About GAP
WHAT IS GAP2?
Building on the first Governance Accountability Project (GAP), GAP2 is a project funded by Sida, EKN, and USAID to improve the capacity of 72 municipalities in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) to provide better services to citizens, increase transparency and responsible decision-making, expand the capacity to effectively manage human and capital resources, and to support a policy and fiscal framework conducive to accountable local government. The project cooperates closely with mayors, local governments, municipal associations, civil society, and the business community to bring Bosnia’s governance structures in line with European Union standards of transparency, accountability, and efficiency. The results of GAP’s efforts have been groundbreaking. Across the board, municipalities are showing increasing levels of efficiency and citizen satisfaction directly correlated with the amount of project assistance.
local interventions
The local interventions component provides municipalities with the tools and resources they need to better serve their citizens and build stronger communities. Major features of this component include establishing modern citizen service centers and urban permitting centers, improving municipal financial management, and contributing to the efficiency and transparency of the budgeting process. Efforts consist of improving administrative service delivery through digitalized registry data and document tracking systems, streamlining urban planning and permitting procedures using GIS software and zoning principles, and training for installation of integrated accounting and budgeting systems. GAP2 supports 41 “legacy” municipalities from the first phase of GAP, and is now providing our signature package of assistance to another 31 additional municipalities, grouped into “cohort 3” and “cohort 4”.
RESULTS TO DATE
- GAP2 has established and improved one-stop-shops for citizen services (CSC) in 25 municipalities, bringing the total number of GAP-supported CSCs to 66. Another six will open in the first half of 2010, three in March alone.
- More than 2.15 million people, or about half the population of BiH, is currently served by GAP-assisted municipalities.
- The latest attitudinal survey shows that, following completion of a GAP-sponsored CSC, the percentage of citizens who rate municipal services as “unsatisfactory” falls from an average of 29% to 14.4%.
- For cohort 3, GAP’s assistance has on average cut the time needed to obtain necessary documents – like birth certificates, marriage licenses, or citizenship certificates – from 2.5 hours to 10 minutes, and increased overall efficiency in providing municipal services by 35%. The latest attitudinal survey links these improvements to increased citizen satisfaction: nearly 83% of citizens surveyed from cohort 3 are satisfied with municipal services, an increase of 15.5% compared with the baseline.
- In 2008, municipal own-source revenues among GAPÂ municipalities increased by 19% from 2007, adjusted for inflation.
- The latest project survey shows that the positive effects of GAP’s assistance on municipal capacity are being sustained, and actually multiplying. Legacy municipalities who began receiving GAP assistance in 2005 have shown a trend of steady improvement through GAP2. (right)
- GAP is implementing 176 demand-driven assistance projects (55 completed to-date) to legacy municipalities on topics ranging from IPA training, to urbanism, to improved IT management capacity. This process both directly improves municipal governance, and provides hands-on experience in European Union project cycle management.
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLANNING
As part of the Local Interventions component, GAP2 administers a fund of approximately $6.25 million USD to manage and support municipal capital improvement projects. We have developed an innovative Capital Improvement Planning (CIP) methodology that has been adopted by 48 municipalities to-date, including a 50% cost-match requirement and a transparent process for selecting capital projects involving civil society and the business community. These projects are providing essential infrastructure, while at the same time providing municipalities much-needed experience in finance, project management, and participatory planning. The GAP application process is structured similarly to the European Union’s Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) funds application process for BiH, thereby encouraging municipalities to develop experience and skills to access these large sums in the future. GAP partner municipalities are already applying for EU funding, and one municipality has received project funding.
RESULTS TO DATE
- GAP is currently co-financing 64 capital projects in 39 legacy municipalities worth 15,473,792 KM (10,765,000 USD). Municipalities are providing 10,620,405 KM (7,388,520 USD) in cost-share, or 68% of total value.
- Completed capital projects so far have included a new sports hall in Vlasenica, a bridge in Kakanj, a town square in Foca, public street lighting in Tuzla, parking lots in Lopare, and a water supply system in Nevesinje.
Capital project: new bridge in Kakanj allows commercial vehicles, school buses, and citizens to pass safely.
In 2008, GAP municipalities spent more than 335 million KM (231.6 million USD) on capital projects, an increase of more than 36% compared to 2007. The largest change was seen among cohort 3 municipalities, which experienced a 74% annual increase. These jumps are attributed to increased municipal budget revenues, GAP technical assistance in capital improvement planning, and better municipal organization.
POLICY COMPONENT
The policy component is designed to create a sustainable reform environment that helps local government officials, experts, and the academic community create a comprehensive vision for reform; assists governments and parliaments in transforming this vision into legislation; and builds strong municipal associations capable of formulating and advocating the interests of cities and municipalities.
RESULTS TO DATE
- 51 out of 72 GAP municipalities are active participants in the process for advocacy reform, up from 37 at project start. GAP is also engaging all 143 municipalities in BiH through work with entity-level associations, annual surveys, and focus groups.
- Both municipal associations have institutionalized GAP’s recommended annual policy planning mechanism and are improving their internal capacity to undertake policy analysis, define policy priorities, and use policy analysis in advocacy. This process is also expanding the participation of municipalities in the policy cycle. In 2009, 95 municipalities in both entities sent their priorities to the association for consideration. To complete this process, GAP is now providing parallel advocacy trainings for key members of the Presidency and committees of both municipal associations that they will use to act on these priorities.
- The percentage of total public sector revenue accruing to the municipal sector has increased rapidly in the first two years of the project, from 14% to 16.7%. Having improved services and collections, municipalities can now reinvest in their development.
- A new database for debt reporting was developed by GAP and delivered to the RS Ministry of Finance, which will use it to streamline communications and management across all 67 RS municipalities. GAP has also developed a database for revenue reporting that was adopted by the FBiH Ministry of Finance, which will provide better fiscal accountability and surveillance. The Ministry has since chosen to expand the database to cover additional functions, increasing the number of users from 90 to 120.
- GAP is working to enact or implement over a dozen separate laws increasing local autonomy and accountability. These laws range from real property rights and forestry, to government administration and vital records sharing, to the chart of accounts.
- GAP has played a major role in finding the legal and technical solution to allow for implementation of vital records and electronic document sharing in BiH. In addition to procuring the software that is now the standard for all municipalities, GAP helped develop the necessary entity laws, which have been adopted in the RS, and are in procedure in the FBiH. Vital records is a key requirement for visa liberalization, has major security implications for the country, and removes a significant burden on citizens. The legalization of e-documents and installation of compatible software also lays the framework for horizontal document sharing.
CROSS-CUTTING RESULTS TO DATE
- Total cost share by partner municipalities on GAP2 exceeds USD $12.58 million, or more than 62% of the project’s contribution.
- At the start of GAP2, partner municipalities held 86.1 million KM in commercial loans. In spite of the financial crisis, today they hold 150.7 million KM, including 4.57 million KM of municipal borrowing to co-finance capital projects funded by GAP.
- GAP2 has trained 5,761 government officials in the last two years, 45 percent of whom are women.
The high level of commitment and enthusiasm from participating GAP municipalities has prompted an increase in knowledge-sharing between municipalities and citizen visitors. So far 21 GAP partner municipalities have provided mentoring and technical assistance to other municipalities, including common information sharing and cross-entity study tours. GAP is proving that — at the local level — ethnic, regional, and entity differences are not a significant obstacle to BiH’s development.
