Learning from Improved Good Governance Practices at District and Commune Council Levels project

Project Dates

January 15, 2012 to November 15, 2012

Project focus

Raising awareness of social accountability and good governance concepts and best practice at the sub-national level.

Social Accountability Tool

Participatory Planning and Budgeting, Public Forum, Community Outreach

Geographic Target Area

9 commune councils and 3 district councils in Battambang (3 communes in Thmor Kul district); Pursat (3 sangkats in Sambov Meas municipality); and Kampong Cham (3 communes in Prey Chhor district) provinces.

PROJECT SUMMARY

This project will support the third component of the DFGG Project, Communication and Learning and in particular, Component 3B: Learning, in partnership with the Ministry of Interior (MOI) Program Coordination Office (PCO). Pact will partner with the PCO to complement and extend their Learning Program (LP) and link with their Consolidated Training Plan (CTP) for the DFGG Project by jointly engaging in structured learning activities (learning by doing) in 3 districts and 9 communes. The primary objective is to strengthen and enhance the PCO’s learning program by extending learning and engagement and document lessons learned/best practices on good governance and key social accountability issues and tools to the district and commune level. A secondary objective is to promote constructive engagement between citizens and sub-national councils to build their confidence and capacity to work together towards common objectives.
Pact and three provincial NGOs (Village Support Group/VSG, Anakot Khumar/AK and Phnom Srey Organization for Development/PSOD) will work together to design and deliver training modules that are linked to and synchronized with the CTP but targeted to district and commune councils and citizens groups and are focused on learning from the utilization of key social accountability practices and tools such as citizen engagement in planning and budgeting and public forums. Pact and provincial NGO partners, who worked together on the USAID LAAR Project, will draw on tools and best practice from the LAAR, but will also seek to integrate and support existing national policies, plans and sub-national timetables to minimize disruption and parallel activities. A key principle underlying this approach is that learning is most effective and useful when it is informed and improved by practice over time and when people are given the opportunity to reflect and learn from each other.
Pact will work closely with the PCO, to review these training modules and to ensure that they build on and enhance the LP and CTP, or use CTP thematic materials developed by Implementing Agencies (IAs) of PCO. Pact and its provincial partners will deliver the training to both commune and district councils as well as citizen groups so that they properly understand the roles and responsibilities of both the supply and demand sides in good governance. Further, Pact will create opportunities for all parties to jointly put these good governance and social accountability theories and tools in to practice so that the participants can learn, reflect and improve over time. The PCO will be invited to monitor the training as well as the practice and will participate in quarterly reflection meetings which will bring together key stakeholders from the 3 Provinces to share and reflect on their experience. All participants will be expected to work together to share challenges, successes and to document lessons learned.
Pact and the PCO will jointly measure the degree to which participants have learned, changed their practice over time and also evaluate the effectiveness of tools and methods and potential for replication beyond the end of the project. An end of the project stakeholder evaluation workshop will allow Pact, the PCO and key participants from all three districts to reflect and analyze on the project’s activities and outcomes. By the end of the project, Pact and the PCO will use this experience and information to inform and enhance the current and future Learning Program/Plan and to package and communicate the lessons learned to other Implementing Agencies (IAs), State Institutions (Sis) and to also inform policy development.

Project’s core activities:

1. Design and delivery of three training modules on the Fundamentals of Social Accountability, Citizen 
    Engagement and Communication for Accountability and Effective Partnership. 
2. Structured Learning and reflection on the utilization of these social accountability tools at the Commune and
    District levels
3. Monitoring, evaluation and documentation of lessons learned and communication with IAs, SIs and for policy
    development.

Target beneficiaries/key stakeholders the project will work with:

1. The Ministry of Interior Project Coordination Office (PCO)
2. 9 commune councils and 3 district councils in Battambang (3 communes in ThmorKul district); Pursat (3
    sangkats in Sambove Meas municipality); and Kampong Cham (3 communes in Prey Chhor district) provinces.
3. 3 Provincial NGOs (PSOD, AK and VSG)
4. Citizens and citizen groups in selected communes and districts in Battambang, Pursat and Kampong Cham
    provinces.