Promoting Citizen Engagement and Good Governance in Iraq
Local Involvement, Participation Key to Long-Term Success
A unified and vibrant Iraq, where the nation’s significant human and natural resources are leveraged for the common good, depends on citizen involvement for responsive, transparent and accountable governance, starting at the local level. And that symbiosis of citizen involvement and effective government is predicated on bringing government closer to the people served, expanding the capacity of government actors and investing citizens with full rights and opportunities to participate in decision making.
ACDI/VOCA is supporting Iraq’s efforts to decentralize authority in order to facilitate the process of democratic transition and promote stability.
A Legal Foundation Is Established
The Iraqi Constitution and the 2008 Provincial Powers Law (PPL) set broad parameters for decentralized governance. However, further defining roles and responsibilities and delineating specific services and authorities among the various governing units remains a challenge. Most elected provincial councils have begun their second term in office, and practices under these new authorities will become institutionalized and influence the trajectory of Iraq’s decentralized, federal system of government.
The PPL provides the legal basis for subnational and subprovincial government: two subprovincial administrative levels (districts and subdistricts), each with its own governing council. These councils monitor local administration and local line agencies of central ministries, draft budgets for submission to provincial councils and approve local line agencies’ budget plans for referral to the provincial governors.
ACDI/VOCA Capacity Building Efforts Gain Traction
Since 2003 ACDI/VOCA has implemented a USAID-funded Community Action Program that has improved the responsiveness and effectiveness of local government in northern provinces. Establishing 80 volunteer Community Action Groups (CAGs) to complement its work, ACDI/VOCA has worked with 62 district and subdistrict councils to strengthen the capacity of institutions and officeholders through a comprehensive program of participatory decision-making and citizen outreach.
Embedding citizen input into local council plans and budgets is an important objective given the absence of a formal process for this under the PPL. ACDI/VOCA worked with community groups to draft a bylaw to ensure continuation of the process beyond the life of the project. The bylaw provides for:
- public meetings within the local council’s jurisdiction prior to preparing the local council plan and budget for provincial councils’ approvals
- elected citizen delegates forming a citizen planning and development board to work with the local council to plan, budget for and later monitor project activities
- provincial councils conducting public meetings and consultative planning and monitoring activities with citizen boards
Several district, subdistrict and provincial councils have informally agreed that local councils will hold public meetings as part of the annual budget-planning process. A resolution to incorporate mandatory public meetings was introduced recently several of the provincial councils, and others are considering the same.
Helping Local Partners Take Control of Their Own Destiny
Under the Community Action Program, ACDI/VOCA builds the capacity of local councils by facilitating government-citizen collaboration to prioritize and develop community projects. This builds trust and helps local officials understand and meet communities' needs.
Formal and on-the-job training, particularly for new councils and newly mobilized communities, help local councils and citizens jointly advocate for public hearings and strengthen networking to enable local leaders to put into practice knowledge acquired through the project.
Local governance training covers
- basic-core and project cycle management
- strategies of democratic community mobilization
- intermediate training on planning, budgeting, participation and advocacy
- advanced CAG-government training on budget tools, advocacy, coalition building, and resource access and allocation
Joint CAG-government training produces greater clarity of roles and responsibilities, better planning and improved coordination. It also enhances local council advocacy to secure funds from provincial councils.
The ACDI/VOCA Community Action Program also includes provincial partnership conferences involving public, private and volunteer participants, a multisector community needs assessment process, and the facilitation of strategy sessions, meetings and hearings.
Through ACDI/VOCA support and capacity building, all targeted local councils have formalized a community-driven needs assessment process and incorporated community feedback in subprojects. All the councils provide opportunities for public input in selecting the subprojects that are proposed to provincial councils, and several have even started to conduct their own outreach, establishing citizen bulletin boards and disseminating literature.
Iraq remains a critical experiment in nation building, but we have seen extraordinary progress in communities where citizen action is emphasized, political opportunities expanded and governmental made more transparent, accountable and responsive.
