IT expert Jan Beck in consultation with the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics at the VNG International office in Al Bireh

 

VNG International delegation under coordination of project manager Luai Khalaf enjoying the hospitality of the Municipality of Salfeet, famous for its olive oil production.

 

‘We would like to appreciate and thank VNG International for applying and implementing street naming and house numbering in Qalqilia. Your intervention just occurs in the right time as we have been waiting for such thing to happen since 2014 to prepare the municipality to be an electronic one.’

Dr. Hashim Al Masri,

Mayor of Qalqilia

‘As we recently have an approved Master Plan for the City, we were thinking since then of how we can increase the accuracy of our admin and geo database, and we have so far managed with your technical help and support to overtake many challenges and noticing the progress we made.’

Eng. Remah Al Ramahi,

Head of Planning and Engineering Department, Salfeet Municipality

building more effective public administration by strengthening democratic local government

The project started in 2018 and focuses on supporting Palestinian municipalities to improve their management over geo- and administrative data on property. In 2021, the Palestinian Authorities requested a slight shift of objectives to respond to the local need and prepare for fiscal decentralization. The new approach focuses on developing a national guide for street naming and house numbering for LGUs, through pilot municipalities. The main objective of the redesigned approach is to improve the position of local government authorities for further steps in fiscal decentralization by supporting their capacity to manage property related data.

 

VNG International and the Ministry of Local Government (MoLG) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The project is set up in three phases:

1. Development of a reference framework for property related to geo- and administrative data, and an operational guide and the production of IT functionality;
2. Implementation of the operational guide in two pilot municipalities to distill lessons learned;
3. Sustainable handover to the Ministry of Local Government to secure local ownership.

 

The project is currently in the course of the second phase, and working on implementation of the guide in the two pilot municipalities Salfeet and Qalqilia.

 

 

Keys results so far include:

 

• Approval of the reference model and guide by the MoLG, as the result of a fruitful and intensive cooperation with the Technical Working Group (TWG). The TWG consists of representatives of relevant PA institutions (Ministry of Local Government, Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, Palestinian Land Authority (PLA), Ramallah Municipality, Hebron Municipality, GIZ and VNG International). The exchanges during the TWG were rich and strengthened the reference model and guide to be embedded in the Palestinian context.
• The commitment and the cooperative and pro-active attitude of the two pilot municipalities has been proved at the start of the implementation phase for the operational guide. The recruitment of a competent local resident project officer has kick-started the implementation of the IT functionality and the testing of the reference model and guide, supported by the international experts.
• The Palestinian authorities have shown great interest and effort in making the project a success and the deliverables sustainable. Also, in the course of 2022 it will be explored if the standardized processes for property data management will be implemented in a larger number of municipalities.