Donor Partner Working Group on Local Governance and Decentralization (DPWG-LGD)
During the past few decades, international development assistance was often marked by overlaps, duplication of efforts and rivalry between multitudes of donor organizations and their implementation modalities. This situation impeded the integration of donor assistance into country-led sector strategies and had an adverse impact on development outcomes in our partner-countries. The need for an improved harmonization and alignment of development assistance was clear.1
Concurrently, Decentralization and local governance have gained a growing recognition as foundational to poverty reduction efforts undertaken by the majority of developing countries. This development has placed decentralization reforms and local government system development processes prominently in public sector reforms and Poverty Reduction Strategies.
In recognition of this and in response to the growing demand for harmonization of donor support in the area of decentralization and local governance, the Donor Partner Working Group on Local Governance and Decentralization (DPWG-LGD) was launched by 13 Developing Partners in April 2006, at a meeting convened in Frankfurt by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the European Commission.
With its primary objective focused on promoting the sharing of experiences and the exploration of avenues for increased harmonisation of support to decentralization and local governance, the DPWG-LGD began its operations and grew its membership to 28 Development Partners within its third year of existence.
In recognition of the critical value of this objective, UNCDF has committed its support to this effort which aims to bring donors together, to share best practices, studies, to open opportunities for dialogue with donors with the aim of improved harmonization and alignment of development assistance.
In addition to its consistent engagement in and support to the activities and objectives of the DPWG-LGD, UNCDF has been highly active in collaborating with the members of the Working Group at the country level, i.e. chairing some of the Donor Working Groups, like in Uganda, or assisting in developing a conceptual framework, shared vision and operational co-ordination mechanisms for supporting national strategies in local governance and decentralisation like in Yemen, Nepal, Cambodia and the Solomon Islands.