Project reference

 23-0188-000-BTN-GovDecGen

Contract duration

 2024 - 2027

Budget

1,299,980

Countries

 Bhutan

Keywords

 Civil society, Governance, Institutional development, Public finance/budgeting

Strengthening local governance, decentralisation and gender mainstreaming in Bhutan

The overall objective (Impact) to which this action contributes is:
  • To assist Bhutan in reducing poverty.
The specific objectives (Outcomes) of this contract are as follows:
  • Specific objective (Outcome) 1: Strengthening local governance and decentralisation;
  • Specific objective (Outcome) 2: Strengthening gender mainstreaming, including at local level.
The expected outputs of this contract are as follows:
  • Output 1 to Outcome 1 & 2: High-quality technical expertise/support provided to Bhutan, including capacity building actions, to improve implementation of the programmes financed by the EU in the focal sectors and in the cross-cutting areas such as but not limited to : CSOs, governance, gender mainstreaming and support to gender equality and women empowerment, environment, climate, disaster risk reduction, democracy and poverty. Specifically, the support is expected to enhance implementation of the Decentralisation policy and local governance priorities in the 13th Five Year Plan.
  • Output 2 to Outcome 1 & 2: Policy Dialogue and engagement between the EU and Royal Government of Bhutan in the cooperation policy areas improved through dialogue facilitation, training, workshops, research and studies, including sector policy assessments under budget support in specialised areas related to local governance, decentralisation and gender mainstreaming.
  • Output 3 to Outcome 1 & 2: Series of studies in the Local Government sector and pertaining to gender equality and women participation conducted, in close coordination with the Royal Government of Bhutan.
  • Output 4 to Outcome 1 & 2: Organisation of dialogue facilitation, trainings/workshops both in Bhutan and outside Bhutan for Bhutanese stakeholders to improve human resources capacities as well as enhance communication between stakeholders and visibility of EU and RGoB achievements in the sector. Beneficiaries could include officials from the department of local governance, Ministry of Finance (Department of macro-fiscal and development finance), the omen and Children Division (which is the secretariat of the National Commission for Women and Children) under the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, civil servants from the districts and municipalities at local level (e.g. gender focal points, members of Mainstreaming Reference Groups), elected officials and also representatives/members of nongovernmental organisations
  • Output 5 to Outcome 1 & 2: As cross-cutting for the sectors (i.e. statistical methodologies for the 2 sectors and for better monitoring system within Bhutan), the provision of technical assistance to the National Statistical Bureau to support an improved statistical system at central and local levels and a strengthened local level data collection and treatment of data in the areas targeted by the EU budget support programme.

Partners

 Particip (Lead), Helvetas Bhutan