Project description

Title: Improving administrative performance in the North and East of Sri Lanka (Performance Improvement Project, PIP)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); AusAID (Australia)
Country: Sri Lanka
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Economic Development (MoED)
Overall term: 2001 to 2013

Context

The civil war that raged in Sri Lanka for more than 25 years has produced slow and uneven development in the north and east of the country. The war came to an end in 2009, but large sections of the population continue to live in acute poverty. Provincial and municipal governments are often particularly ill-equipped to provide the community-based services for which they are responsible.

Objective

Provincial and municipal governments in the north and east of Sri Lanka integrate the principles of poverty reduction, citizen participation and conflict sensitivity in their work and provide more efficient and better coordinated services that boost socioeconomic development.

Approach

The project has the following strategic priorities:

Broad-based training and skills training. The project equips staff working in provincial and municipal government with key planning, management and communication skills and trains them in conflict-sensitive procedures. Participants in the training programmes are mixed in terms of ethnic origin, administrative role and social group, enriching their learning and helping to build informal networks. Participants use the services provided to develop more effective and more efficient ways of working.

Improving the functions and services provided by government structures. Initially, appropriate starting points are identified, such as improvements in the complaints system or in municipal public relations. Improvements are then piloted, validated by the partners and, finally, disseminated through training measures. The integrated local planning system, which is the only shared means of coordination between local and central government at local level, is also strategically important.

Direct strengthening of the capacity of grassroots organisations. In particular women’s groups in poor villages are being supported and enabled, through training provision, to analyse the needs of their group, devise pertinent measures, and put together applications for funding (for example, to support pre-school education or income-generating initiatives). The applications are submitted to interested partners.

Results achieved so far

Training institutions now have access to a pool of trainers with highly developed teaching skills. Training methods have improved markedly. Trainers take the initiative in designing and implementing high-quality, needs-oriented courses for local government employees in two central training institutions in the provinces concerned.

Almost 2,500 employees from more than 100 provincial or municipal government agencies have so far taken part in four-week intensive in-service training courses provided under the Skills Through English for Public Servants (STEPS) programme. Over half of all these employees say that they are applying their newly-acquired expertise in good governance and are working more efficiently and more autonomously. The improvement in their English makes it easier for them to communicate with partners in central government. The employees concerned have also developed a better understanding of conflict resolution. A key milestone towards securing a sustainable institutional basis for the successful STEPS programme has been the inauguration of the STEPS Institute on the Jaffna peninsula. Since early 2010, this new training centre has been run jointly by the provincial ministries of education and public administration.

Municipalities now have an integrated approach to planning, a formal complaints system, and mechanisms for public relations work, and they operate in a conflict-sensitive and citizen-centred way. A wide range of intensive training measures for employees of decentralised governmental bodies, along with expert technical advice, have helped to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of the work being done.

The involvement of the local population has also been strengthened: 30 women’s groups have been equipped with the skills to articulate their interests and to present these to municipal government and to other donors. So far, twelve project applications submitted by different women’s groups have been approved by national or international non-governmental organisations.