National Governance and Public Administration Reform (GPAR) Programme - Governance for Inclusive Development Programme

Summary: 

The Governance for Inclusive Development Programme (GIDP) supports the government’s strong desire to strengthen its public administration’s ability to achieve the goals of better service delivery, promote wider governance improvements and increase citizens’ systematic engagement, especially at the local levels where basic services are coordinated, planned, tracked and reported. The linkage to national partnerships and the Governance Sector Working Group (GSWG) provides the opportunity for national policy advocacy and discussions on the progress of the GID joint programme and on governance matters in general. 

Background: 

The Governance for Inclusive Development Programme (GIDP) is a joint initiative between UNDP and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). It supports the Government of Lao PDR’s strong desire to strengthen its public administration’s ability to achieve better service delivery, promote wider governance improvements and increase citizens’ systematic engagement, especially at the local levels where basic services are coordinated, planned, tracked and reported.  

The achievement of the 8th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) and the national goals of Lao PDR to graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status and make progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are dependent on inclusive and effective governance and administrative systems. The GIDP has been developed under the framework of the Government of Lao PDR’s National Governance and Public Administration Reform Programme (NGPAR).  

Major Achievements:  

• Integration of the District Development Fund (DDF) in the national planning and finance systems and further development of SDG–LNOB (Leave No One Behind) model in local development implementation 
• DDF trainings on local development budgeting provided to 617 local staff, with DDF funded local development projects have benefited 142,541 people 
• Two model One Door Service Centres established (Bachieng ODSC and Saysettha ODSC) bringing the total number of ODSCs in the country to 44 
• First pilot of the ‘Smart ODSC’ model in Lao PDR, which applied new technologies for the operation of the ODSC by tracking documentation  
• Introducing transparent service provision by publishing clear pricing of public services at each ODSC, developing the ODSC ‘Back Office Standard Operating Procedure’  
• Introduction of the first ever mechanism to facilitate partnerships between local governments, civils society and private sector, the Public Sector innovation Facility 
• PSIF directly benefited 21,710 beneficiaries and indirectly benefited 637,176, including 315,895 women across 42 PSIF projects, of which nine included partnerships between local authorities and CSOs, and three included partnerships between local authorities and the private sector 
• Introduction of the first citizen feedback survey, the Service user Feedback Survey, capturing the feedback from over 2,800 citizens across 8 districts and 7 provinces 
• SUFS results of feedback from citizens were included in the 5 year socio economic development plans in Siengkhor district, Hua Phan Province, and Hingoun district, Khammouane Province 
• Support to the Governance Sector Working Group to deliver 35 thematic dialogues together with government, development partners, civil society organisations, academia, mass organizations and relevant local authorities on governance related issues including rule of law, e-governance, and inclusive development 
• GSWG made key contributions to the ODSC National Strategy, the Master Plan for Digitalization and E-Governance, the development of the Legal Aid Strategy, and COVID-19 response and recovery  

Project Outcome: 

The project aims to: 

• Local institutions are able to increase the coverage of basic services and include citizens’ feedback in the planning cycle for services provision by 2020  
• Targeted local administrations are able to develop and finance the implementation of multi-sector work plans based on community priorities  
• Accountability framework applied at the district level to capture and use citizens’ feedback on provision of basic services  
• Enhanced multi-stakeholder governance processes promoting dialogue and feeding into good governance related policies including the delivery of basic services  
• Inclusive local service delivery and development; accountability framework and citizens’ feedback; and the expansion of partnerships and policy dialogue, with civil society engagement, for development effectiveness. 
• Strategic shift from grants-driven general infrastructure development to an intervention that seeks to leverage resources from various sources for addressing priority SDG-related service delivery, increased citizens’ and civil society engagement and facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue and partnership. 

GESI (Gender Equality & Social Inclusion) component 

MoHA and GIDP is fully seized with mainstreaming gender into all GIDP initiatives, guidelines, innovations etc. as a practical and cost-effective way of institutionalising good gender practices within the national and sub-national administration. Based on lessons from NGPAR-SCDC, this programme developped a simple-to-use Gender and Inclusive Action Plan jointly with MOHA to ensure that gender equity and inclusion are understood and implemented in programmatic, rather than conceptual / abstract terms.  

Other key programme interventions include specific affirmative action for women and ethnic staff in leadership positions, gender training for all MOHA Staff, review of government staff guidelines; improvement of gender mainstreaming manual; improvement of recruitment policy and support for Civil Service to encourage more women and ethnic candidates; review of the strategic plan on Gender; enhancement of the monitoring and reporting templates to adequately capture sex, age, disability, and ethnicity disaggregated profile of implementing organisations, as well as for participants and beneficiary groups.  

Through the SUFS, feedback was collected on the experiences of persons with disabilities on using public services, which helped inform the development of local socio economic development plans, and was shared with provincial level parliamentarians to support them in the execution of their oversight and legislative development functions. SUFS was also disaggregated by gender, including by training women volunteers as part of local survey teams to facilitate collecting responses from women in households. The PSIF helpd to support local initiatives aimed at prevent trafficking in person, including young women from ethnic groups.  

Related Materials

• Project document
• Project brief
• Service User Feedback Survey (SUFS)

Project details: 

• Status: Closed 
• Start Date: April 2017  
• End Date: March 2021 
• Project Office: Governance, UNDP Lao PDR  
• Focus Area: Governance/Legal Sector 
• Collaborating Partners: Ministry of Justice together with Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Office of Supreme People’s Prosecutor, People’s Supreme Court, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Planning and Investment, National Assembly, Lao Bar Association 
• Total budget: 9,454,729