Taqadum Quarterly Performance Report (Y3Q1)

The project's primary objective is to enhance the capacity of provincial councils to deliver essential services to citizens. The project's scope encompasses institutional strengthening, executive oversight, and citizen participation. During the first quarter of FY2014, Taqadum significantly increased the pace of its activities, with a focus on sustainability. The project's technical assistance and capacity-building support yielded positive results, with provincial officials demonstrating a commitment to learn and improve service delivery. Essential Service Delivery Oversight (ESDO) site visits were conducted in 40 locations, identifying service delivery gaps in underserved neighborhoods and providing a catalyst for improving services. The project's interventions have led to increased funding commitments from provinces to improve service delivery. In the first quarter of Year 3, provinces committed an additional $17 million to improving service delivery as a result of Taqadum's ESDO interventions. The cumulative Project Results Cost Share (PRCS) to date is over $46 million, with PRCS documented for ESDO, Sub-Legislation Implementation Tracking (SLIT), Citizen Service Desks (CSDs), and the Organizational Self-assessment and Transformation Program (OSTP). Provincial councils took the lead in conducting public meetings, independently holding 18 meetings as a result of Taqadum's technical assistance. These meetings were held at the provincial council level, district level, and nayha level, indicating a commitment to the citizen participation process at all levels of local government. Taqadum began training NGOs on how to conduct public meetings to identify citizen priorities and provide input on service delivery. The project's cross-cutting activities include gender, anti-corruption, and coordination. The project's gender component aims to increase the participation of women in local governance, while the anti-corruption component focuses on strengthening internal controls and promoting transparency. The project's coordination component ensures effective collaboration among stakeholders, including provincial councils, NGOs, and community groups. The project's performance indicators include the number of ESDO site visits, the amount of funding committed by provinces, and the number of public meetings conducted. The project's results have been documented in Annex E, which provides details on the Project Results Cost Share.