Outline of the Project

Project Name

Project for Capacity Development of City Corporations (C4C)

Date R/D Signed

2015/09/28

Project Site

Dhaka (LGD) and Four City Corporations (Narayanganj, Cumilla, Rangpur and Gazipur)

Term of Cooperation

January 6, 2016 to June 5, 2021

Implementing Organization

Local Government Division (LGD), Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (MLGRD&C)

Background

Due to rapid urbanization accelerated by industry-led economic growth has been taking place in Bangladesh. As of 2012, 29% of national population (About 45 million people) lives in urban areas, of which growth is 2.9% per annum, largely exceeding the national population growth of 1.2 %. The development of urban infrastructure and other public services has not kept pace with the radical changes in urban areas, causing an acute shortage in urban infrastructure and services related to social welfare like piped water, sewerage drainage, roads, bridges, health care, sanitation and education. As roads and bridges have insufficient capacity to meet growing traffic volume, traffic jams in city centres limit access to economic opportunities and social services. The remarkable urbanization is largely attributed to migration from rural areas. Migrants compete for limited employment opportunities, and tend to be in low income group setting in urban slums without access to basic services. It has been creating adverse environmental and social consequences.

The Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-2015) has focused on job creation, promotion of industry, enhancement of governance, extension of social services provision under the objective of " Accelerating Growth and Reducing Poverty" to realize the society where all citizens will be able to enjoy lives at level of middle–income country by 2021.

The perspective plan (2010-2021) has outlined comprehensive long and medium term-strategy for poverty reduction. According to the perspective plan, the overall goal is to ensure planned urbanization for growth and equity.

The involvement of a number of institutions in management of the affairs of city areas has resulted in overlapping of functions and lack of coordination between municipalities and national agencies especially in jurisdiction of City Corporations (hereafter referred to as "CC") where remarkable public and private investment observed. National and municipal institutions generate plurality in the planning, implementation and development approaches and this plurality results in un-coordinated development efforts which in fact creates more problems than solving them.

In the Local Government (City Corporation) Act 2009, lot of duties and responsibilities have been assigned to City Corporation. To ensure good governance, provision has been made of formulating rules, regulations, by-laws and other procedures. Since there were six different laws in the establishment of six city corporations till 2001, practice in each CC have been different. Under the Act 2009, there are attempts to unify and coordinate activities. Formulation of Rules, Regulations, and by-laws as directed in the Act 2009 will help establishing good governance and rule of law.

The Government of Bangladesh (hereinafter referred to as GOB) has endorsed a policy to enhance the functions of city corporations to establish inclusive city governance. Under such circumstances, the GOB has requested an ODA Loan project to the Government of Japan to conduct "Inclusive City Governance Project" (hereinafter referred to as "ICGP" to support 5 target CCs namely Narayanganj, Comilla, Rangpur, Gazipur and Chittagong, and it commenced in June 2014. The target CCs implement governance improvement activities through Inclusive City Governance Improvement Action Program (hereafter referred to as "ICGIAP") and Administrative Improvement Plan (hereafter referred to as "AIP") along with infrastructure development projects. In coordination with ICGP, this project will provide technical assistance for building institutional capacity of LGD Urban Wing and Four(4) city corporations Narayanganj, Comilla, Rangpur and Gazipur CCs to realize administrative and financial reform implemented as a part of ICGIAP and AIP.

The Overall Goal

Functions and organizational structure of the target City Corporations (CCs) are optimized.

Project Purpose

Institutions for implementation of a medium to long-term strategy for governance improvement is established in the target CCs.

Output

• A medium to long-term strategy for governance improvement is produced.
• PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) Cycle of administrative improvement activities in alignment with the strategy is established.
• Appropriate tax assessment and collection procedures are established, and tax collection is conducted in a fair manner.
• Procedure of recurrent expenditure planning according to revenue is established.

Project Activities

Output 1

1.	Support LGD in compilation and review of existing acts, regulations and by-laws for CCs.
2.	Support LGD in facilitating the formulation of CC regulations/by-laws and in preparing guidelines based on activities under Output 2, 3 & 4.
3.	Review CC functions and job descriptions, identify gaps/bottlenecks and propose improvement.
4.	Review CC organizational structures and capacity development plans, identify gaps/bottlenecks and propose improvement.
5.	Prepare the strategy within the framework of the CC Act 2009.

Output 2

1.	Plan for administrative improvement activities for CCs within the framework of the CC Act 2009.
2.	Support CCs to implement the administrative improvement activities and monitor progress.
3.	Revise the administrative improvement activities according to periodical appraisal by LGD.

Output 3

1.	Support LGD to identify issues regarding tax assessment criteria and procedure.
2.	Produce a manual for tax assessment and collection procedures.
3.	Conduct capacity development activities for tax assessors and collectors based on the manual for tax assessment and collection.
4.	Disseminate the manual to the public.

Output 4

1.	Prepare a manual for budget formulation/execution and reporting.
2.	Conduct capacity development activities based on the manual.
3.	Prepare suitable expenditure plan for CCs.

Inputs
[Japanese side]

(a)	Dispatch of Experts Team Leader/Urban Governance, Administrative Reform, Financial Reform, Public Account, Legislative System and other experts
(b)	Training JICA will receive personnel in Japan and / or in third countries for training purposes for city corporation related staffs and officers in LGD and CCs.
(c)	Machinery and equipment JICA will provide machinery and equipment Copier, printer, PCs, camera

Inputs
[Bangladesh side]

(a)	Project Director (PD): Joint Secretary (UD 1), LGD
(b)	Assigned Officer: Deputy Secretary (UD 1) / Senior Assistant Secretary (CC)
(c)	Counterpart Personnel: Member of ARC in target CCs
(d)	Services of the Bangladesh side's counterpart personnel and administrative personnel as referred to II-7;
(e)	Suitable office space at LGD with necessary equipment like table, chair and others;
(f)	Available data and information related to the Project
(g)	Running expenses necessary for implementation of the Project