Local Administration and Reform Program (LAAR)

Name: Local Administration and Reform Program
Duration: October 2005 - September 2010
Donor: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

UPDATE: The Report of the Second Citizen Satisfaction Survey in Target Communes of the LAAR Project is now available. Click to download the PDF [2.8MB]. Also, read our success story on LAAR: Accountability Through LAAR Project [PDF 122k]

USAID awarded Pact Cambodia a five-year, $14.4M grant to increase Commune Council and citizen engagement in the decentralization and deconcentration (D&D) reform process in Cambodia.  This program is a component of the Pact's Strengthening Governance and Accountability Program.

Pact's approach

The LAAR Program took a multidimensional approach, designed to build on and enhance existing programs in decentralization, with attention to good governance, under-represented populations, and natural resource management (NRM) woven throughout. Pact worked to institutionalize program strategies into existing government and civil society structures to enable USAID investments to outlive the program and lead to long-term, positive impact on D&D reform in Cambodia.

Primary program components included:

• Intensive capacity building program for civil society organizations and Commune Councils focused on 1) increasing public participation and decision-making in council affairs and 2) improving transparent and accountable management of council funds. Civil society organizations, in collaboration with Commune Councils and government facilitation teams developed joint action plans to encourage the practical application of skills acquired.
• Provision of grants to Commune Councils of US$3-5,000 for up to three consecutive years an incentive for councils to incorporate socially-focused investments into commune planning.
  
• Provision of one-time grants of up to US $5,000 to innovative Commune Councils, local NGOs, CBOs and village networks to support projects that aim to increase citizen involvement and that focus on cross-cutting issues of good governance, under-represented groups and NRM.
• Implementation of a Commune Council Performance Assessment (CCPA) process, currently being developed by the Working Group for Partnerships in Decentralization, that included a citizen evaluation survey and Commune Council self-assessment.
• Support for mechanisms to increase the flow of information between government and civil society and to strengthen civil society and Commune Council networks, increasing their credibility and legitimacy to play a more active role in D&D reform.
• Implementation of an integrated media strategy to raise awareness around citizen rights and participation in commune activities and D&D policy initiatives.

Results
Pact built the capacity of 13 local partner NGOs to offer organizational and administrative training for 356 commune councils in 8 provinces. These NGOs eventually worked with 3,164 commune council members to improve their ability to fulfill their mandates and institutionalize good governance practices. The partner NGOs also collaborated with local monitoring committees to report on the progress made by the councils in becoming more democratic. Pact supported the commune councils as they applied their new skills developed through the SGA program by awarding over 650 grants to local administrations to implement social development projects. Another pool of funding helped these commune councils conduct outreach campaigns to raise awareness of their activities with the general public. A total of 658 public forums with 52,128 participants gave citizens the opportunity to directly question their local representatives and forge a larger democratic space. Pact noted that a number of communes continued to host forums even after funding for these events was no longer available. At the end of the project, Pact also produced a manual based on the best practices identified during program implementation that was disseminated to all the commune councils around the country.

Staff contacts

Eric Bergthold
Country Director
ebergthold@pactworld.org

Hannah Poole
Program Officer, Washington, DC
hpoole@pactworld.org