The Albanian Development Fund has created a methodology and structure for developing a local development plan with broad-based community participation. This methodology was produced with the assistance of an international consultant, Urban Institute; Washington D.C. ADF tested this methodology in five communes of the country with different features such as demography, the level of development, geographical distribution. The five communes that went through this process were Kastriot (region of Dibra, Northeast), Velipoja (region of Shkodra, Northwest), Maminas (Region of Durres, Central), Vithkuq (Korca Region, Southeast), Xara (Region of Vlora, South .

ADF provides training and ongoing technical assistance throughout the project. The output of this project is a Local Development Plan with strategic goals and action steps/projects, pre-feasibility studies, and a monitoring and evaluation plan that contains a system of indicators to measure progress. Additionally, the commune will have a well trained staff in planning and managing the community’s resources.

What is Local Development Planning?
Local development planning is a vital process that allows local governments—and the publics they represent—to take control of and shape their futures. A Local Development Plan provides information on a community’s course of action, a roadmap, if you will, for elected officials, local government staff, and the community-at-large to follow when shaping their desired futures. Local development planning is proactive. It is about strategic thinking, planning, and anticipating the kinds of things a community needs to do in order to achieve its desired goals.

Effective local development planning entails that a local government understand what “business” it is in, who its customers are, and how well it is meeting their needs and expectations. When done well, local development planning involves input and participation from a broad cross-section of the community and other stakeholders. This guarantees that the local government is harnessing the best resources possible in planning its future, as well as providing an all-important forum for civic participation, ownership and engagement.

In fact, the importance of the community participation component cannot be overestimated. The strategic goals and action steps articulated in the Local Development Plan are not solely the domain of the commune government. The Commune cannot do it all, nor can it address the community’s needs alone. Inherent in the LDP is the notion that the entire community has a stake in and a contribution to make to the achievement of a sustainable commune. The commitment and actions of various community members, groups, and other stakeholders are critical to the successful attainment of the Commune’s vision, goals, and actions that are constitutive of the LDP.

Local development planning also allows local government to better align its services with local council and community priorities, as well as with regional and national priorities. 

Conversely, regional and national institutions, as well as Donors, have a great deal to learn and gain from local development plans in the establishment of broader frameworks of policymaking and action. It is anticipated that the LDPs, upon gaining momentum, will ultimately drive the development and content of regional and national planning and policymaking, as well. As part of this project, a mapping of regional and local development planning efforts currently underway in Albania is being prepared; summary findings and recommendations from this research will be included in a final report and incorporated into the final LDP/PME Structure and Methodology as deemed relevant.

A Local Development Plan is only effective when it is rigorously used to plan and design services and projects, allocate resources, identify fiscal gaps and needs, measure the results of local government work, and communicate these results to the community. It is a process and document by which the community can hold leadership accountable for getting things done in a manner that is responsive to their needs and priorities. It ensures a wise and effective utilization of scarce resources to ensure the community is positioned to meet its goals.

Local Development Plans should be championed and conceptually approved by local councils. Although ideally long-term in both vision and actions, LDPs need to retain a high degree of flexibility to ensure continued relevance and responsiveness to the community’s changing needs and priorities. In this way, LDPs should be revisited annually and revised, where desired.

 

Who Participates in the Planning Process?

 In order to ensure broad representation of the elected officials, staff, and the community in designing a plan for our future, the Albanian Development Fund’s methodology requires the establishment of the following participatory group(s):

 Local Development Plan Group (LDP Group): The LDP Group is responsible for spearheading, providing guidance and advice, and overseeing the development of the LDP. The LDP Group is comprised of representatives of the Council, local government administration, villages and the community-at-large. It is divided into several subgroups—for logistical and substantive effectiveness. Among these are:

Composition:

Chair, to be elected by LDP Group

Chief of Commune

2-3 Council members

3-5 Commune staff (e.g., urban planning, finance officer, pubic service, social service)

3-5 citizens-at-large representing various demographics/professions of population

1 representative from each village

 
Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation subgroup (PME subgroup): The PME subgroup is charged with establishing criteria for evaluating the LDP process, assisting in the identification of performance measures for strategic goals and action steps, and assessing achievement of outcomes. Upon plan completion and approval by Council, the PME subgroup is expanded and performs ongoing monitoring of the results of the LDP.

LDP Group Priority Area Subcommittees: These subcommittees of the LDP Group represent the four pillars (economic development, social development, public infrastructure and services, and good governance) and are responsible for specifying concrete action steps/projects for priority areas and conducting pre-feasibility studies of the action plans. Consisting largely of members of the LDP Group, the subcommittees also invite local and outside experts to provide welcome advice on the development of the action plans.

Other subcommittees of the LDP Group, designed to ensure an efficient deployment of the methodology are: Community Mobilization subgroup, Data Collection subgroup and a Secretariat for collecting and maintaining the voluminous amount of information that emerges during plan development.

How Does it Work? The Ten Steps for Creating a Local Development Plan

The ADF methodology contains ten key steps for creating a local development plan.

1. Obtaining Commitment: ADF visits the Chief of Commune who in turn elicits conceptual approval from the Commune Council to go forward in making a local development plan
2. Providing Direction: ADF provides intensive training to the LDP Group
3. Getting Started: The LDP Group and its subgroups begin meeting and charting their course of action
4. Gathering Information: a Commune Profile, Citizen Survey and a Council Strategizing Session comprise key information gathering activities that will inform the development of the plan
5. Engaging the Community: Village Vision Festivals are held in all villages and focus groups are designed to target special groups
6. Assessing, Visioning and Strategizing: The LDP Group analyzes the input and crafts a Vision Statement and Strategic Goals in response to citizen concerns
7. Creating the Priority Area Action Plans: Priority Area Subcommittees identify and prioritize action steps/projects and perform pre-feasibility studies; LDP Group compiles the Plan
8. Revisiting the Villages: “You Talked, We Listened, Did We Get it Right?”: Opportunity to check in with the community on whether the plan meets their expectations
9. Integration with Budget Development and Council Adoption: The Plan informs important resource allocation decisions and is adopted by the Council
10. Implementation and Ongoing Monitoring and Evaluation: The LDP Group kicks off the plan and continues to monitor and evaluate progress made toward achieving the goals.

 

From start to finish the process takes approximately 6-8 months and is used to help formulate the annual budget. The LDP sets forth a short-, medium, and long-term plan of action. The vision looks forward to 10-15 years and strategic goals to 5 years. However, to be realistic and to ensure we are able to focus on concrete projects and actions, the scope of action is narrowed down to one-three years and is specifically targeted during budget development. Each action step contains a deadline for its implementation. Compliance with these deadlines is monitored by the participatory monitoring and evaluation group.