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Signing ceremony

On December 22, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a Record of Discussions with the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Dhaka for the Project for Strengthening Capacity for City Corporations, which is a technical cooperation project.

In Bangladesh, the population of urban areas is growing rapidly, and traffic congestion and environmental deterioration are becoming more apparent, and so it is necessary for each local government to respond to these issues of urbanization in accordance with the actual situation each faces. To solve issues of urbanization through the provision of better administrative service, each process within local governments must be improved, such as budget planning, execution, and project review. The strengthening of the administrative capacity of these local governments and the development of their organizational foundations are urgent issues.

JICA has been cooperating with various levels of local government (*1) in Bangladesh through ODA loans and technical cooperation projects under the "Administrative Capacity Improvement Program." For City Corporations (*2), JICA has implemented the technical cooperation project, "Project for Capacity Development of City Corporations," and the ODA loan for the "Inclusive City Governance Project." These target a number of City Corporations, to support the formulation of mid- and long-term strategy under the “Strategy for Governance Improvement of City Corporations,” and the strengthening of basic administrative and financial capacity. Following this, each local government has been able to properly implement the processes required by the relevant laws and regulations, and improve their administration based on the PDCA cycle.

The project will expand its scope of cooperation to all City Corporations, and establish a foundation for strengthening their administrative capacity through the implementation of the Strategy for Governance Improvement for City Corporations. This outlines the measures necessary to improve the administrative functions of City Corporations and the establishment of a system of human resource development for local administration. Based on the achievements of the preceding cooperative work, the project will seek to involve further the central government agencies that are in charge of local administration and to achieve administration that incorporates citizen perspectives. The project will contribute to the improvement of administrative services and citizen satisfaction in City Corporations, and to SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) Goals 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions).
*1 Municipalities in Bangladesh include City Corporations and Paurashavas in urban areas, together with Upazilas and unions in rural areas.
*2 City Corporation: the largest administrative unit in Bangladesh that is granted a certain degree of revenue authority independent of the central government and that is responsible for providing administrative services in the region. There are 12 City Corporations.

Details for the project are provided below.

[Basic project information]

Country	People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Project title	Project for Strengthening Capacity for City Corporations
Planned implementation period	36 months
Executing agency	Local Government Division of Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGD)
Target region	All City Corporations
Specific project details (provisional)	・Establishing a system of implementation, reporting, and monitoring for the Strategy for Governance Improvement for City Corporations. ・Improving the training coordination capacity of LGD. ・Establishing a system of training and human resource development in City Corporations.