Citizens' Voice Project (CVP) Grant Cycle 10: Strengthening Local Governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Interventions are focused on newly unveiled Local Governments (LGs) in provinces under grant cycle 10. The project is a continuation of efforts to establish efficient, responsive, transparent, and accountable LGs in the provinces. A Training Needs Assessment (TNA) of elected representatives in 18 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was conducted earlier. The assessment revealed that 83% of newly elected LG representatives had no prior experience of contesting for any elected public office. This situation, recognized by provincial governments and other stakeholders, necessitates intervention to strengthen the capacity of LGs to deliver. The CVP will contribute to this effort by capacitating newly elected LG representatives. The project's objective is to strengthen and support the local government system by capacitating newly elected LG representatives through building their capacity, preferably by engaging LG-related training/research institutions in the public or private sector. The project consists of three major activities: building capacity of newly elected LG representatives through cascade trainings, facilitating training workshops for elected LG representatives, and engagements/partnerships with LG training institutes or rural development academies. Capacity building interventions will focus on representatives elected at Village/Neighborhood Nazims and Naib Nazims and Councilors of District Council, Tehsil Council, and Village/Neighborhood Councils in five districts of KP. The project will develop nine modules to cover all three tiers of LG, focusing on LG laws, structure, and mandate, resource management and budget oversight, and participatory development planning. To achieve the targets, the project has devised a detailed implementation strategy for smooth, transparent, and effective interventions. The hiring of project staff, including a project manager and project coordinator, will be initiated in the first month of the project. The partner organization will advertise the position in daily national newspapers and collect minimum three CVs for the post. The project manager and project coordinator will be responsible for carrying out all project activities as per the Statement of Work (SOW). The partner organization will also hire six trainers, two each for assigned categories, for the number of training days as defined in their TORs and contract. These trainers will be responsible for conducting training sessions as per approved training schedules and on manuals developed by CVP. The partner organization will prepare a profiling sheet of LG department trainers and shortlist candidates based on their relevant expertise, experience, knowledge, and willingness/availability. The project will also mobilize project resources by training project staff and master trainers in programmatic, operational, and financial aspects of project management and implementation. This will include a 04-days-long, 03-days-long, and 01-day-long Training of Trainers (TOT) conducted by the CVP Capacity Building Unit to train project staff on building the capacities of newly elected representatives at all tiers.