Manual on Community Based Approach to Local Development Project – Phase 2 (стр. 5 )

If possible, regional authorities may announce about (a) premises for establishment of CRC/RIU (b) deputation of a staff to work at RIU and (c) assigning a focal person to communicate between the senior management and the Project team. It is very likely that the persons in case of b and c may be the same.

Signing of PA by OSA/OC or consent of the OSA/OC for partnership during the regional seminar, allows CBA to launch the project activities in selected rayons under the administrative, technical and financial support of the rayon authorities. Purpose is to make transparent and competitive selection from among the rayons, which are in dire need of the external support such as from CBA and which are willing and committed to improve living condition of the people. Therefore, the CBA team elaborates rayon selection criteria (Box - II), terms of partnership with rayon authorities (Box - III), application methodology and announces deadline for the rayons to send application to CBA office. A sample application form is given in Annex – 3

Box - II: Rayon Selection Criteria •  Level of socio-economic hardship (most suffering rayons in the ranking done by oblast state administration based on social-economic indicators) •  Access to water supply (No. of VCs/CCs without access to water adequate supply and/or quality of water supplied) •  Quality of healthcare infrastructures (No. of VCs/CCs with non-functional healthpost or inadequate service out of existing healthpost) •  Environmental situation (No. of VCs/CCs without solid waste collection and disposal system or with poor waste management system) •  Energy loss/energy saving potential (No. of VCs/CCs with high energy loss requiring serious needto improve communal infrastructure); •  Scope for alternative energy sources (No. VCs/CCs with scope for tapping alternative energy sources through community participation) •  Willingness to provide organisational, financial and technical support (deputation of focal point, establishment and maintaining of community resource centre, technical documentation of micro-projects, quality supervision of micro-project implementation, assistance in commissioning & handover of completed micro-projects etc.) •  Motivation for partnership with CBA Project (Guarantee of community initiative co-financing from the oblast and local budgets) •  Potential for showing demonstration performance •  Performance during CBA-I (only for re-applying rayons. Poor performing rayons will not be eligible for partnership during CBA-II) The preference is given to the least developed rayons i. e. rayons which are facing the most severe problems within the project priority areas.

Box - III: Key Terms of Partnership Between Project and Rayon Authorities CBA Project Rayon Authority To support in mobilization and organisation of target communities To establish a community resource centre (or continue the existing) for implementation of CBA methodology in the rayon. Provide a focal person for day to day activity of the Project and to manage the resource centre To provide technical support for building capacity of local communities To assist in development and registration of community organizations To provide technical support for building institutional capacity of rayon authorities and local councils To provide organizational, technical, financial and material support for micro-projects and ensure handover and sustainability of such micro-projects To provide seed grant for community projects as a part of joint funding To form ‘Local Development Forum’ (or continue the existing one), chair the meetings and ensure its proper functioning. To support small business promotion in rural areas, if feasible, in partnership with communities, local councils and rayon authorities To support small business promotion in the rayon through agro/service cooperatives promoted by CBA To make available, as appropriate, advisory support in the area of governance and socio-economic-environmental development of the rayon To motivate and familiarize local councils, NGOs, national bodies about the approach To support in elaboration of the rayon development plan through participatory and decentralized planning process To assist in local/national policy formation based on experience of the Project To support human resource development (through academia and training institutes) in the field of community based approach to local development To participate in regional coordination council and coordinate with regional authorities on the matter related with CBA

Updating Regional Profile: RIU updates regional profile in the community resource centre with help of regional focal person and helps CBA/communication unit in updating regional profile on the CBA website. Detail structure of the regional profile will be sent to RIUs separately.

Activity 2.3: Establish Partnership with Rayon Authorities

Allocating rayon quota: CBA/PMU will utilise criteria agreed during 4th steering committee meeting as a basis of rayon quota allocation for regions. The criteria include Government’s ranking of socio-economic situation of the region, population of the region, number of rayons in the region, regional performance during CBA-I. Total quota of 200 rayons will be distributed among regions based on these criteria and based on approval of the management board of CBA-II.

