Towards Collaborative and Transparent Local Development Planning

The project avoided the political dimension of decentralization, although its consideration would have been important to ensure relevance over time. While the project helped local areas to move towards a decentralized governance system, steps remain to be taken to institute genuine decentralization – particularly the election of local officials and adequate transfer of resources. Therefore the inclusion of an advocacy component would have greatly strengthened the programme.

There was no reference system to measure or determine at the end of the project the level of understanding or observe the changes that may have occurred as a result of the project. The effectiveness of the awareness-raising work carried out through village meetings and radio programmes remains unclear. Similarly, it is difficult to assess whether the training courses, which provided a brief overview of governance issues, achieved real change.

The grantee’s ongoing programme a decentralized rural development programme – has overshadowed the governance elements of the UNDEF specific project. Overall, however, the UNDEF-financed sections were effective in strengthening community-based consultative bodies for local development and dialogue between these bodies and local officials.

The project aimed to strengthen decentralized structures and systems before decisions had been made by the authorities on how decentralization would work. The grantee’s overall support programme also depended on the consent of local officials to participate which was not always forthcoming.

Although the project activities were carried out before the government decided on the type of local structures to be created, they served as a platform between prefectural development groups and village development committees. These platforms continue to be used by local communities and officials, as well as by other donors / NGOs for policy dialogue and project implementation. This means that the experience gained in governance and democracy through the project and the programme of which it was part, can be sustainable.

The project prompted some local citizens to ask their officials about how their taxes were spent to meet local needs. Local officials attributed an improvement in the collection of tax revenues to this programme, which could be explained with the local population’s better understanding of how the development process works.

The project in Togo funded several micro-projects, enabling the participants to carry out their planning actions and observe visible results from their efforts. This source of motivation was probably the main reason for their continued involvement.