Enhancing Local Authorities’ Contributions to Governance and Development Processes in Zimbabwe
The project is being implemented by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and LACEP in close coordination with UCAZ, Association of Rural District Councils in Zimbabwe and Ministry of Local Government. The project is set to benefit all the 92 councils (urban and rural).

Overall Objective

• To enhance accountable local governance for inclusive and participatory socio-economic development and effective and efficient gender sensitive service delivery in Zimbabwe.Specific Objectives.
•  To strengthen Local Authorities (LAs) and Associations of Local Authorities’ (ALAs) governance institutional capacity through service level benchmarking and effective individual and institutional capacity building interventions.
• To strengthen the capacity of local authorities to create an enabling environment for inclusive and sustainable citizen participation in local governance and socio- economic development with increased focus on marginalised and vulnerable community members.
• To promote local economic development and enhance authorities financial sustainability.
• To disseminate knowledge and promote peer to peer learning among local authorities locally and abroad

The project has successfully;

1. Supported the Service Level Benchmarking – Peer Reviews and Reports for two years
2. SLB for urban councils was successfully developed, planned and conducted in all 32 urban councils. The trend analysis of SLB results indicate progressive improvement in the baseline scores for 2018 on water quality (6.7%), solid waste management (3%) and wastewater management (7%).
3. Assisted LAs to develop SMART Performance Improvement Plans which are already attracting funding from Government ($5million committed to date – March 2018) and from other development partners such as World Bank, UNICEF and GIZ
4. Project partnered with Gender Links to increase the participation of women and gender mainstreaming in local government. 8 out of the target 15 local authorities underwent the 10 stage Gender Centres of Excellence programme. They now have gender mainstreaming plans and appointed gender focal persons
5. Peer learning, exchanges visits and study tours on good practice in local governance supported.
6. Public finance management and accountability systems reviewed/developed and implemented
7. ALAs representational roles and policy capacity building of MLGPWNH supported
8. Local governance research and knowledge management supported
9. Ward development, strengthening citizen participation and budgets, implemented and monitored
10. Gender responsive local governance is supported
11. LED strategies developed and implemented in 15 local authorities
12. National enabling environment for LED supported