Reflections on Change: How change works in the UNDP Township Democratic Local Governance Project in Bago 1. Introduction 1.1 Reflections on change The UNDP Township Democratic Governance Project (TDLG) is partly funded by the UK Local Governance Support Programme (LGSP) which works with both the state to build its capacity to respond to citizen demands, and with citizens and civil society groups to strengthen their capacity to engage constructively in decision-making processes. The LGSP has developed a tool, reflections on change, to help understand better how change in local governance happens. Reflections on change are not an evaluation of an activity or project, rather they are a way of understanding how change works, building a picture over time by gathering and analysing people’s stories of what works in particular contexts. Change in local governance is complex; the tool is an attempt to start to unravel the threads of this complexity and find a systematic way of understanding change in local governance, as understood by people experiencing the change, so that approaches to more systemic change can be found. The tool is intended to be used to support learning, change strategy testing, review and evaluation processes, and project design. 1.2 UNDP Township Democratic Local Governance Project The UNDP TDLG uses discretionary grants to township administrations as an incentive to achieve institutional and behavioural change. Using the annual township process as an entry point for the project’s different interventions, the project brings together the township officials responsible for annual planning, the elected Ward and Village tract administrators, civil society organizations, members of parliament and 10 household leaders to facilitate a more inclusive and democratic planning process than before. Hence, the project puts in place a model for democratic participation giving people’s representatives a space to have a say in their own development. It also provides an opportunity for people’s representatives and civil society organizations to better understand how the public sector in Myanmar operates and how township level planning is linked to regional (and union) level priorities. The anticipated change is that the loosely connected approximately 40 township departments (hereafter referred to as Township administrations) will respond better to local development needs, that people’s trust in local government institutions will be enhanced, and that the project model can be replicated by government. TDLG is active in 5 townships in Bago Region, all 10 in Mon State and 5 in Rakhine state. The project facilitates a series of planning workshops to identify the participants’ priority projects for the township as a whole, following democratic processes. The Grant Manual outlines the Standard Operating procedures, or “rules of the game” and Procurement guidelines support the Township Planning and Implementation Committees (TPICs) to follow international best practice on procurement. The project has a Township Governance officer posted in each participating township to provide hands on support, mini lectures for township officials and W/VTAs on good governance, public financial management and other topics related to implementation of the project. Expected results are (1) Township administrations have improved capacity to respond to people’s needs; (2) Improved engagement between people and township administrations on public service delivery (3) Improved ethnic armed organization (EAO) engagement in annual township planning and public service delivery (4) Dialogue on policy and institutional local governance reforms informed by technical support and research. 1.3 Methodology The objective of gathering reflections on change is to document how change is happening. These reflections were gathered over two days in two townships in Bago Region, with visits to Regional Government, Kawa Township which has been involved in three project cycles since 2016, and Thanatpin Township which has been involved for two cycles. The Reflections on Change Tool (see Annex 2) was used to structure interviews. As requested by UNDP, views have been collated rather than presented as a series of individual stories. The report reflects the views as stated by interviewees. In Regional Government, the Director of the Budget Department, and the Director and Deputy Director of the Planning Department were interviewed. In Kawa and Thanatpin Townships interviews took place with the Township Planning and Implementation Committees (TPIC) members, Ward and Village Tract Administrators (5 in Kawa Township, 6 in Thanatpin Township), and one 10 Household Leader. The TPICs included representatives from various government departments such as GAD, Planning, Electricity, Land Management, Education, Rural Road Development, Health, and Rural Development. 1.4 Limitations Translation was necessary with the risk of misinterpretation by the translator and then by the interviewer. To address this, efforts were made triangulate data through multiple reflections from different people or groups. All the interviews took place over two days, a very short time to gather in-depth reflections. In discussion with the consultant and based on a shortage of time UNDP suggested the closest townships for the interviews and the individuals who participated in the interviews. 2. Reflecting on change in local governance in Bago Region This section describes the responses of those interviewed to the seven themes in the reflections on change tool (see Annex 2). The tool helps explore: the type of change, for example whether it was formal or informal, or involved change to individual capabilities or to systems/institutions; who were the change actors, who benefited, and who had power to make the change happen and what their incentives were; the levels of governance where the change took place; the strategies used to make the change and how well they worked; the rules and institutions that supported or blocked the change; opportunities and barriers for future change; and how the broader context supports or hinders change. 2.1 What change(s) took place in local governance? Changes to planning and budgeting systems and processes took place. UNDP described how, as a result of the TDLG project, the five townships in Bago now have a participatory planning process in place, allowing people to have a say in their own development. The process has brought visible change in how the annual planning processes are conducted, who is participating and how people interact with each other. In addition, the project has brought visible change in terms of new physical structures, prioritized by the people, with implementation monitored by joint teams with government officials, W/VTAs, CSOs and ordinary people. For UNDP it is clear that the change that matters is not the infrastructure, it is the institutional change. 2 Regional planning and budgeting Directors describe how they can now “see how to plan and how to budget, and we can coordinate and prioritise better at regional level”. They said that before the project, people think planning and budgeting is only for senior government but now people realise that they can be involved too. The Township Planning and Implementation Committees (TPICs) in Kawa and Thanatpin townships are now developing annual plans based on needs identified at village and village tract level and prioritised at township level, whereas previously they were just a body compiling different department plans. One TPIC member in Thanatpin Township described how the TDLG has changed how they plan: “before the project the government or ministry ordered projects whether or not they were relevant. Communities know their needs, so planning is more relevant now. It benefits both”. The Village Tract Administrators (VTAs) in Kawa Township confirmed this, describing how planning is more transparent and participatory and that “in the past people were only aware of the budget after funds had been allocated”. They described how, after the UNDP workshop, “we understand where budget resources are and know how to seek budget allocations. We have the basic concepts of planning and we can use them at village and township levels”. UNDP described how the TPICs now have a more transparent and participatory budget for the TDLG project, the township grant, and a participatory planning process not only for the TDLG funded projects, but for the whole township. The township annual plans are now presented for the public, something that is mandatory in the TDLG project supported townships and which is something that never has happened in Myanmar before. TDLG has influenced a major change with the Regional Government decision to allocate 57 percent of the regional budget to townships. Driven by the Bago Planning and Finance Minister, this will cover all 28 townships in Bago Region, giving them all, for the first time, the ability to identify, prioritise and implement their own development projects. According to the Directors of Planning and Budgeting in Bago Regional Government, townships used to prepare needs without any ceiling from the Region, and when they receive their allocations, they had to cut budgets. As a result, people did not trust the government or their MPs. This year MMK 56 billion will be allocated to all 28 townships in Bago Region based on a formula: - 60 percent fixed allocation - 15 percent on township population size - 10 percent based on number of bridges to be built - 10 percent based on km of roads to