Cotonou, April 15, 2008 — Community-Driven Development (CDD) is a decentralized development approach that emphasizes priorities determined by the communities themselves. This approach makes them responsible and provides them with the resources to participate actively in their own development.
In Benin, the World Bank supports this approach through the National Community-Driven Development Project (Projet national de développement conduit par les communautés or PNDCC). Its primary objective is to promote the use of the CDD approach by line ministries , communes, and village communities, and to improve access by the poorest communities to basic social and financial services. (See box below for more information.)
Owing to the nature of its interventions, the PNDCC’s main partners are beneficiary communities, municipal councils, and line ministries.
It is important to note that community subprojects are identified, prepared, and implemented by the communities themselves through entities known as Village Development Associations (Associations de Développement des Villages or ADVs).
This is accomplished with the support of Community Development Facilitators (Animateurs de Développement Communautaires or ADCs) and the commune to which each participating community belongs.
All the ADVs receive grassroots management training in many areas before commencement of the works, such as: participatory poverty assessment, participatory needs assessment, community procurement, and financial management.
Mid-term Results (in terms of achievements)
652 microprojects were implemented in 74 communes, for a total of CFAF 9 billion. - 74% of these projects were schools (total of 1,446 classrooms built); - Just over 10% were health posts; - 8% for water supply and sanitation; - 7% are market sheds and stores; and - 2% are rural roads.
Apart from the community infrastructure developed, beneficiary communities received grassroots management training. This enabled over 600 village communities to organize themselves to prepare sub-projects eligible for PNDCC financing.
They will subsequently be able to execute these sub-projects by procuring works with enterprises and service contracts pertaining to project managers for management of works supervised by the communes.
A supervision mission for the PNDCC visited the communities in September 2007 to monitor project execution and assess its impact on beneficiaries.
“The communities visited placed a higher value on the benefit gained from the strengthening of their capacities than on the expected benefits of infrastructural development, because they feel that these recently acquired capacities allow them to be true protagonists in their own development,” said Serge Theunynck, the World Bank’s team leader for the project.
Some communities emphasized the fact that gender equity in the management organizations is one of the key factors in the success of their sub-project.
“It should be noted that the representation of women in management organizations has increased significantly as a result of a new provision that requires a higher participation of women and increased responsibilities for them in the implementation of micro-projects,” Theunynck said.
“All the mayors indicated that the training provided has helped to clarify and enhancethe relationships between the municipal councils and the communities,” he added. “They feel that the communities that are organized into Village Development Associations are the best partners for the development of communes.”
Indeed, all the stakeholders on the ground were unanimous in recognizing that the PNDCC is well underway to having a real and positive impact on beneficiary communities.
The PNDCC is at the halfway point. While many actions have already been taken, much remains to be done.
“It is by doing that we learn to do,” said Franck Tigri, executive secretary and head of implementation of the PNDCC. “That is the main lesson learned over the past 30 months at the helm of this important project to support decentralization and poverty reduction in Benin.”
The PNDCC has contributed significantly to increasing the capacity of communities to identify their development needs, develop sub-projects, identify financing, monitor the execution of works, as well as conduct audits and preliminary checks, carry out assessments, and reprogram.
“We are currently in the process of stepping up the pace of implementation of the activities, and we are mobilizing all energies in preparation for the second phase of the project in 2009,” Tigri said. “We wish to give the communes and communities in Benin the opportunity to receive ongoing technical and financial assistance, which is necessary for the improvement of access to basic social services and infrastructure.”
By Sylvie Nenonene, World Bank, Benin
National Community-Driven Development Project (PNDCC)
The PNDCC, which effectively commenced on May 2, 2005, is implemented through the following main components: 1. Capacity building of line ministries, communes, and communities; 2. Improvement of access by the poor to basic social services and infrastructure; 3. Improvement of access by the poor to financial services for income-generating activities; and 4. The “project management” component.
The project is financed by the World Bank with a credit of $37.7 million, and a grant of $12.3 million.
For more information on the PNDCC, kindly contact:
Mr. Franck Tigri Executive Secretary of the PNDCC Telephone : (229) 21 31 80 88 pndccbenin01@yahoo.fr
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