Fund Dates

• Start Date: 1 December 2011
• End Date: 30 November 2016

Overview

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) have established a Joint Programme using a pass-through modality, entitled “Union Parishad Governance Project (UPGP)”.

The specific objective of UPGP is to strength the capacities of local governments and other stakeholders to foster participatory local development service delivery for the MDGs. The project will be piloting and evaluating innovations to improve the functional and institutional capacity and democratic accountability of Union Parishads and to increase citizen involvement in order to achieve effective, efficient and accountable delivery of pro-poor infrastructure and services.

The Joint Programme consists of four main components:

• Strengthen democratic accountability and transparency of the Union Parishad through citizen engagement
• Improve innovations in pro-poor and MDG-Oriented planning, financing and implementation of service delivery by Union Parishads
• Strengthen technical capacity of local government division for effective policy review, monitoring, lesson learning and capacity development of LGIs for improved local governance.
• Effective project management arrangements

 The Joint Programme encompasses:

• 7 Districts representing one in each of the 7 Divisions
• A duration of five years, from 2011 to 2016
• Programme partner is central and local Government 

The Joint Programme is administered by the Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF Office) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in accordance with its financial regulations and rules.  

Assistance Strategy

The Joint Programme focuses on governance improvement of Union Parishads so that it can emerge as an efficient institution that can effectively contribute in deepening further local democracy, energise local economy and deliver required social services.

The intervention strategy falls within the frames of the following United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) outcome 1: “Government institutions at the national and sub-national levels are able to more effectively carry out their mandates, including delivery of public services, in more accountable, transparent and inclusive manner”.

The process of designing this support is ongoing and the extent of inter-agency agreements between World Bank and the UN agencies is being developed. However this Joint Programme UPGP is designed firmly within the context of a larger programmatic framework and for which the ground reality emerged after the establishment of Upazila Parishad and focus on the technical support to be provided by the UN agencies in the context of improving local governance with the relevant local government institutions (LGIs) as well the agencies supporting the LGIs.

Design principles are:

• Complementarity: This initiative embedded in the LGSP II programme logic and complements the Government and anticipated WB/IDA loan funds.
• Scalability: Considerations on how activities and systems will be mainstreamed have been a key design principle from the outset.
• Simplicity with quality: this principle is related to providing simple solutions that leverage local capacity and resources. Priority is given to the institutionalisation of these solutions within the UP governance structure and macro fiscal envelop.
• Gender mainstreaming and women empowerment

Governance

The Support for strengthen capacities of local governments and other stakeholders to foster participatory local development service delivery for the MDGs Joint Programme is implemented jointly by The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) using a pass-through modality. The programmatic and financial accountability rests with the Participating UN Organisations, which manage their respective components of the Joint Programme.

Steering Committee

The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperative (MLGRD&C) is on the overall supervision of the project and the SC is chaired by the Secretary of MLGRD&C. The SC is responsible for providing policy guidelines to the Programme. It also provides policy advice and guidance to facilitate the link between project activities and national development initiatives. The SC will meet twice a year.

Project Board (PB)

The Project Board is responsible for the implementation of the UPGP project activities. The Project Board is responsible for preparing and endorsing the quarterly work plan, quarterly progress report, annual work plan and annual progress report. It supervises the overall project implementation and day-to-day management of the project. It meets quarterly the first year and no less than twice a year for the rest of the project’s life time. 

Project Assurance

Delegated by the PB, the Project assurance role is responsible for carrying out oversights and monitoring functions. This group, comprised by UNDP and UNCDF CO level teams, the role ensures that the project management delivers planned outputs as per the annual work plan on the basis of the monthly, quarterly and annual progress reports. The team organizes monthly reviews with the project team and other reviews at the level of the PB. .

Project Manager

The project manager reports to the Project Board and be accountable to the NPD (and UNDP /UNCDF) for day to day activities and provide feedback on any project issues, as and when required. S/he is also responsible for overall coordination between project and UNDP and UNCDF and among different teams in achieving planned outputs, producing progress and financial reports and is responsible for the effective implementation of the project. The Project Manager is responsible for delivering the project work plans.  

Administrative Agent

The Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTF Office) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) serves as the Administrative Agent (AA) of the Joint Programme. The AA is responsible for concluding Standard Administrative Arrangements (SAAs) with donors and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Participating UN Organisations.