Capacity Building for Local Government and Service Delivery-Zimbabwe Draft Report of the 2013 local government Capacity Assessment. Compiled and submitted by; Development Governance Institute, (de GI ) 2682 Mainway Meadows, Harare. Kudzai Chatiza ([email protected] ), Virginia Makanza ( [email protected] ), Norbert Musekiwa, Gaynor Paradza, Stephen Chakaipa, Shame Mukoto, Jonathan Kagoro, Kumbulani Ndlovu and Shingirayi Mushamba. February 28 th , 2014 Harare-Zimbabwe. de GI i Table of Contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iv Acronyms ...................................................................................................................................... v Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................vii 1.0 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 1 Figure 1: Zimbabwe’s Local Government System, (deGI, 2013)................................................... 2 1.1 Brief historical account of local government in Zimbabwe........................................................ 4 2.0 ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 7 Figure 2: Key Steps of a Capacity Development Process ............................................................. 8 Table 1: EGD Sessions ................................................................................................................ 9 Table 2: Questionnaire returns by June 14th .............................................................................. 9 Table 3: Sampled local authorities ........................................................................................... 10 3.0 ASSESSMENT FINDINGS ................................................................................................................... 12 3.1 Policy, law and centre-local relations ..................................................................................... 12 3.2 Human Resource Capacity and Issues..................................................................................... 16 Box 1: Summary of Human Resource Challenges in Councils .................................................... 18 Table 4: Vacancy rates in the City of Harare ............................................................................. 21 Box 2: Councillors’ capacities as convenient excuse ................................................................. 22 Table 5: HR improvement strategies from the assessment ....................................................... 24 3.3 Local Authority Finance .......................................................................................................... 25 Box 3 : Local Government Financial Management Weaknesses, ............................................... 27 Table 6: Debtors’ positions for selected local authorities ......................................................... 30 3.4 Spatial Planning, .................................................................................................................... 34 Box 4: ‘Choked towns and rushed-unsupported granting of urban statuses’............................ 39 3.5 Knowledge Management and E-Government, ........................................................................ 41 Table 7: Utilisation of Institutions for staff training .................................................................. 41 3.6 Public participation in local government ................................................................................ 45 3.7 Service Delivery ..................................................................................................................... 50 Table 8: Road Network Size and Status, Bulawayo ................................................................... 51 Table 9: Availability of road making equipment ........................................................................ 52 Table 10: Distribution of Motorized Graders to Road Authorities by province (2013) ............... 53 3.8 Gender and local government ................................................................................................ 56 4.0 FRAMEWORK FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND CONCLUSION ................................................................ 58 de GI ii 4.1 Focusing the debate ............................................................................................................... 58 Figure 2: The Service Delivery-Expansion Dynamic ................................................................... 58 Figure 3: Local Government System ‘Pressure Points’ (deGI, 2013) .......................................... 58 Table 11: Describing local government pressure points ............................................................ 59 4.2 Prioritizable Capacity Development Areas .............................................................................. 60 Table 12: Priority interventions ................................................................................................ 60 4.3 Possible strategies for capacity development ......................................................................... 61 4.4 Institutional mechanisms for implementation ........................................................................ 62 4.5 Risks and Assumptions ........................................................................................................... 63 4.6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 63 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 65 Annex 1: Key Informants .............................................................................................................. 67 Annex 2: Assessment Tools .......................................................................................................... 69 2.1 Finance Tool....................................................................................................................... 69 2.2 Human Resources Tool ....................................................................................................... 76 2.3 Public participation tool ..................................................................................................... 80 2.4 Service delivery tool ........................................................................................................... 84 2.5 Councillors’ Capacity Assessment Tool ............................................................................... 93 2.6 Interview Guide for Ministry Directors ............................................................................... 96 2.7 FGD Guide for PA’s and DA’s .............................................................................................. 97 2.8 Household questionnaire ................................................................................................... 98 Annex 3: Thirteen Principles ...................................................................................................... 101 Annex 4: PSIP Loans issued (July 2009-May 2013) ..................................................................... 103 Annex 5: Availability of road making equipment by Council ....................................................... 105 Annex 6: Legislated Powers of the Minister of Local Government .............................................. 109 Annex 7: Local Government Capacity Building-related initiatives ............................................... 111 de GI iii Acknowledgements The Assessment Team acknowledges the immense Ministry and UNDP support during the tenure of the project. Permanent Secretary Mupingo and Assistant Resident Representative Moyo and their teams showed sufficiently strategic interest in the assignment that encouraged the Assessment Team. Structured interaction and informal liaison with the twin focal persons at Ministry and UNDP made the design and execution of the assignment smooth. The guidance and insights of the Project Board (MLGURD, UNDP, UN Habitat, ZILGA, NANGO, Ministry of Public Service, Ministry of Social Services, ZNCC and the Ministry responsible for youth) also filtered through allowing for a grounded assessment. Much of the facilitation of the Assessment Team’s work was done by a MLGURD Steering Committee headed by Mr. Maronge supported by Disalice Kunaka and Munashe Huragu. All MLGURD directorates actively participated in the assessment, hosting our team and commenting on tools and draft reports, which provided very useful insights. Our gratitude also goes to the individual Councils, sector experts (key informants and expert group discussion participants), Councillors, residents and development partner professionals with whom our team interacted. They provided committed insights, completed questionnaires and for those in the 15 sampled Councils directly hosted our teams during fieldwork at times at short notice. The Assessment Team is very grateful for all the support and looks forward to ongoing engagement in re- professionalizing local government in Zimbabwe. Kudzai Chatiza, Team Leader, July 17th 2013. Harare, Zimbabwe. de GI iv Acronyms ARDCZ Association