UNCDF Launches a New Local Development Project in Ethiopia Targeted at the Millennium Development Goals

12 July 2005: The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) with the Government of Ethiopia and United Nation Development Programme have launched a new $1.8 million project that is expected to contribute to improve rural income and living conditions of approximately 300,000 people living in 3 districts (woredas) in the North Gonder Zone of Ethiopia.

The project will first build capacity in demand-driven local development planning, and then will help finance the infrastructure that is identified and prioritized through the local planning process. The first phase will involve providing local governments with technical assistance and capacity building in participatory planning and budgeting. The second will finance small infrastructure identified by the local communities, such as schools, clinics, spring development, mule tracks, improved markets, flour mills and small scale irrigation schemes at local level.

The project can be considered as a new integrated Local Development initiative, in line with the latest development of the Ethiopian policy and the changing decentralization context. This project is the result of a 10-year collaboration among UNCDF, the Amhara Region, the North Gonder Zone and UNDP in piloting decentralization to woredas through Local Development Projects.

UNCDF has been assisting the Government of Ethiopia for the past ten years to strengthen local government capacity to provide basic social and economic infrastructure and improve the natural resource base of local communities. The Ethiopian government has recently promulgated a new constitution favouring decentralization to regional states, which themselves have empowered authorities at even lower levels to provide services to communities ("Kebeles"). UNCDF programme is works with communities and districts to introduce participatory approaches to define demand for government services, and firmly establish subsidiarity in planning and allocating resources as well as in contracting authority for projects selected for financing.

More information on UNCDF's programmes in Ethiopia is available on the country programme website.