Expanding Participation and Coordination in Local Development

The project Targeting MDGs at a local level with a HRBA, aims to produce human rights based local action plans for realizing the MDGs in three pilot municipalities. These action plans prioritize MDGs in each municipality, link them to specific human rights principles and obligations, and then outline strategic actions necessary for their fulfilment in the local context. Action plans will form the foundation for official municipal development strategies, and will be used to coordinate policy at the national and local levels. Action plans are highly participatory, with both municipal officials and communities involved in diagnostics, planning, drafting and review. The programme also partners with a wide number of civil society organizations (over 150 participated in workshops, and the project is implemented by a prominent national NGO). A secondary aim of the project is coordination among development actors, and to this end, a forum is kept open throughout the project, in which communities, municipalities and civil society can debate and coordinate development actions. This also allows for the continual review and amendment of programming. The programme is built for expansion to other municipalities, and is currently being used to coordinate local actors with national policy development.

Lessons Learned

Planning and Design:

Target and include all known stakeholders from the very beginning of the assessment phase.
Consider desired outputs in the design of diagnostics and planning exercises.
All activities should encourage cooperation and network building between participants.
All programming processes, and the development plans they produce, should be constantly evaluated and refined.

Coordination:

Clearly define roles and divisions of labour
Mix the representatives on facilitator teams, so that they are not perceived as ‘foreign’ by reluctant partners
Use the information that coordination gathers to sell the project at the national level
Keep fora for debate and coordination open and accessible to all partners, at all stages of the programme.
Avoid parallel or redundant initiatives and mechanisms
Partnering with universities, scientific centres and specialized NGOs can help supplement data sources and mobilize pre-existing resources.
Distribute information on programming activities and their results regularly and widely

Tools Developed

Guidelines for application of a HRBA in municipal development (Forthcoming, May 2007)

A summary of Lessons Learned in the assessment and planning stages. Download it here

Targeting MDGs at a local level with a HRBA
UNDP Argentina
http://www.undp.org.ar; Contact: milena.leivi@undp.org