72066921RFI_Good Governance.pdf

Request for Information USAID/Liberia

Office of Democracy, Rights and Governance (DRG)

BACKGROUND

Planned Activity Description:

Term: TBD Type of funds: TBD Managing Office: USAID/DRG Proposed Mechanism: TBD Geographic Scope: TBD

In alignment with USAID/Liberia’s Country Development Cooperation Strategy 2019-2024, The Government of Liberia’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, Liberia’s Public Financial Management Act of 2009, Domestic Resource Mobilization Strategy, and Liberia’s Local Government Act of 2018, USAID/Liberia is exploring the design of a new activity which will work to progress Liberia’s domestic revenue mobilization and decentralization efforts at both the national and sub-national levels. The activity will aim to strengthen tax collection capacity, local governance, public financial management systems, and increase citizen and government capacity with a specific focus on transparent, participatory processes in budgeting and the use of funds to deliver quality services.

The initial theory underpinning this activity is that the social contract between citizens and the Government of Liberia can be improved through decentralized governance, and improved local service delivery. This can be achieved through a dual bottom-up and top-down approach, but hinges on improvements in local governance to deliver services that meet citizen needs. The bottom-up approach relies on increased public awareness of local government functions and increased capacity to participate in and provide oversight over revenue collection and budgeting processes that will create a grassroots demand for increased transparency and accountability of government. The top-down approach relies on the improved capacity of local government to deliver services that better align with the development priorities of citizens. Simultaneously, if national systems for budgeting and domestic resource mobilization are strengthened and made more transparent and participatory, grassroots involvement in the national governance can be improved and sustained.

PROPOSED ACTIVITY

The draft goal of this activity is to strengthen the social contract with the Government of Liberia through decentralized governance and improved service delivery in select counties. It will be narrowly focused on four objectives: 1) Quality services delivered at the local level; 2) Inclusive local development improved; 3) Domestic resource mobilization improved; and 4) Budget transparency improved. USAID/Liberia/DRG intends to further narrow some of these objectives and sub-objectives to appropriately align with the resources available for this activity.

Graphic 1: Illustrative Results Framework

This activity will build on key aspects of previous USAID programming including: the Revenue Generation for Governance and Growth (RG3) activity; the Local Empowerment for Government Inclusion and Transparency (LEGIT) activity; and to a lesser degree the work of Digital Liberia and Electronic Government Activity (Digital Liberia E-GOV).

USAID/Liberia is soliciting comments from companies and organizations with relevant development experience that will help the likelihood of success for the activity in Liberia. Local Liberian organizations are particularly encouraged to comment. Please provide your comments on the results framework. Respondents must ensure that their comments are concise and specific to information included within the description above.

ADDITIONAL POINTS OF CONSIDERATION

USAID seeks additional information on programs, policies, research, data, and activities that might be useful for the activity design. In addition to general comments on the concept presented above, consider responding to the following questions.

Questions:

● In terms of narrowing the scope for this activity, and considering the broad challenges of public financial management, domestic resource mobilization, and decentralization what are the pros and cons of the two following approaches:

○ Approach 1: Focus on key public services to strengthen the relationship, cooperation, and interoperability between national and local governments.

○ Approach 2: Focus on a few pilot counties and provide comprehensive services in all areas of public financial management, domestic resource mobilization, and decentralization.

● What are innovative, high-impact ways of leveraging and supporting existing structures, e.g. County Service Centers?

● What are the best ways to engage citizens to ensure that decentralization activities are aligned with citizen expectations and needs?

● How can USAID support the expanded interest and diversified funding of the long-term decentralization agenda in Liberia?

● What are the specific capacity gaps at the sub-national level to be addressed, in order to enable local governments to effectively implement the Local Government Act?

● What are measures/strategies to be adapted to fully integrate transparency and accountability in governance at the local level?

● Based on your experience implementing interventions in line with the goal of the planned Activity, what additional insights would you like the Mission to consider while designing this Activity?

Please provide comments no later than July 12, 2021 by 13:00 hrs Liberia time, via email to aplucknett@usaid.goc , akanta@usaid.gov and pnoauh@usaid.gov . Submissions are limited to three pages total, and no pages beyond this limit (including Annexes) will be reviewed.

A Notification of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) or Request for Proposal (RFP) for this activity will be issued at a later date and will be announced at https://www.grants.gov and sam.gov as applicable. It will describe the application or submission process in full.

All interested parties must respond to that NOFO or RFP announcement separately from any response to this Request for Information. Issuance of this pre-notice of a funding opportunity or solicitation request for comments does not constitute an award commitment mailto:akanta@usaid.gov mailto:pnoauh@usaid.gov https://www.grants.gov/ on the part of the Government nor does it commit the Government to pay for any costs incurred in order to prepare a response to this Pre-Notice.

[End of RFI]