness of municipal stakeholders to provide unofficial translation of documents for those who do not speak or read Georgian

i) Prepare information package on citizen rights and responsibilitie s in languages other than Georgian and distribute to across KK Region

i) KK Project, NGOs, municipalities

i) Approval and implementation of strategy by two pilot municipalities

i) Presentation by municipalities to citizens on communication strategy ii) Select public information focal point within municipalities iii) Implement communicatio n strategy

i). KK Project, municipalities ii).

Municipalities iii) Two pilot municipalities

MedTerm Costs

UNDP | 83

MedTerm Indicators

Long-Term Responses (2011 and up)

Long-term Activities

Long-Term Responsibl e Parties

Long Term Costs

Long Term Indicators

No long term responses heavily politically influenced

No long term activities

N/A

N/A

N/A

i) Raise awareness amongst five other municipalities in KK Region on need for communicatio n strategy

i) Document experiences of two pilot municipalities and share strategy and lessons learned

i). KK Project

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

ii) Weak system among the municipalities to receive feedback from the community

i) Increase stakeholder awareness of issues related to existing community feedback mechanism

i) Prepare analytical study on strengths and weaknesses of current feedback mechanism

i) KK Project

iii) Lack of horizontal accountability between executive and representative body

No short-term responses

No short-term activities

N/A

N/A

N/A

i) Pilot test new/improved citizen feedback mechanism in two municipalities

i) Hold workshop with two pilot municipalities concerning findings of analytical report and other citizen feedback mechanisms ii) Select and implement new/improved citizen feedback mechanism

i) KK Project and municipalities ii) KK project and municipalities

i) Raise awareness amongst other municipalities in Georgia on need for new/improved community mechanism

i) Document experiences of two pilot municipalities and share lessons learned

i) KK Project, NALA

i) Strengthen and operationalize oversight mechanism

i) Conduct study on existing practices in two pilot municipalities, document strengths and weaknesses of system, and provide recommendations for improvement ii) Discuss findings of study with two municipalities and implement agreed upon recommendations

i) KK project and municipalities ii) KK Project and municipalities

i) Raise awareness amongst other municipalities in KK Region on need for new/improved oversight mechanism

i) Document experiences of two pilot municipalities and share lessons learned

i) KK Project, NALA

UNDP | 84

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

iv) Weak citizen participation in accountability mechanisms

No issues at this level

I n d i v i d u a l

No short-term responses

No short-term activities

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

i) Increased citizen participation in accountability mechanisms

i) Support community in selforganization efforts through provision of examples/ models utilized in other countries and elsewhere in Georgia

i) KK project, selected communities in two2 pilot municipalities

N/A

N/A

N/A

UNDP | 85

i) Raise awareness amongst other municipalities and communities on community selforganization efforts

N/A

N/A

N/A

i) Document experiences and share lessons learned

N/A

i) KK project

N/A

N/A

N/A

CD Response Table

Priority Issue (Description)

CD Level

Cluster

CD Response and Activities

i) Increase stakeholder awareness of existing data collection, sharing, storage and analysis practices

Enabling Environment

Strategy and Planning

i) Lack of central government issued methodology/ guidelines for data collection, storage and analysis

Short-Term Responses (by end 2008)

Short-Term Activities

i) Conduct review of current municipal, line ministry, and Statistics Department practices in area of data collection etc. and provide recommendations for improvement ii) Workshop for relevant central and regional government authorities and municipalities to present findings and recommendations of review

Short-Term Responsible Parties i) KK Project, CEGSTAR, Statistical Department ii) KK Project

ShortTerm Costs

ShortTerm Indicators

Medium-Term Responses (2009 & 2010)

MediumTerm Activities

i). Influence national policy concerning data collection, sharing, storage, and analysis

i) Establish a working group at the national level on local level data collection, sharing, storing, and analysis ii) Pilot testing in two or three municipalities based on recommendations made in the review

MediumTerm Responsible Parties

Medterm Costs

Medterm Indicators

Long-Term Responses (2011 and up)

Long-Term Activities

Long-Term Responsibl e Parties

LongTerm Costs

LongTerm Indicators

No long-term responses

No long-term activities

N/A

N/A

N/A

i) UNDP CO and UN Country team, relevant national government stakeholders ii) KK Project

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

i) Lack of proper participatory planning, implementatio n, monitoring and evaluation mechanism for projects and activities

Organizational

ii). Lack of planning methodology and guidelines from the central government for the municipalities

i) Increase stakeholder understanding on current planning methodologies in use ii).

