Decentralizing Local Governance – Examples and Approaches,  June 19-21 2006, Moscow and Perm

Two roundtables on the development of local governance and the progress of the project were held on June 19-21, 2006 in Moscow and Perm. They were sponsored by the World Bank in the framework of the project Local Government and Civic Engagement in Rural Russia and The Institute for Urban Economics (IUE) in Moscow. Participants included representatives of federal, regional, and local authorities, Russian and foreign experts, media, and others. They discussed a number of issues, including how to raise the effectiveness of local governance, how to encourage civic engagement in the budget process and in local governance, as well as the possibilities for local authorities to increase local budget revenue and improve the quality of public services.

Round table on small business & entrepreneurship in the rural economy, February 5, 2007, Moscow

Russia’s significant human potential in rural areas coupled with recent decentralization laws allowing for greater local self-governance and better administrative and fiscal management at the local level, set the scene for needed diversification of rural Russia through expansion of small private businesses.

This was the theme of the round table “Russian villages are open for business: small business & entrepreneurship – the foundation of the rural economy” which took place in the Moscow office of the World Bank on February 5, 2007 and was jointly organized by the Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of Russia (OPORA of Russia) and the World Bank.

Historically, rural development in Russia equaled agriculture and to this day the pace of diversification of the rural economy is slower than desired, as participants pointed out. To date, there is insufficient attention to bringing together the main elements for diversification of the rural economy, including development of small scale farming, rural businesses, and improved delivery of infrastructure and social services by rural local governments. The round table gave Russian participants the opportunity to learn about international experiences and methods of rural development in different countries including Romania, Poland and Ireland. Read More »

Concluding conference of the project ‘Local Governance and Civic Engagement in Rural Russia’, 25 April 2007, Moscow

The aim of the conference was to distribute and discuss best practices and results of civic engagement and approaches to rural development, arising from the World Bank pilot project “Local Self-Governance and Civic Engagement in Rural Russia” (2004-07) and also to provide the foundation for discussions on concepts and directions for rural territorial development in Russia.
During the conference, the following issues were discussed:

• Methodology and training on the budgetary process, preparing and holding budget hearings, training of municipal consultants on tri-partite cooperation between the authorities, population and business and on legal issues;
• Methodology and design of Service Improvement Action Plans (SIAP), cooperation between relevant stakeholders in implementing SIAPs, Role of Local Community Foundations in solving problems of rural settlements;
• Recommendations on legal support of rural local-self-governance and civic engagement and results of piloting model normative legal acts in pilot settlements;
• Improving the planning process in rural areas based on monitoring of public service delivery and citizens’ opinions about local priorities (presentation of preliminary results of analytical work on the effectiveness of local governance and public accountability)

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Study Tours

Thanks to partnerships within the World Bank and with other donor organizations, some of the most successful project participants were able participate in study tours to see how local governments operate involve their citizens in budgeting, local planning, and priority setting in countries as diverse as Albania, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kyrgyzstan.

New Perspectives: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe and Central Asia, and OECD Countries
March 27-29, 2007 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The World Bank Institute (WBI) organized a regional workshop Local Governance and Social Accountability New Perspectives: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe and Central Asia, and OECD Countries in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The workshop introduced participants to the results of a recently completed social audit of local governments, which provides useful lessons and information on service delivery and citizen participation at local government level, as well as a preliminary look at public expenditure management practices in 20 municipalities across Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results of the audit will provide the basis for the development of a two-year capacity building program at municipal level, and feed into the design of potential World Bank lending at municipal levels.

The second day of the workshop highlighted presentations from OECD, Eastern European and Central Asian countries on innovative social accountability initiatives, based on a region-wide stocktaking of such initiatives recently completed by the World Bank Institute and OECD. The presentations included best practices in the areas of participatory budgeting, consultative citizen report cards, citizen charters, and other participatory mechanisms aimed at improving the relationships between citizens and local governments for improved service delivery and public management.

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Participatory budgeting international workshop: exposure, learning, and dialogue, June 04 - 11, 2006, Porto Alegre (Brazil)

It was an initiative of the International Centre for Urban Management (CIGU) in Ecuador and the Municipal Development Partnership for Eastern and Southern Africa (MDP-ESA) in Zimbabwe, with the support of WBI’s Community Empowerment and Social Inclusion Program (CESI), Social Development and Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network in the World Bank. 

* For more information about participatory budgeting in practice in Latin American and European municipalities, read Participatory democracy in Porto Alegre, Brazil [pdf] by Rualdo Menegat (Professor at the Institute of Geosciences of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul).

*  Participatory democracy in Porto Alegre, Brazil  by Rualdo Menegat (Professor at the Institute of Geosciences of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) contains more information.

Study and dissemination tour, 7-11 August 2006, Kyrgyzstan 

A workshop was organized in combination with a municipal study tour on examples and best practices of participatory good governance for participants from Albania, Czech Republic, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Netherlands and Kosovo, Russia.

Organized by Co-PLAN, a professional non-government organization engaged in participatory-based urban development in Albania, the workshop was financed by OSFA – SOROS Foundation and supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs & the Association of Albanian Municipalities.

Discussions focused on: (i) municipal development strategies, (ii) city/regional planning, (iii) participatory budgeting, (iv) local economic development strategy, v) municipal information systems and vi) the legalization and urbanization of informal settlements.

Read More » (Russian).