The PRO-Local Governance for People and Nature Programme, is designed to contribute to improving the well-being and quality of life of citizens through improved local governance, social inclusion and environmental protection in 99 cities and municipalities in two regions: Šumadija and Western Serbia and Southern and Eastern Serbia. The Government of Switzerland has allocated CHF 9 million to fund the Programme which will be implemented by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in partnership with UN agencies (1) over a period of 48 months.
To achieve the Programme’s Objective, the intervention will focus on three key Pillars and Outcomes:
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Pillar Good Governance, Outcome 1: LGs improve capacities and apply good governance principles in practice;
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Pillar Social Inclusion, Outcome 2: LGs and other relevant local actors improve capacities and develop evidence-based local social protection policies;
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Pillar Environmental Governance, Outcome 3: LGs improve capacities and apply environmental governance processes in practice.
The key stakeholders, but also direct users of support at the local level, will be local governments (cities and municipalities), including their administrations/staff, organisations, and local institutions (Centres for Social Work - CSWs, Primary Health Centres - PHCs, pre-school institutions and schools), local Civil Society Organisations – CSOs. The final users of support will be the citizens from participating LGs from the Region of Šumadija and Western Serbia, and the Region of Southern and Eastern Serbia.
All Programme activities will be undertaken in partnership with the Government of Serbia, especially the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Governments (MPALSG), the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs (MLEVSA), the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM).
The Programme will coordinate its activities with the key line-national-level institutions, while observing the national strategies, laws and relevant development documents, which will contribute to sustainability, ensure national ownership and develop national capacities.
(1) UN Agencies as implementing partners: UNICEF, UNFPA, UNEP
Background Information – relevant for the assignment
The LGs will be selected through an open Call for Expression of Interest, when LGs will elaborate the common interest for establishing the inter-municipal cooperation (IMC), the envisaged modalities of cooperation, and the type(s) of social protection services they are planning to set up. The ultimate intention of the TA is to lead to signing the Agreement on the IMC as the basis for joint delivery of social protection services. However, TA will include other stakeholders such as Centre for Social Welfare (CSW) and civil society organisations (CSOs). In addition, implementation of officially established IMC could be further supported through Programme grant methodology for LGs to implement social protection services.
The Programme will coordinate this activity with the MLEVSA and SCTM (2) while respecting national strategies, laws and relevant development documentation, which will contribute to sustainability and ensure national ownership.
(2) Complementary project Support to sustainable community-based social services and inclusion policies at the local level, oriented towards supporting LGs to develop local social services including innovative, integrative and inter-municipal services