Supporting Decentralization and Municipal Development in Benin

Project Description

Since the beginning of the decentralization in Benin and the ten-year advisory services by PDDC a lot has been achieved. Key responsibilities for meeting the basic needs of the population, through the provision of public services have been transferred to the municipalities. First steps have been taken towards the municipalities’ control over basic processes of municipal planning and the management of financial resources, which are transferred to them through a national mechanism. Generally, local authorities still count on a weak financial basis and they often lack the necessary financial and human capacities and competencies to provide adequate access to basic services for the population.

The AMBERO-team advises the 25 partner municipalities directly through 15 national experts. Over the course of the program tools have been developed and tested successfully. We are now working towards enabling the communities to apply these tools independently. The instruments range from increased tax revenues, improved civil registry to realistic municipal planning (financial- and spatial planning) and transparent local development. Innovative coaching approaches including „peer-to-peer learning“, „on the job training“ and group coaching have been applied, training and preparing the municipalities to carry out their tasks autonomously in the future. Moreover, the capitalization and upscaling of already achieved results are important activities of our experts.