Increase stakeholder understanding on impediments to strategy implementation

i) Conduct study on current planning methodologies in use ii) provide recommendations on a comprehensive planning methodology for consideration by national government

i). KK Project, donors ii) other partners who have developed other planning methodologies

i) Influence national policy concerning standardized planning methodology

i) Workshop for relevant national and local stakeholders to discuss findings of study and endorse a standardized planning methodology

i) UNDP CO, other donors who have developed planning methodologies, relevant national government stakeholders

i) Apply standardized planning methodology across Georgia

i)Conduct training of trainers of relevant national government staff to ensure that local level staff will be trained in new methodology

i) To be determined

i) Increase stakeholder awareness and capacity concerning participatory planning, implementation guidelines, and need for/purpose of monitoring and evaluation

i) Conduct stakeholder analysis and form working groups ii) Provide training for working groups on participatory planning iii) Data collection and situation analysis

i) KK project ii) local coordinators

i) Introduce participatory planning, implementation, M&E culture in two or three municipalities and regional government

i) Train department(s) on participatory planning, budgeting, implementation, M&E methodology ii) Implementation of selected pilot projects

i) KK Project

i) Scaling up to four or five other municipalities in KK Region

i) Documentation and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices from the pilot projects to other municipalities

i). KK Project

UNDP | 87

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

i) Introduce concepts of inter-municipal cooperation and partnership to facilitate more effective and efficient strategy development, planning and implementation

i). Lack of technical and experienced staff to carry out the planning and budgeting activities

Addressed at organizational level and through functional analysis

Individual

ii). Lack of practice to share information with other municipalities within Kvemo Kartli region in relation to strategy development and planning

i) Conduct study on best practices in inter-municipal cooperation in Georgia and new EU member states and accession countries ii) Hold symposium for interested municipal stakeholders on findings of study

i) KK Project

i) Facilitate inter-municipal cooperation in regards to strategy development and project implementation

i) Implement selected pilot projects with criteria that will encourage intermunicipal cooperation in terms of planning and implementation

i) KK Project

No long-term responses

Addressed at organizational level and through functional analysis

UNDP | 88

No long-term activities

N/A

N/A

N/A

Appendix III Executive Summary of Institutional Baseline Mapping Report Strengthening Regional and Local Governance in the Kvemo Kartli region project started its implementation by UNDP in September 2007 with financial assistance from SIDA. The project has the following objectives:   

Improved regional governance: Increased capacity of the regional government to coordinate and facilitate the formulation and implementation of the regional development strategy and plans.

Improved local governance: Improved capacity of municipal officials to streamline administrative procedures and systems for efficient delivery of public services.

Secure policy mainstreaming of the project’s experience: Documented policy experience of the project. Attempts taken to ensure that the experience of the project is utilized by other districts in the country as well as by policy makers at the national level.

Through a combination of capacity development tools, the project tries to enhance the seven municipalities and the region’s ability to be both better governed and to deliver services to the full spectrum of local citizens, thus counteracting poverty and disadvantage in the region.

In order to implement these objectives, the Kvemo Kartli project initiated a capacity assessment by undertaking an institutional baseline mapping exercise to find out capacity strengths and weaknesses. The institutional baseline mapping exercise has covered the following thematic areas: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Organizational and human resource management issues Planning and coordination Budgeting and financial management Procurement and service delivery Monitoring and evaluation Communication and implementation

There is also a separate chapter of questionnaires covering issues and challenges related to the Sakrebulo (representative body)7.

Organization and human resource management issues The following organizational/human resource management issues have been documented: 

Organizational structure

7

In this document, Sakrebulo will be referred to as the representative body

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY



Functional responsibilities



Job descriptions and appraisal



Staffing and qualifications



Recruitment, appraisal and promotion (human resource management system)



Training and human resource development



Office equipment/facilities

Based on these management issues, some broad conclusions can be made: 

The structure and number of staff within departments vary in each municipality.

Even if the roles and responsibilities of departments are clearly defined by law, it is not clear to most of the departments.



Functions of the regional administration are defined in the law in very general terms.

The governance system of the region and municipalities as a whole is based on a strong upward accountability. Efficiency in administration, and ultimately in service delivery, is compromised as there is a considerable lack of clarity of functional responsibilities. Civil servants are occupied with ad hoc activities given by the head of the executive.



The ratio of the civil servant to the population is 1:891. Most of the civil servants are young and have one to ten years of experience. The ratio of minority staff to the total staff is very low, even though the minority population in the particular municipalities is very high. Local authorities decide their staffing structure and cover the salary costs.



