LGDK has assisted in the implementation of Bhutan's local government reform which is a part of the country's democratic transformation process.
Bhutan's new five-year Local Governance Support Programme, jointly financed by the Danish Development Agency, Danida, as well as the UNDP and the UNCDF, supports this reform. It includes establishment of a full-scale block grant mechanism for local governments, development of local government public finance management policies, and procedures and capacity building within planning and budgeting.
In August 2009, LGDK was assigned to lead the first joint programme review. The review made an overall assessment of the progress of the block grant mechanism, the public finance management procedures and guidelines, the approach to local government capacity building, the robustness of the monitoring and evaluation system, and the programmes' attention to crosscutting issues, including the gender aspect.
The review confirmed how challenging it is to coordinate a major local government reform and provided recommendations on how to improve the reform management.
Additional information is available from Senior Adviser Jens Peter Christensen, who was the team leader on the review, contact details to the right.