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DECENTRALISATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM PROGRAMME (DAR)

Background

The Decentralisation and Administrative Reform Programme (DAR) aims to support sub-national administrations and line agencies in partner districts and municipalities to deliver public services in a more harmonised, responsive and accountable manner, with a focus on improving selected areas of service provision.

The project is commissioned by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Its partners are the National Committee for Sub-national Democratic Development (NCDD) selected districts/ the municipality in Battambang Province. The Ministry of Civil Service (MCS) also partners with the BMZ-funded component of the DAR Programme.

The DAR Programme builds on a previous Administration Reform and Decentralisation Programme / EU Strengthening Performance, Accountability and Civic Engagement of Democratic Councils in Cambodia (EU SPACE) Project and the European Union for Decentralisation and Administrative Reform (EU DAR) project.

Approach and Results

The programme builds on predecessor projects that have already helped government agencies and non-governmental organisations to gain a thorough understanding of administrative reforms, democratic decentralisation and accountability. While the primary focus of the earlier programmes was initially on advising partners at central government level on developing the legal framework, the focus in the new phase is on the implementation of national strategies at regional level. In this context, the practical application of regulations goes hand in hand with the strengthening of councils and public administration.

To implement decentralisation and administrative reform, the programme works with the Secretariat of the National Committee for Sub-National Democratic Development, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Civil Service and other relevant ministries at national level.

At regional level, the programme advises the partner districts in Battambang Province to enable them to provide better social and administrative services. It also strengthens the regional governments so that they can test and implement mechanisms that facilitate responsive and accountable service provision. To achieve this, the programme works with civil society actors to ensure that they play a greater role in decisions on service provision. Services such as the local ombudsperson are strengthened to increase transparency.

The programme is also working to improve cooperation between regional governments and sector authorities and between selected ministries on a sustainable basis, and it supports the efforts of councils, local governments and sector authorities to manage their service personnel in an increasingly performance-driven manner.

Results

Together with its national and subnational partners, DAR and its predecessor projects developed different materials​and important documents with the aim to strengthen subnational administrations and governments to implement their roles and responsibilities and to exercise their general mandate. In addition, good practices from partner districts have been collected for vertical and horizontal upscaling. To get to know the needs and realities at district and municipal level better, studies have been undertaken and tailor-made training courses have been developed to react to needs of SNA and councillors. All these efforts aim to improve service delivery and thus to better serve citizen’s needs. The documents developed can be downloaded below:

DAR

I. Studies and reports

II. Success stories on service delivery

III. Legal framework

IV. CD materials

EU DAR​

  1. Toolkits to support the implementation of selected permissive functions for districts, including step-by-step practical guides as well as relevant materials:
  1. Selected factsheets and capacity development materials to highlight topics relevant to SNA and councillors:
  1. Study reports as well as lessons from the implementation of the general mandate:
  1. Success stories – selected best practices in service delivery implemented by EU DAR’s partner districts and municipalities:
  1. Other materials produced by EU DAR and its partners:

EU SPACE

  1. Technical documents and relevant coaching manual
  1. A compilation of legal documents related to SNDD and PAR in order to improve the quality of service delivery:
  1. Reports and studies