Communication with Citizens’ training in Sohag in 2019

 

 

 

Communication with Citizens’ training in Qena in 2019

 

‘Since we started our collaboration with VNG International as the Implementation Support Consultants we were impressed with many aspects of their work, first of which is their responsiveness and their ability to adapt to the changing needs of the programme. They are always ready to respond to requests on short notice, and changes in planning. This is a very fluid programme which is being implemented in a constantly changing environment, and it was key for us that the implementation support consultants have this sense of shared ownership with the Programme management, which drives them to satisfy the developing needs of the programme while staying committed to the highest standards of quality in the experts they mobilise and the services they provide,

we do appreciate that a lot.

Mrs. Nahed Adib

Deputy Programme Director

for Capacity Building

‘VNG International helped us a lot in terms of building the capacities of civil servants in local government. They delivered high quality training and capacity building programmes in a broad range of topics, most notably on local planning, design, and use of Key Performance Indicators in local governance institutions and improving the quality of the public services we deliver to our communities. They also guided us in the process of developing service manuals to uniform and streamline the service delivery procedures, which led to a significant reduction of the time needed for delivering services with high impact on local economic development and the quality of life of our citizens.

Mr. Omar Mamdouh

Service Improvement Specialist in the Local Implementation Unit of the Governorate of Sohag

 

 

improving Access to Basic Services

by strengthening democratic local government

Since January 2019, VNG International, MDFnl and CID Consulting are providing implementation support consultancy to the Upper Egypt Local Development Program ‘UELDP’, which is co-funded by the World Bank and the Government of Egypt. The main objective of the programme is to improve the business environment for private sector development and strengthen local government capacity for building and managing quality infrastructure and services in the two pilot governorates, Qena and Sohag.

 

The program aims to support the decentralisation process in Egypt through the strengthening of the local governments to plan and manage the local investments and services independently, and actively engage with their communities through effective citizens’ participation mechanisms. Since July 2021, the geographic scope of the programme was expanded to include the governorates of Minia and Assuit. The aim is also to roll-out the success stories and best practices from the UELDP to the other governorates.

 

VNG International provides the required technical support, professional expertise, and tailor-made capacity building programmes to both the central and the local administrations of the program in various fields of expertise, by international and local experts. This includes, but is not limited to, the application of the social & environmental safeguards, occupational health & safety measures, feasibility studies, operational & maintenance plans, integrated local planning, the planning and budgetting of road maintenance, procurement & financial management, planning & economic development, monitoring & evaluation, marketing, community engagement, process re-engineering, and managerial skills.

 

 

Results achieved:

 

• Accelerated development rates, particularly in terms of improving the quality and coverage of local infrastructure and utilities;
• Local governments have become more responsive to the citizens’ needs, with new and more effective community engagement tools;
• Public investments have become more sustainable through better planning for operation and maintenance and by applying sound financial policies;
• National stakeholders have improved the processes of delivering shop permits, as a result of technical assistance on designing the new ‘Shops Permit workflow’, including 9 sub-services. Several workshops were conducted on the local level, to map the currently in-use processes and identify the improvement points. As a product of these workshops, a service manual was developed and published with the improved processes of 50 public services as a key result.