About Local Authorities Capacity Enhancement Project (LACEP)
In December 2014, the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Zimbabwe released a grant to support a 30 months project aimed at strengthening the institutional and operational capacity of Local Authorities and the Associations of Local Authorities in Zimbabwe, the project titled Local Authorities Capacity Enhancement Project (LACEP) kicked off in January 2015 and concluded in June 2017. In March 2018 the European Union further approved a grant contract amounting to One million euros to VNG International to support a successor project of the Local Authorities Capacity Enhancement Project (LACEP). VNGi in partnership with the Municipal Development Partnership, the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe and the Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe are implementing LACEP 2 and the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works is a key stakeholder.
The Specific Objectives of LACEP 2 are:
- To improve the financial management systems, incl. budgeting,reporting and revenue collection of 5 Las so as to make them more
accountable. - To enhance quality services by ALAs to their members to the benefit of quality service delivery to the local communities by Las.
- To support other relevant initiatives in the field of LA support in the South Western region.
The LACEP Project has through the 2 phases of implementation with a sister project the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), LACEP focusing mostly in the South Western region and CLGF in the North Eastern region of Zimbabwe, with pooling of resources to support national initiatives by the two projects.
View LACEP in a Nutshell: LACEP 2 | LACEP1
Supporting Public Finance Management in Local Authorities
The growing demand for transparency and accountability in the public sector including local authorities has mostly shaped LACEP 2, which responded by supporting LAs with demand driven needs towards the strengthening of their Public Finance Management Systems (PFMS) including Integrated Finance Management Information Systems(IFMIS) and Revenue Collection. In collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, LACEP 2 is supporting institutionalization of PFM Reforms in local authorities through capacity building in Programme Based Budgeting (PBB), deployment of new Chart of Accounts which if implemented will improve the financial management systems including budgeting, reporting and revenue collection.
Participatory Policy Making in Local Authorities: Review Workshops
The thirteen LACEP participating Local Authorities and selected Civil Society Organisation's operating under their areas of jurisdiction were once again provided with a platform to interface under LACEP. Two clustered provincial capacity building workshops held in Gweru (6 - 7 April, 2017) and Bulawayo (10 - 11 April, 2017) allowed the stock-taking of experiences by the LA's and CSO's on their engagement on some key issues affecting them using the participatory approaches and tools. The capturing moment during the capacity building workshops was the assessment of cooperation between LA's and CSO's, the results showed tremendous improvements from some strained relations to cooperation and collaboration which has resulted in more space being opened up for citizen participation at local government level. Read More>>
LACEP Kenya Study Visit on Devolution and Citizen Participation
LACEP conducted a study visit to Kenya from 21 - 26 November 2016 for a delegation of eighteen comprising of representatives from the Zimbabwe national government, local authorities, local government associations, civil society and project staff.
The study visit which forms part of the project activities which aim to raise awareness on the New Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No. 20 Act of 2013 with emphasis on the Constitutionalisation of Local Government. The study visit to Kenya which focused on two topics Devolution and Citizen Participation was motivated by some similarities which the two nations share, as both are implementing new Constitutions which mandate for Devolution of Powers to Local Governments and strongly promotes the active role of citizens in governance issues.
Programme | Presentations | Documents
