Public Sector Capacity Building

Description

The GCBP ran in southern Iraq from August 2004 to June 2008. Its original aim was to assist the four southern Governorates – Basra, Dhi Qar, Muthanna and Maysan -to manage the reconstruction effort effectively and to reduce poverty through local economic development. This was to be delivered through three main strategies public sector capacity building, private sector development, and strengthening civil society. For a variety of reasons – political, security and resource – the aims of the programme were altered over the course of its four years, becoming entirely focused on public sector capacity building for a long period, until economic initiatives were revitalised in late 2007. It also focused increasingly on Basra, and less on the other provinces, during the course of the programme.

The Governorates Capacity Building Programme (GCBP) Project, under the Iraq Framework funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), now known as the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), is assisting four southern Governorates of Iraq in various aspects of institutional capacity building.

The project is aimed at achieving long-term sustainable reforms that will enhance the capacity and effectiveness o the local governments to manage the decentralization process, formulate policy, manage resources and improve delivery of public services to the citizens in general and to the impoverished population by decades of war.

There are three main inter-related components to the project –public administration capacity building, capacity building in the private sector and capacity building in the social development sector. The project therefore requires numerous consultancy inputs in these areas.

As member of the consortium selected for implementing this project, NSCE is subcontracted by the Leading Company (Enterplan) to provide experts in the area of capacity building for strengthening local councils, NGOs, strategic planning, public expenditure, training etc., for short as well as long term assignments in Basra.

Services

• Project and programme design work
• Project implementation
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Consultancy recruitment and policy support work
• Design and delivery of training workshops, seminars and study tours for over 30 Iraqi representatives from four southern governorates in Iraq:
  • Cairo Workshop and study visits, 22-30 September, 2005 on Participatory Community Planning and Management for Iraqi Provincial Councils
  • Lebanon Study Tour 22-31 March 2006
  • Workshop in Bahrain on Provincial Resource Management Improvement on June 19-26, 2006
  • Workshop/Study Tour in Luxor, 23- 28 November, 2006 called Action Learning Programme on Provincial Resource Management Seminar #2 – Institutional Capacity Building
  • Workshop in Dead Sea, Jordan from 23-27 November, 2008