Project summary:

Phase 1

The Project “Building Municipal Capacity for Projects Implementation” Phase 1, funded by the Government of Sweden, was implemented in the period January 2019 – September 2022. It has been designed and delivered to address some of the most pressing issues faced by the local government institutions in their efforts to improve the living conditions of their citizens. To address the underlying reasons behind the sub-optimal performance of the country’s local self-government system, the Project comprised three interrelated lines of intervention, namely:

• Municipal Development Index (MDI) – an objective system for tracking the performance and overall development progress of municipalities based on a series of indicators.
• Functional Analysis (FA) of the country’s local self-government system at a systemic level, and of selected pilot municipalities and regional centers.
• Technical Documentation Fund (TDF) – showcasing a pilot financial instrument for preparation of technical documentation for priority municipal infrastructure projects.

Altogether, these interlinked processes (MDI, FA, and TDF), are already being instrumental in prioritizing support to those municipalities that are struggling the most in terms of the socioeconomic development. Furthermore, it has resulted in an increase of capacities for planning, fundraising for, and implementing infrastructure/development projects.

Project details:

• Phase 1
• Start date: January 2019
• End date: September 2022
• Status: Closed
• Implementing agency: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• Partners/Beneficiaries: Ministry of local self-government (MLSG), Ministry of information society and administration (MISA­), Regional Development Centers, municipalities, Bureau for Regional Development, Association of the units of local self-government of the Republic of North Macedonia (ZELS), Ministry of Health
• Donors: Government of Sweden
• Budget: App. USD 2.56 million (USD 2.31 million Sweden funding and USD 0.25 million of UNDP and municipal co-funding)

Activities and Outputs (Expected results) by Project Document

• Phase 1

Output 1: Creation of a clear and simple index of municipal development

·         Activity 1 - Design of the Index, including determination of key and non-key indicators; weight attribution; and formula calculation

·         Activity 2 − Research and assessment on data availability and plans to collect new/missing data

·         Activity 3 − Consultations with peers, partners and the public

·         Activity 4 − Data collection, processing and calculation of the Index

·         Activity 5 − Public presentation of the Index

·         Activity 6 − Preparation of policy recommendations based on the Index, especially for balanced regional development

Output 2: Functional analysis of the local governance system to enhance development capacity

·         Activity 1 - Agreement on functional analysis methodology aligned with MISA approach

·         Activity 2 − Data collection and processing, quantitative and qualitative analysis

·         Activity 3 − Preliminary findings presented and consulted with the partners and other interested parties

·         Activity 4 − Finalization of the study, presentation of the findings and recommendations to the public

·         Activity 5 − Work with pilot municipalities/regional development centres to implement recommendations

·         Activity 6 − Conducting a functional analysis aimed at reaching a clear understanding of BRD and MLSG functions, identifying gaps and overlaps, and recommending internal structural changes;

·         Activity 7 − Supporting the BRD and MLSG in adapting their internal organizations according to the recommendations from the functional analysis; and

·         Activity 8 − Supporting the BRD and MLSG in improving the operational flow of work processes, aiming at higher efficiency in creating policies and monitoring their implementation in coordination with an array of other government bodies.

Output 3: Establishment of a “technical documentation fund” for local development projects

·         Activity 1 - Research and analysis of the (potential) sources of funding for local development projects requiring technical documentation

·         Activity 2 − Assignment of the Fund management responsibilities

·         Activity 3 − Transfer of knowledge and experience on sustainable urban/rural planning and development (drawing, if and where relevant, from the experience of the Swedish International Centre for Local Democracy and other good practices) to municipal/regional counterparts

·         Activity 4 − Snapshot review of the existing local development strategies, programmes and priority lists, in order to identify priority development projects and classify them according to maturity, and eligibility for Government’s and other sources of funding

·         Activity 5 − Design and approval of Fund’s statutes, documents and forms: eligibility of applicants and types of documentation to be co-financed; evaluation criteria; co-financing rates; calls for applications and application forms, methods of communication; grant agreements; reporting procedures and forms; and other requirements

·         Activity 6 − Communication to the potential beneficiaries – national and local public presentation events

·         Activity 7 − Launch of a call for applications (for individual municipalities or for a group of municipalities through inter-municipal cooperation)

·         Activity 8 − Tendering and preparation of technical (and other) documentation

·         Activity 9 − Mobilization of resources to ensure sustainability of the Fund

·         Activity 10 − Compilation and sharing of lessons learned and good practices