Local Government & Public Service Reform Initiative2006 Activities
In 2006, the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (LGI) continued to assist efforts to achieve good governance by helping civil society monitor and report on transparency of public funds and institutions, promote ethics in public service, and increase public participation in decision making. The initiative also aided efforts to improve public finance through the more equitable collection and distribution of public revenues and audit the use of public monies, such as capital investment grants and EU structural funds.
Other priorities for LGI included improving the delivery of public services and urban planning; helping manage multiethnic communities; and developing local economies. LGI works by initiating policy studies, supporting regional networks of policy institutions and professionals, providing consultancy services, and sharing its accumulated knowledge through training and educational programs.
The following briefs describe some of the initiative’s activities and achievements in 2006.
Decentralization Analysis Prompts Council of Europe Action
An assessment of political and fiscal decentralization to increase democratic local governance in nine South Eastern European countries prompted the Council of Europe to use the study’s recommendations to follow up with these states. The assessment, conducted by LGI and the Policy Association for an Open Society, reviewed what the countries had achieved since signing a 2004 memorandum on reforms to build democratic local governance. LGI worked with the Council of Europe to further decentralization processes in the region, including considering the appointment of an “ambassador at large” to assist states pursuing reform.
New Serbian Tax Law Boosts Local Government Revenues
LGI played a significant role in helping develop and promote a new law that greatly enhances the predictability, transparency, and equitability of local government finances in Serbia. One of the law’s most significant features is the transfer of government revenue generated by property taxes away from the federal level to the local level. The redirection will give local governments an important new source of revenue that can be directly implemented for local needs.
Diversity Training Spreads to More Communities
Diversity training modules designed by LGI were used by an EU project in Macedonia, five universities in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and government agencies and NGOs in eight countries across Central and South Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The trainings help government agencies and civil society groups pursue public administration reforms that respect diversity and make governance more efficient and democratic. LGI also initiated publication of its training manuals into ten local languages and facilitated an exchange between local government officials from Serbia and the UNDP and civil society experts from Kyrgyzstan.
Analysis Helps Attract EU Funding for Education Reform
A white paper on decentralization in education, produced by LGI, helped the Bulgarian Ministry of Education increase EU funding for crucial education reform projects. The paper called attention to the need to reform the country’s outdated regional education inspectorates, an area that the government had overlooked and had no money for in the national budget. By bringing up this oversight, the paper allowed the government to include the necessary reform funding in its EU structural funds request.
Finance Experts Develop Fairer Resource-Distribution Plan
Finance officers in Armenia worked with colleagues in three other countries to produce data that showed government officials how they can distribute resources more equitably. The Community Finance Officers Association, the Armenian national partner of OSI’s Local Government Information Network (LOGIN), conducted an analysis of fiscal transfers between the central government and municipal governments, with comparative data from LOGIN partner associations in Latvia, Poland, and Russia. Ministers in the domestic and finance ministries said they would consider the analysis in upcoming policy decisions.
Document Informs Discussion at Kosovo Final Status Talks
Briefing notes on decentralization procedures helped inform debate among politicians and negotiators engaged in talks about Kosovo’s final status. The briefing notes, prepared and widely disseminated by the initiative and the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, focused on crucial practical issues such as efficient and equitable service delivery, inclusive decision-making, taxation and expenditure policies, and local economic development.
