Eritrea

ANSEBA Local Development Project (ALDP) :

 BACKGROUND

 

 Since Independence in 1993, the Government of the State of Eritrea (GoSE) has committed itself to a policy of incremental decentralization. It is now seeking to implement the provisions of the 1996 Proclamation for the Establishment of Regional Administrations (PERA). In this policy context, ALDP will contribute towards helping GoSE drive forward its agenda on decentralization and local governance. It seeks to strengthen local government capacities in Anseba (one of the country’s six regions) & aims to plot innovative & participatory ways of planning & implementing local development. Support for decentralization was identified as one of the priority areas for UNDP Eritrea. It features prominently in the Country Corporation Framework (2002-2006). By providing concrete, field-based learning on the decentralization process, ALDP will be in a good position to provide valuable lessons. The ALDP is jointly supported by UNCDF & UNDP, with the Belgian Survival Fund being a key

financial supporter and partner.

 

OBJECTIVES

 

The development objective of ALDP is to reduce poverty in Anseba Region as a basis for sustained self development. ALDP will seek to reduce poverty in Anseba by providing basic social & economic infrastructure, improving the natural resource base of local communities & enhancing local human capital endowments. In addition, ALDP will directly address the wider institutional issues (planning, finance & implementation arrangements) linked to the continued delivery of pro-poor public infrastructure & services by local government in Anseba. The immediate objective of the project is to ensure that local government in Anseba Region delivers public infrastructure & services based on responsive, transparent & pro- poor planning procedures. This implies that pro-poor infrastructure & services will be delivered in Anseba and that the planning system which ensures this is institutionalized & thus taken on as the officially endorsed way of doing so. The project, then, has both a pro poor planning focus as well as an explicit policy impact orientation.

 

PROGRAMME DETAILS

 

Innovation is considered a key operational feature of ALDP. This is consistent with UNCDF’s mandate, being to pilot innovative management of local development & to inform national policy on decentralization. ALDP will be highly innovative in Eritrea:

 

• By testing & promoting an integrated & participatory development planning process within local government;

 

• By introducing new ways of financing local development;

 

• By strengthening & improving local government & community capacities to deliver, operate & maintain public infrastructure and services;

 

• Through its Local Development Fund, the ALDP makes annual block grant allocations to sub regions in Anseba to finance annual cycles of community-based planning & project implementation; i.e. to finance locally identified priority activities. The Anseba Regional government implements the project with technical assistance from UNCDF.

 

RESULTS

 

• To establish a participatory & transparent planning system that ensures the identification & design of locally prioritized pro-poor projects;

 

• To improve access to & management of financial resources for funding development plans by local government units in Anseba;

 

• To strengthen regional & local capacity to deliver, operate and maintain projects efficiently;

• To inform national policy, using Anseba planning process, styles of programming and project design.