There is significant training focused on the dissemination of information about new rules, regulations and policies. There is not, however, a sequenced program of training linked to wider policy objectives that targets a broad base of staff.

Moreover, training is not systematically provided on the basis of identified training needs.



There does not appear to be any performance orientation in the current training system.



The decree of the Sakrebulo (representative body) defines the functions of departments, which determine individual job descriptions. But some of the departments within different municipalities do not have individual job descriptions.



There is no formalized system of recruitment or of promotion and performance evaluation of civil servants. Recruitment of civil servants is done by the head of the UNDP | 90

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

executive8 with recommendations from heads of different department.

Performance of civil servants is measured by the head of the executive.

Planning and coordination This section reviews the current planning process at both the regional and municipal levels.

Some of the important issues in this sector have been explained below: 

Almost all municipalities mentioned the lack of a short‐, mid‐ or long‐term socioeconomic development strategy or plan. The exceptions are Tetritskaro, Dmanisi and Rustavi, who have recently started this process, but they do not follow a particular methodology.



At the regional level, long‐term plans are being prepared with support from UNDP, EC, OSCE and ACH.



Municipal plans are prepared on an ad hoc basis. The primary purpose of the municipal annual planning process is to define financial priorities as a part of the annual budgeting process.



Some municipalities' Decrees of the Representative Body on the Regulation of Activities of the Executive do not define clearly which department is responsible for the development and implementation of annual, medium and long‐term socioeconomic development plans.



The problems in the planning process can be summarized as: lack of legislation and supporting decrees or documents that enable local authorities to prepare their socioeconomic development plans; lack of linkage between the planning and budgeting processes; lack of authentic data for analysis; and lack of involvement of all stakeholders.



No formal coordination mechanism exists within the municipalities. The head of the executive calls for weekly meetings among departments to discuss various issues.

Most of the time, different departments try to coordinate with other departments informally rather than by sending formal letters.

Budgeting and financial management The following elements of budgeting and financial management have been documented: 

The budget preparation process



Accounting and financial reporting systems

8

In this document Gamgeoba will be referred as executive

UNDP | 91

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY



Internal audit mechanisms



Arrangements for cash management

The review highlights a series of weaknesses in the current system in relation to procedures, reporting and capacity issues. For example: 

Weak linkages between capital and recurrent expenditure systems and misclassifications of capital and recurrent schemes;



A significant degree of central control combined with a lack of local funds



Recurrent expenditures are very high in some municipalities. This gives very little scope to the municipal administration to plan for their developmental activities.



Current internal auditing mechanisms look strong having three types of auditing practices: inbuilt audit, which is done by the department of finance; external audit, which is done by external auditors hired by the representative body; and finally, central audit from the state chamber of control, which audits special projects.

Procurement and service delivery This section is concerned with the procurement and service delivery processes at both the regional and municipal levels. Some of the findings in this section can be summarized as follows: 

There is considerable misunderstanding and misinformation concerning present procurement practices.



Some municipalities have established permanent committees, and some of the municipalities have temporary committees with no permanent members.



Private sector capacity varies across the region. Some of the public services, which are delivered with support from the private sector, are electricity, gas, water provision, road construction, garbage collection, public health, sport, and culture and youth services. Some of the public services are provided by organizations (LTDs) established by municipalities.



Existing operations and maintenance of services by regional and municipal administrations are limited. Some operations and maintenance expenditures are budgeted under capital projects, which are not guaranteed or regular. There is no scheduling of operations and maintenance. All municipalities are using an ad hoc, reactive approach to operations and maintenance needs.

UNDP | 92

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Communication strategy and implementation The following are some of the highlights of this section: 

The information among different departments of the executive is shared formally and informally. The formal sharing of information is done via regular meetings with the head of the executives and by official letters. Information from the community is collected by the executive representatives based within the community.



Information is not commonly shared with other municipalities.



Information sharing between the municipal and local population is done by representatives of the executive within the community; local newspaper, television, radio, or promotional posters; and by members of representative body.



Information sharing practices of municipalities are reactive and not proactive in nature. According to the law, information is open to the public. Citizens can write an official request to municipalities or to the regional office of the governor and collect information. However, they have to pay a nominal fee for this service.

Monitoring and evaluation 

In general, there is no special mechanism in place for monitoring and evaluation.



Some of the activities, which are monitored at the municipal level, are the following: o A contract is signed between the executive and different organizations to undertake certain service delivery activities. Standards and conditions towards the project or service delivery are clearly defined in these contracts.