Ranking of rayons: The applications of the rayons received from each region will be analysed and ranked by CBA Project based on total composite score as per the scoring and ranking Table given in Annex - 4. Basis for the ranking is the statistical information provided by rayons in their applications against the criteria mentioned in Box - II.

Selecting rayons for partnership: A Rayon Selection Committee comprising of representatives of regional authorities, UNDP and CBA/PMU and headed by the UNDP senior programme manager will review ranking table prepared by CBA and select rayons (equal to number of quota for the region) for partnership and reserve rayons (up to one third of the quota for the region). Alternative arrangement is necessary in case authorities of selected rayon are reluctant or show little interest, the Project could move to alternative rayons without lapse of time. Protocol of selection should be sent to appropriate stakeholders.

Disseminating the result: Results of the rayon selection are publically announced by the regional authorities in each region.

Holding rayon seminar: Following selection of the target rayons, the RIU team will visit (or contact) relevant rayon authorities in rayon state administration and rayon council to agree on a date for holding a rayon seminar and to discuss about memorandum of understanding (Annex - 5 ) to be signed between RSA/RC and UNDP in the framework of CBA Project.

RIU will organise rayon seminar in each of selected rayons in participation of head/deputy head of rayon state administration (RSA) and rayon council (RC), relevant departments of RSA, all village councils and city councils (with less than 10,000 population), local NGOs, local media and local chamber of commerce etc. Agenda of the orientation session include –

§  Presentation of experience of CBA-I including CBA film

§  Modus operandi of implementing CBA-II in the rayon

§  Time-plan discussion

§  Discussion on key terms of partnership between the Project and rayon authorities

§  Discussion on VC/CC selection criteria (Box - IV)

§  Discussion on methodology for VC/CC willing to join the Project

§  Discussion on key terms of partnership between the Project and VC/CC (Box - V)

§  Announcement of competition

Brochure about the Project, leaflets on UN/UNDP, EU and visibility related other materials must be distributed during orientation. Media advisory and press-release must be provided to journalists.

Signing PA: Rayon authorities may sign PA in course of the seminar or might decide to sign at a later date. In either case, an understanding should be reached with rayon authorities to continue CBA activities further in the rayon.

At this moment, rayon authorities (especially the one from CBA-I phase) might announce about establishment/continuation community resource centre and deputation of focal person.

RIU and rayon focal person should ensure that the event of rayon seminar and announcement of competition is widely disseminated in the rayon in that all eligible village/city councils and common citizens are informed.

Box - IV: Selection Criteria for Village/City Councils ­  Level of problems with basic infrastructure and services with regard to CBA-II priorities; ­  Level of socio-economic hardship; ­  Willingness to cooperate and support in participatory planning and resource mobilisation for micro - projects; ­  Satisfactory performance during CBA-I (only for existing partners); ­  Level of support from other donor agencies in the area of local development (least the better) The preference is given to the least developed villages, i. e. villages which are facing the most severe problems within the project priority areas.

Box – V: Terms of Partnership Between CBA and VC/CC CBA-II Project Village/City Council To support in mobilising and organising members of target communities To provide focal person for day to day activity of the Project To provide technical support for building capacity of local communities To assist in development and registration of community organizations To provide technical support for building institutional capacity of village/city councils To provide organizational, technical, financial and material support for community projects To provide seed grant for community projects as a part of joint funding To participate in ‘Local Development Forum’ meetings and in RCC meeting (when invited) To support in elaboration of Council’s development plan through participatory and decentralized planning process To ensure proper handover of completed micro-project and establishment of joint sustainability mechanism

Updating/Preparing Rayon Profile: RIU will update rayon profile in the (regional and rayon) community resource centre with help of rayon focal person and will help CBA/communication unit in updating rayon profile on the CBA website. Detail structure of the rayon profile will be sent to RIUs separately.