GUATEMALA URBAN MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE (UMG) PROJECT QUARTERLY REPORT January 1 to March 31, 2021

The project is a five-year initiative designed to strengthen municipal performance, improve service delivery, and enhance citizen engagement. Three primary objectives guide the project: municipal strengthening, service delivery improvement, and citizen engagement. The UMG project has worked with partner municipalities, national institutions, and local civil society organizations to implement various strategies. These strategies have been piloted, documented, and shared with these organizations, with some being replicated and others assessed for evidence-based learning. The project has strengthened the capacity of municipal governments, communities, and civil society organizations, resulting in effective interventions, methods, and tools. The project's focus has shifted to institutionalizing program activities, with a focus on sustainability. Four levels of support to local partners have been established: generating models and solutions conducive to replication, strengthening linkages between national institutions and local governments, introducing new technology and tools to improve local actor capacity, and strengthening municipal capacity to generate own source revenue through improved tax and service fee collection mechanisms. In the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2021, the project achieved several key accomplishments, including the completion of a training toolkit for Community Development Committees (COCODEs), the preparation of Women's Municipal Policy in target municipalities, and the strengthening of outreach activities by Municipal Women's Offices (DMMs). The project also signed Memoranda of Understanding with the National Youth Council (CONJUVE) and supported the creation and strengthening of Municipal Youth Offices (OMJ) in several municipalities. The UMG project has introduced new technology and tools to improve local actor capacity, including the use of information technology to accelerate progress and promote sustainability. For example, the project has engaged municipal cadaster offices to improve land use planning and revenue generation opportunities by providing satellite and LiDAR images along with capacity building to effectively use this data. Local systems are being modernized, with GLPortal allowing for online municipal service fee collection through the credit card and banking system. The project's efforts to institutionalize its methodologies are aligned with Guatemala's Journey to Self-Reliance. With only six months remaining in the project, the focus is on ensuring that the interventions and strategies implemented will have a lasting impact and contribute to the reduction of crime, violence, and migration in Guatemala.