Goal:

The program aims to strengthen the engagement and participation of citizens in local governance processes for enhancing accountable local democratic practices and climate actions. The project will achieve this by addressing the gaps between government and citizens concerning the claiming of rights and entitlements by the citizens, the process of service delivery and role of citizens in the life-threatening issues such as health, climate change and other social aspects.

Objectives:

• Capture impacts and learning emerged through active citizen leadership and constructive collaboration with local governments.
• Enhance capacity of TLOs and its network for mutual accountability, to promote citizen rights, to ensure inclusive governance and to enhance public participation in climate policy and governance processes.
• Strengthen citizen-government interactions to support inclusive annual planning and budgeting process, increased transparency and accountability, and service delivery.
• Select subnational governments incorporate climate change considerations into their prioritized policies, plans and programs

Key Achievements:

• Citizen engagement practices observed more ad-hock, informal, personal contact and political influential oriented and it was in low priority at initial. This program created positive vive for formal dialogues in participatory planning & budgeting, civic monitoring oversights, and citizen feedback in government-initiated community development activities.
• Resource mobilization (internal plus leveraging external): Most of the TLOs significantly utilized settlement level cizen consulation platfrom of LG fiscal year planning & budgeting to submit their demand systematically and they became success to leverage government resources. Both demand submitting and budget allocation trend is increasing.
• Stablished problem-solving culture within the TLOs by following Action-Reflection Cycle particularly in the themes of public health facilities, sanitation & hygiene, community infrastructures protection/renovation & management, climate change adaptation, community empowerment and social cohesion.
• Civic participation increased not only in local planning process but also in implementing of approved plans and budget at communities.
• Civic duty not only rights: many programs empowered citizen mainly how to claim their rights and entitlements but our approach sensitized/educate grassroot communities about the civic duty as well.
• Strengthened community governance: TLOs are intensively engaging to increase practices of exploring and executing constructive solutions.
• Increased the culture of shared leadership specially among general citizen, TLOs, and their network.
• Built consensus for continues dialogues, interactions for searching constructive solutions. Now, the tendency of blaming each other reduced gradually at our working municipalities.
• Increased transparency in public service delivery, local decision making, and resource allocation & utilization practices.
• Increased access of information from ward offices, local health facilities, municipalities and other line agencies.
• CSC tools remained instrumental for improving service delivery and also to provide process led-civic education: General citizen, local health workers, Health Facilities Operation & Management Committee (HFOMC) engaged constructively and jointly assessed their health services based on pre-identified health indicators and developed joint action plan to improve the health services. The CSC tool also found equally effective to improve the services of ward offices.
• Increased peace, cooperation, mutual respects and solidarity with the help of continues dialogues and discussion at TLOs. Increased the momentum of TLO both at community happiness and sorrow: TLOs in all municipalities practicing support mechanisms for the neediest, resource poor and vulnerable members of their community.
• Municipalities have taken TLOs concept as their main program to bridge community with LG. They are taking ownership on TLOs led community actions and good practices. The practice of inter municipality cross learning and sharing is being increased. Other municipalities are also requesting to replicate this approach.
• Disaster Risk Reduction and ecosystem protection: Communities in vulnerable areas contineusly engaging to construct retaining walls and bio-embarkments using their native skills, natural resources and volunteer labor contributions to minimize landslide and flood risks. Multistakeholders are matching their resources for this TLO led initiative. With this effort more than 800 meter long bi-embarkment work constructed.