A special commission of the executive inspects and assesses implemented works, conducts field visits and prepares reports. The commission recommends the department of finance to release payment after the evaluation of the performance of the project. o Each department prepares an annual work plan on the basis of that plan and implements activities. They report to the head of the executive on a monthly basis, and the head of the executive monitors different activities undertaken by the departments. This report also gives enough scope to different heads of departments to monitor the performance of individual staff members.



Some of the indicators used by municipalities to monitor results are time, quality and opinion of the local population.

UNDP | 93

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Representative body of local self‐government The issues and challenges of the representative body of municipalities can be summarized as follows: 

Lack of knowledge of Georgian language is an impediment.



Lack of basic equipment for the members of the representative body to make their work efficient and effective.



Low understanding of local self‐governance among representative body members.



Lack of budget to cover travel expenses makes it difficult for members to visit the community regularly.



Lack of high qualifications and understanding of the nuances of the law.



Perceived closeness of the regional office of the governor to the executive body of municipalities makes the representative body much weaker.

UNDP | 94

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

Appendix IV Prioritized Capacity Gaps (In consultation with the stakeholders) 1. Lack of formalized HRM (recruitment, promotion, incentive, performance evaluation and community feedback mechanism) system.

-

Mismatch of functions and skills

-

Lack of job descriptions (coverage, quality and inconsistency in format)

-

Unclear or inappropriate criteria at municipalities for staffing structure (level and number)

2. Inappropriate or inadequate organizational set up (overlapping of functions, lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities among staff of different departments, inappropriate horizontal coordination, lack of clearly defined reporting lines) -

Lack of service orientation, while designing functions of departments at municipality level

-

Inefficient and ineffective service delivery by the local administration

3. Inadequate practice in the assignment of powers, functions and responsibilities for representative body -

Limited understanding of local self governance among representative body members

4. Lack of short‐, medium‐, and long‐term strategies -

Lack of methodology for designing strategies

-

Lack of clarity on responsibility of any particular department to design strategy for municipality

-

Lack of proper participatory planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation mechanism for projects and activities

-

Lack of planning methodology and guidelines from the central government for the municipalities

-

Limited scope for responding to local priorities

-

Lack of technical and experienced staff to carry out the planning and budgeting activities

5. Lack of weak communication culture UNDP | 95

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

-

Dissemination of information with community

-

Lack of access to information for the municipalities (civil servants) regarding the revision of law and decree by the central government

-

Lack of knowledge and understanding of Georgian language for many civil servants and representative body members in some of the municipalities

-

Inappropriate system among the municipalities to receive feedback from the community

-

Lack of practice to share information with other municipalities within the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia

-

Lack of dialogue between local and central government

6. Accountability -

Lack of downward accountability (executives towards community members)

-

Lack of motivation to form village development committee in most of the villages

-

Strong upward accountability mechanisms to central government (e.g. present procurement procedures force local self government to be more accountable to central government than the local population)

-

Lack of horizontal accountability between line departments staff and elected representatives (municipal council and representative body)

7. Lack of specific methodology/guidelines for data collection, storage and analysis -

Uncoordinated effort among municipal departments and the regional office of the governor for data collection

-

Inconsistency in data at municipal level

8. Lack of common understanding of guidelines issued by central government for budgeting, procurement, public expenditure management (accounting and reporting, financial control and audit) -

Limited transparency of budgeting and financial management process

-

Lack of linking budgetary planning with socioeconomic development plans

UNDP | 96

ppendix‐V Sample questionnaire for planning and coordination component

Baseline mapping Strengthening local and regional governance in the Kvemo Kartli region

Department/Organisation

Interviewer

Date

2. Planning and Coordination

2.1 What is the current status of regional development strategy and municipality action plans?

Approved Yes

Completely finished No

Yes

Partially finished

No

Yes

Not started yet

No

Yes

No

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

2.2 Which donor/donors supported preparation of the regional development strategy and municipality action plans?

Sl No Name of the donors

1

2

3

4

2.3 Does the municipality have any other long‐term and short‐term strategies?

Yes No

2.4 If yes, then what are they?

1

2

3

4

UNDP | 98

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

2.5 Does the municipality have any specific methodologies to develop strategy/action plans?

Yes No

2.6 If yes, then what are those methodologies?

2.7 Name of the stakeholders involved in preparing the municipality strategy or action plans?

1 2 3

1 2 3

UNDP | 99

March 1, 2008 CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE STRATEGY

UNDP | 100