About LGP
The Local Governance Program, Phase III (LGPIII) is an award of the Iraq Mission of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to Research Triangle Institute/RTI International. By the terms of its contract, the purpose of the program is to "support implementation of the Provincial Powers Act" (PPA). The program provides this support in all 14 provinces covered by the PPA, also known as Law No. 21 or the Law of Governorates Not Incorporated into a Region.
LGPIII differs significantly from previous phases of USAID's governance program in that it is more conspicuously Iraqi led, emphasizes consulting services over training, and concentrates its efforts on three target audiences: the provincial council, the governor's office, and their respective professional staff. (Work at the district or qada’a level will presumably follow elections for qada’a and nahiya councils.) USAID designed LGPIII to be one of a suite of governance projects, and so assistance to lower level councils -- the hayy and nahiya -- as well as assistance to line ministries and departments, belong to other projects in the suite, namely the Community Action Program (CAP) and Tatweer.
In the 14 provinces where LGPIII operates, it is supporting implementation of the Provincial Powers Act by organizing activities according to five work elements:
- Legislating
- Planning
- Budgeting
- Monitoring
- Organizational Development
Two additional work elements include:
- the
- the Iraqi Local Government Association (ILGA) and the High Commission for Coordinating between Provinces (HCCP)
Those provinces where the project is working directly with elected members of the provincial councils and the governor include Najaf, Karbala, Babil, Wasit, and Diwaniyah in the south central region, Muthanna, Basrah, Dhi Qar, and Maysan in the south, and Baghdad, Diyala, Salah ad Din, Anbar, and Ninawa in the north.
The expected life span of the project is two years, beginning January 1, 2009 and ending June 30, 2011.