Development Program Aims to Strengthen Local Capacity
Under a grant from the World Bank, the CDSP II project strengthened the capacity of local government and communities in Iraq’s northern provinces to improve social services. This included creating institutional norms of responsive and accountable development processes driven by the community.
CSDP II improved social services by institutionalizing responsive and accountable community-driven development processes, while expanding opportunities for citizens to collaborate with the government. The project provided training and capacity building to local officials and members of eight community action groups in Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninawa, and Salah ad Din and successfully launched community-prioritized supply projects.
In the Iraqi Kurdistan region, the project worked closely with the Ministry of Planning and local governorate staff to create community-driven development programs and began three community-prioritized supply pilot projects in Dahuk, Erbil, and Slemani. These pilot projects helped the communities and local government officials become more familiar with community-driven development. Building off of these activities, CSDP II provided assistance to local government officials and communities in 26 projects funded by the Kurdistan government, including trainings on project identification and development, procurement, monitoring and evaluation, and project management. In addition, CSDP II staff provided on-the-job training to local government officials and helped strengthen their interaction with the communities. The projects ranged from road construction to constructing and supplying schools and health centers.
World Bank Initiative Builds on Earlier Work
CDSP II built on the successful Consultative Service Delivery Program, which strengthened the capacities of local community action groups and built sustainable linkages to local government using a community-driven grants process within Kurdistan and the northern provinces.
The area is rife with ethnic, religious, security, and linguistic challenges. Strong civil and public sector institutions that are driven by the community are key to Iraq’s future.
