Mozambique’s emerging Program for Decentralized Planning and Finance (DPFP)

1. Dr. Rodney Reviere Norbert Eulering GTZ Mozambique Mozambique’s emerging Program for Decentralized Planning and Finance(DPFP)

2. Background Population: 19 million Surface area as big California and over twice the size of Germany Poverty Index: 54% + 70% of population live in rural areas 1975: Independence 1978: Centrally planned economy 1978: Destabilization 1986: IMF, transition to market-based economy 1992: Peace Accord 1994: First multi-party elections

3. Local Government in Mozambique Little history or culture of local, democratically elected, government 11 provinces, 128 districts (+ Administrative Posts & Localities) State is still relatively highly centralised 1995: Provinces get some discretion over investment budget 1997: Municipalisation: creation of 33 elected municipal councils (elections in 1998) 1998: Introduction of decentralised planning 2005: Approved the law of “Local Organs of the State” (LOLE)

4. Decentralized Planning Initially donor led 1996 Piloted in Manica- (GTZ) and then in Nampula-Province (UNCDF/UNDP) 1997-98 Government undertakes study and issues guidelines 2003 Donor desire to unify approaches and work more closely together - donor working group on decentralization starts 2005 Government takes decision to scale up existing projects (GTZ; UNDP; WB) to a national program which covers the whole country and defines in general lines it's overall objective

5. Objective Empower citizens and increase local government‘s capacity to plan and manage their own sustainable socio-economic development

6. Current state of affairs Joint evaluation with intention of harmonizing three projects: Backward- looking evaluation of the 3 projects against the defined objective and a common framework to identify differences and best practices Forward- looking assessment of legal and policy context to make recommendations as to the design a single national DPFP Propose design changes to projects so that they could effectively support a national DPFP (including financial arrangements) National workshops to discuss findings including all stakeholders, presided over by the Minister of Planning and Development Following the evaluation a series of workshops to flesh-out the basic framework and produce a log-frame for national program Yearly plans for each province to be developed in the provinces based on the national log frame

7. DPFP - Principles Shared set of guiding principles: The district is the base for planning and development We work within existing Legislation, guidelines and methodologies The Government has the leadership of the program Financing is done through national systems and processes (on budget) It is a process of knowledge management & continuous learning We create a dynamic and facilitative environment We want to facitlitate good governance & transparency The CD leds to improved service delivery in the district

8. DPFP - Characteristics Strategy and methodology based on “best practices” identified in joint evaluation “One” Single planning and reporting framework Differentiated implementation arrangements but common objectives and methodologies Common resource pool to support program implementation at national level and in all provinces In-kind contributions and financial contributions Phased shifting from project to program approach

9. DPFP - CD Elements Overall goal is increase local capacity Pilot to scale based on best practices (how to do things different and how to get people to do things different) Use of national systems where they exist Program is an open system with room for innovation and improvement Multi-level intervention- learning between levels Bottom-up and top-down – participative approach (practice precedes policy)

10. DPFP Program Support German Cooperation (GTZ/KfW/DED/InWent) UNDP World Bank Ireland The Netherlands Norway Sweden Switzerland Open to others

11. Alignment of the Main Actors Government side – President declares districts as poles of development; approval of new law (LOLE) and first major step towards fiscal decentralization; government expressed preference for joint approaches Donor side – Paris Declaration provokes new thinking; timing - end of phase for 2 of 3 projects, mid-term review for third; WB project manager moving to Johannesburg helped a lot Framework conditions: Paris declaration, donor working groups in place and functioning which provided/promoted direct contact between donors supporting decentralization Common belief towards developing capacity – learning by doing

12. Lessons Learned Not over planning, instead get things moving and try to keep them moving; Don’t let the details stop you; Expect mistakes and create systems to learn from them Learning by doing it right. Learning by doing can be misleading: ‘doing’ isn’t enough if it is done incorrectly (practice makes consistent, not perfect) so the importance of long-term TA to provide coaching all along the process; Use of common processes (planning, budgeting, procurement, monitoring, etc.) is essential so that same learning is done throughout the system.

13. Closing thoughts I Hear, I forget I See, I remember I do, I learn