Completed project (August 2011 - December 2013)
Origin of funding: European Commission
Effective, efficient, transparent, participatory and accountable local administration is considered one of Turkey's priorities in the Accession Partnership documents. The overall objective of the project is to increase the scope of local administration reform in Turkey by improving the capacity of local governments for enhancing participatory strategic governance at the local level. The project targets on one hand the service providers (i.e. local administrations) and on the other hand the service users (i.e. civil society and citizens residing in the pilot local administrations).
In line with the overall objective the specific objectives are three-fold:
- To support the further implementation of recent legislation related to local governments and to ensure participation, transparency and accountability at the local level in 26 local governments in Turkey;
- To improve strategic planning in programming capacity and capability of local governments through training of at least 1000 elected representatives and personnel of local governments on the use of analytical tools;
- To enhance the role of citizen assemblies in local decision making mechanisms through the involvement of at least 500 representatives from non-governmental organizations.
The project foresees in the following three result areas:
- Component 1: Increased strategic planning capacity of local government;
- Component 2: Increased efficiency and effectiveness of citizens assemblies;
- Component 3: Enhanced participatory decision-making culture at the local level.
The scope of activities of the project is limited to 26 pilot provinces in Turkey with a population of over 200.000 inhabitants, but foresees in activities to disseminate the results to a wider public.
The Ministry of Interior-General Directorate for Local Government (GDLG) is main beneficiary of the project, and the Ministry of Development – Strategic Planning Department is component partner. Through meetings, seminars, training programmes, conferences, etc. the project targets governors, district governors, mayors, elected representatives and high-level managers, department heads at Special Provincial Administrations (SPAs) and municipalities, chairs and representatives of citizen assemblies, mahalle muhtars (neighbourhood headmen), NGO representatives and citizens in the 26 pilots.
Within the scope of the project, TEPAV provides the following services:
a) Leading the activities on developing and implementing Participatory Analytical Tools (i.e. Citizen Scorecards, socio-economic mapping and budget monitoring);
- Organising training workshops for public managers and civil society representatives on participatory analytical tools, local governance reviews and municipal strategic planning,
- Designing and implementing citizen scorecard household research in pilot cities,
- Designing and moderating participatory budget discussions,
- Developing handbooks on Citizen Scorecards, socio-economic mapping and budget monitoring.
b) Developing monitoring and benchmarking reports on municipal services (i.e. business licenses, construction and occupancy permits, water and sewerage services).