Community and Municipal Governance Initiative

Speeches Shim

USAID helps to improve services like trash collection.
USAID helps to improve services like trash collection.
USAID/Kyrgyz Republic

Duration: Oct 2016 – Sept 2021

Budget: $9.5 million

Implementing Partner: DAI

Key Partners: Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, State Agency for Local Self-Government and Inter-Ethnic Relations (SALSGIR), local self-governments, the Union of Local Self-Governments, Development Policy Institute

Activity Locations: nationwide

USAID’s Community and Municipal Governance Initiative is a five-year project that works with 50 rural and urban municipalities to improve their performance, so that they can deliver quality services to citizens.

MAJOR FOCUS AREAS

The project works with partner municipalities to demonstrate that by seeking meaningful citizen input and improving management practices, aiyl-okmotu and mayor’s offices can increase citizen satisfaction and deliver quality services using their own resources. The project focuses on the following aspects.

Effective service delivery. The project assists partner municipalities in improving the delivery of key services such as solid waste management and water supply, by helping to plan, budget, manage, and oversee in accordance with state regulations and best practices.

Improved citizens’ perception. The project seeks to engage all citizen groups including women, youth and minorities to monitor service delivery. Citizens can provide feedback on services while developing more realistic expectations of what municipalities can deliver.

Strengthened sustainability. The project helps to strengthen the Union of Local Self-Governments (LSGs) and other non-government organizations (NGOs) to extend the project’s successes through networking and replication of best practices among LSGs. In the future, local NGOs are planned to provide consulting services to LSGs.

 

EXPECTED RESULTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Effective service delivery

Partner municipalities identified citizen needs and priorities and provided transparent and accessible services to citizens. Illustrative examples include:

  • More than 27,000 residents in 19 municipalities have stable access to clean drinking water, as a result of improved fee calculation and management that enhanced maintenance and sustainability of water systems;
  • About 21,000 citizens in eight municipalities benefit from improved garbage collection;
  • Four municipalities installed street lighting fixtures, thus improving security for more than 5,000 citizens;
  • Over 2,400 children and teenagers in 14 municipalities can now attend sports and extra-curricular classes, such as dance, chess, and music classes because local authorities have effectively organized proper operation of such clubs, hired coaches and teachers, and discussed the fees with parents.
  • Partner municipalities identified citizen needs and priorities and provided transparent and accessible services to citizens.

Improved citizens’ perception

Partner municipalities improved their communication with citizens and started to engage them in the decision-making processes more actively. Surveys demonstrate that this resulted in an average 3% increase of citizen trust in urban municipalities and 12% increase of citizen trust in rural municipalities.

  • 17 municipalities started to use mobile messengers to connect with their citizens. They send out announcements, and conduct surveys about public services. In return, residents can submit their questions, concerns, and suggestions without visiting a local government office;
  • Partner municipalities organized 345 public hearings involving more than 18,400 citizens to address pressing issues in education, health care, culture and utility services, review and present local budget expenditures and report on latest developments;
  • 39 municipalities developed communications strategies to improve their interaction with citizens and use new tools for better reporting on their performance and planned activities.

Strengthened sustainability

The project continues to strengthen networks between local governments so that they improve their performance by learning from each other. Representatives of partner municipalities share their experience with each other through study tours and different meetings including the largest forum of municipalities - Forum of Aimaks. They also received various education and reference materials to help them work more effectively.