USAID Municipal Competitiveness Project Final Report September 22, 2010–May 27, 2015 Municipal Unit for Enterprise Development (EMPRE) officers participating in a financial services fair, held in San Salvador in November 2013. Image: RTI International April 30, 2015 This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by RTI International. Final Report September 22, 2010–May 27, 2015 USAID Municipal Competitiveness Project (MCP) Contract No: EPP-I-00-04-00037-00 September 22, 2010 Prepared for Sandra Lorena Duarte Contracting Officer’s Representative Economic Growth Office USAID/El Salvador Telephone: (503) 2501-3362 [email protected] Prepared by RTI International 3040 Cornwallis Road Post Office Box 12194 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194 RTI International is one of the world's leading research institutes, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. Our staff of more than 3,700 provides research and technical services to governments and businesses in more than 75 countries in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, education and training, surveys and statistics, advanced technology, international development, economic and social policy, energy and the environment, and laboratory testing and chemical analysis. RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute. The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. Table of Contents Page Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 1 I. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 5 A. Background ....................................................................................................5 B. Overall Project Performance .......................................................................... 6 II. Project Start-Up ............................................................................................... 8 A. Municipality Selection Process for MCP ......................................................... 8 B. Awareness Process (Presentations to Municipal Councils, Public Employees, and Private Sector) ................................................................... 11 1. Presentations to Municipal Councils .......................................................11 2. Presentations to Municipal Employees ...................................................11 3. Presentations to the Private Sector and other Stakeholders ...................11 III. Highlights of Key Activities ............................................................................ 12 A. Component 1: Enhancing Municipal Effectiveness and Efficiency ................ 12 1. Administrative Process Simplification .....................................................12 2. New Businesses and New Jobs .............................................................13 3. Municipal Competitiveness Committees and Plans ................................13 4. Transparency and Competitiveness Pacts ..............................................16 5. Training for Capacity Building .................................................................17 B. Component 2: Municipal Competitiveness Index .......................................... 17 C. Component 3: Private Sector and Inter-jurisdictional Engagement ............... 19 1. Public-Private Dialogue and Alliances ....................................................19 2. Municipal Associations/Micro regional Competitiveness Plans. ..............20 3. EMPREs.................................................................................................22 4. Business Ideas Challenge ......................................................................22 5. Building Business Associations ..............................................................24 6. Regional Tourism Fairs ..........................................................................26 7. Tourism Development Strategy ..............................................................27 D. Component 4: Domestic Finance for Development ...................................... 28 E. Component 5: Improving Effective and Efficient Municipal Government Administration in 14 Municipalities ............................................................... 31 1. Create, Equip, and Reinforce EMPREs ..................................................31 2. Establish Simplified Procedures to Improve Municipal Service ...............32 3. Promote Coordination among Municipalities ...........................................34 4. Technical Assistance in Transparency Improvement and Municipal Tax Revenue. .........................................................................................34 F. Component 6: Developing Alliances between Public and Private Sector Organizations to Continue Improving the Municipal Business Environment ................................................................................................. 38 1. Technical Assistance and Training for Strengthening MCCs ..................38 G. Component 7: Developing Local Institutional Capacity Building ................... 40 1. Gender Integration Workshop .................................................................45 2. USAID Procurement and Regulations ....................................................46 3. Organizational Capacity Final Self-Assessment .....................................46 H. Communications and Events Activities ......................................................... 51 I. Gender Considerations ................................................................................ 52 USAID MCP—Final Report April 30, 2015 iii IV. Competitiveness Learning Network ............................................................... 55 V. Issues and Weaknesses Encountered .......................................................... 56 VI. Lessons Learned ........................................................................................... 57 VII. Success Stories ............................................................................................ 60 VIII. Priority Areas Identified for Future Work ........................................................ 62 IX. Conclusions and Recommendations ............................................................. 63 X. Project Performance Compared to M&E Objectives ..................................... 67 A. Overall MCP Performance ........................................................................... 67 B. Overall MCP Extension Period Performance ................................................ 69 List of Annexes Annex A: MCP Intervention GIS Maps .................................................................................. A-1 List of Figures Figure 1: Level of implementation of process simplification in selected municipalities ........................................................................................... 13 Figure 2: Implementation phases ............................................................................ 36 Figure 3: Gender action plan .................................................................................. 53 List of Tables Table 1: Overall project performance (September 2010–May 2015) ....................... 6 Table 2: Selection criteria ........................................................................................ 8 Table 3: Municipalities visited to present the MCP .................................................. 9 Table 4: Commitment of Municipal Competitiveness Committees ......................... 14 Table 5: MCI 2013 sub-indices .............................................................................. 19 Table 6: Micro regional activities and achievements .............................................. 21 Table 7: Business Ideas Challenge winners .......................................................... 23 Table 8: Business associations created or strengthened by the MCP ................... 25 Table 9. Selection criteria to receive the grants award .......................................... 29 Table 10: DF4D initiatives ........................................................................................ 30 USAID MCP—Final Report April 30, 2015 iv Table 11: Project performance of original EMPREs................................................. 31 Table 12: Project performance of new EMPREs ..................................................... 32 Table 13: Total participants in municipal revenue workshops .................................. 37 Table 14: Municipal tax revenue final results presentations .................................... 37 Table 15: Public-private dialogue activities and accomplishments .......................... 39 Table 16: Local institution capacity building ............................................................. 41 Table 17: Workshops and contents ......................................................................... 42 Table 18: Net staff participation disaggregated by sex ............................................ 44 Table 19a: Staff participation disaggregated by sex, first round ................................ 44 Table 19b: Staff participation disaggregated by sex, second round........................... 45 Table 20a: FUNDE EPCI scores...............................................................................