Democratic Governance Regional Practice in Eastern Europe and CIS

1. Democratic GovernanceRegional Practice in Eastern Europe and CIS http://europeandcis.undp.org/governance

2. Main influencing trends Profound Governance transformations in most ECIS countries since 1990, however two formidable challenges remain: weak political will and interest in further reform, reflecting inadequate efforts to promote inclusive citizenship and empower the poor, insufficient national and sub-national government capacity to implement reforms, deliver public services, and to be responsive and accountable to the needs of citizens for the management of public resources. Recent regional and global trends not conducive to continued democratic reforms “Transition momentum” stalled sequencing of reforms, implementation modalities become critical

3. Main influencing trends (2) • Across the region, the inability to adequately address these challenges has resulted in: • poor legal and policy frameworks, • weak institutional capacity, • high rates of corruption, instances of state capture, • lack of strategic approach to decentralization, • limited access to justice and growing threats to human rights, • and consequently lack of trust in public institutions.

4. Main Focus Areas • Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption: including policy formulation reform, strengthening capacity for corruption prevention in the framework of UNCAC, civil service reform, expansion and consolidation of regional networks, and facilitation of ‘East-East’ exchanges and sub-regional initiatives in the field of PAR-AC. • Human Rights and Access to Justice: including support to National Human Rights Institutions (Ombudsman), the application of the human rights based approach to programming, support to access to justice initiatives, and cooperation with the UN human rights machinery. • Local Governance and Decentralization: including administrative and fiscal decentralization (enabling environment), local governance (cross-cutting theme), municipal management, public service delivery (PPP, inter-municipal cooperation), local development (planning, performance budgeting) and EU accession.

5. Programme and finances • 373 ongoing projects (615 total) with budget for 2008 of $102.3 million ($86.7 million cash) in 31 countries, spent $79.2 million by 15 December. Regional programming at BRC: • 7 ongoing regional projects: HRBA & A2J in the Region; Strengthening Capacities of Local Governments; Promoting Oversight and Greater Regional Engagement (PROGRESS); Regional Centre for Public Administration Reform (RCPAR); Policy Impact Assessment; Anti-Corruption Practitioners’ Network; and Western Balkans Sub-Regional Mechanism for Facilitation of Anti-Corruption Initiatives. • Regional TRAC available for DG programming in 2008 is $445,579. • $7.1 million from the Greek government for the five-year RCPAR project (plus $622,000 for previous PAR initiatives). • Approximately USD $200,000/per year for 4 years from BDP global programme for strengthening of human rights. • $240,000 from OSI for Policy Impact Assessment project in 2007-2009 ($88,123 for 2008). • 4 DG TTF proposals approved in 2008 (access to justice, anticorruption, inter-municipal cooperation, support to RHDR on social inclusion) with total budget of $291,000.

6. People and networks - CoPs Regional CoPs: PAR-AC (~90 internal and external practitioners) http://ws.undp.sk/par_ac HR&J (65 internal and external members) http://ws.undp.sk/hrj LGD (with 55 internal active practitioners)

7. People and networks – external groups External networks: the Regional network of PAR Practitioners and Experts* made of about 50 focal points in 30 countries and expanding, mostly dedicated to developing collaborative PAR activities; a vibrant Network of CIS Ombudsman institutions consisting of more than 30 members including each head of the institutions, dedicated to mutual learning using the system of East-East transfer of knowledge; a regional Anti-corruption Practitioners’ Network* gathers 50 practitioners from AC agencies, plus another 100 UN staff and external experts, dedicated to professional networking, operational advice and mutual legal assistance, as well as targeted capacity development support to Anti-corruption agencies (starting with Montenegro, Kosovo, Tajikistan, Armenia in pipeline); the Western Balkan Community of Practitioners on Human Resource Management in Civil Service*, a sub-regional network of around 130 professionals from governments and academia, focused on identification and promotion of good practices and home-grown solutions to civil service reform challenges; a group of about 30 ex-ante Policy Impact Assessment* professionals primarily from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldova and Serbia, who work together to develop policy impact assessment tools with particular focus on vulnerable groups.

8. DG Practice people at BRC DG Practice has 9 staff at BRC: • Louise Nylin – Human Rights and Justice Specialist • Rustam Pulatov – Human Rights and Justice Analyst • Hachemi Bahloul – Local Development Specialist • Dan Dionisie – PAR-AC Specialist, Acting DG Practice Leader • Zhanna Pilving – Public Administration Reform – Anti-corruption Policy Research Assistant • Francesco Checchi* – Project Associate, Anti-Corruption Practitioners’ Network (ACPN) • Ilona Mikoczy* – Project Assistant, Policy Impact Assessment (PIA) • Katarina Bobkova –Programme Assistant • Ivana Puskarova – Programme Assistant + 3 Regional Project Staff based in Athens, Greece: • Panos Liverakos* – Team Leader, RCPAR • Anne Caroline Tveoy* – Public Administration Expert, RCPAR • Renate Eppich* – Administrative and Finance Associate, RCPAR

9. Cross-practice Cooperation • Poverty – RHDR on Social Inclusion, policy impact assessment (focus on vulnerable groups) • Capacity Development – access to justice assessments, capacity assessment of anticorruption institutions • Gender – Gender and Governance Publication, regional conference • Environment – HRBA in Access to Water

10. Way ahead … • Alignment: providing a ‘bridge’ between global and CO levels, link to global programmes, closer cooperation with RBEC clusters on sub-regional programming • CO support as over-arching priority • Facilitating demand-driven, participatory regional programming and linking regional projects with CO projects/support • Practice consolidation (incl. filling vacancies), closer integration among sub-practices in programming, knowledge, advisory support • Systematic cross-practice cooperation • Using regional CoPs as support infrastructure for other networks; continuation of expanding partnerships • Reaching out to CO project staff • Getting a clearer grasp of the pipeline

11. … END of Part 1 Thank You ! 

12. PAR and Anticorruption • Policy formulation reform: PIA, knowledge products on IA, performance-based budgeting • Civil service reform (de-politicization, non-monetary incentives, training systems) • Strengthening capacity for corruption prevention in the framework of UNCAC (training for UNDP COs, support to national AC institutions, programming tools) • Expand and consolidate regional Networks, facilitate ‘East-East’ exchanges and sub-regional initiatives (RCPAR, ACPN, WeBa CoP on HRM in Civil Service, WeBa AC project) Workspace: http://ws.undp.sk/par_ac

13. Human Rights and Justice Support to effective national protection systems: • Support to National Human Rights Institutions • The application of the human rights based approach to programming • Cooperation with the UN human rights machinery • Support to access to justice initiatives Workspace: http://ws.undp.sk/hrj

14. Decentralization and Local Governance Enabling environment:   • Administrative decentralization • Fiscal decentralization Sub-national level/ Institutional and individual capacities: • Local administration/management • Local public service delivery  • Local governance • Preparation for EU accession 

15. Quick Look at Some Figures …

16. Quick Look at Some Figures …