Issue No. 9/1999
Effective Partnerships For Municipal Development
An international conference on the topic was held on September 2-3, 1999, in the Albena Resort Complex, Varna. Four pairs of Bulgarian and US cities, which participated in the Second Phase of the Technical Twinning Program presented their most successful projects and reported on their joint activities. Emphasis was placed on the search for non-traditional approaches to the solution of problems, that are specific for the Bulgarian municipalities, based on the extensive American experience in local self-government.
Blagoevgrad and Auburn, Alabama, acquainted the participants with the methodology they had developed and the main chapters of the Strategic Plan for the Development of the Municipality of Blagoevgrad by 2015.
Gabrovo and Portage, Michigan, presented their project, which introduced holding public tenders for selling municipal land for commercial and industrial purposes in Gabrovo, as an example of promoting public-private partnerships for the benefit of the economic development of the municipality.
Dobrich and Spokane, Washington State, explained their model for the establishment of municipal neighborhood social welfare centers, implemented in Dobrich.
Razgrad and Brunswick, Ohio, presented the Strategic Plan of the Economic Development Center (EDC), established in Razgrad as a result of the partnership, and the marketing program of Razgrad Municipality, drafted with assistance from the US city.
The topics of the partnership projects were selected on the basis of an assessment of the needs of the Bulgarian municipalities, and in accordance with the areas in which the American partners are leading or have highest potential. Not a single Bulgarian municipality had automatically introduced the American model. Every project is an outcome of the joint effort of Bulgarian and US experts. In the course of months, the twinned cities' teams searched together the right way to adapt successful American practices to the specific Bulgarian environment. The results were soon visible. The implemented projects are concrete examples of solving acute local self-government problems, and will not be difficult to replicate in other municipalities, not participating in the Technical Twinning Program. The mayors of Blagoevgrad and Razgrad spoke along those lines at the conference, and expressed their belief that by sharing their experience in strategic planning with other Bulgarian municipalities they would strengthen their own capacity.
In order to respond to the demand and assist the dissemination of these innovative local self-government solutions, the Foundation for Local Government Reform will soon provide detailed information about the various projects through a printed publication and on its web-site.
Together with presenting the most successful projects, the four pairs of participating municipalities made an assessment of all the aspects of cooperation. All participants emphasized that the partnership with US cities was extremely fruitful; it allowed for valuable professional experience and leading management practices to be shared; it contributed to improving the capacity of the Bulgarian municipalities to provide quality services to citizens; it promoted wider public participation in local self-government; and last but not least, it led to the establishment of cordial and friendly relations between the teams of the Bulgarian and the American cities. The discussion of the results, achieved by the partners, spontaneously turned into a lively debate about possibilities and ways of expanding the cooperation, both in the framework of a possible Third Phase of the Technical Twinning Program, and separately from it. The participants were unanimous that the basis had been laid for mutually beneficial cooperation, and that all possible efforts should be made towards its strengthening and further development. The representatives of the American cities expressed their readiness to participate with their own resources both by sharing their experience on the expert level, and by assisting the development of the secondary areas of cooperation - culture, education, healthcare. Such examples exist even now: the City of Auburn will host a short concert tour of part of the Blagoevgrad Pirin Folklore Ensemble in December; in July, the Municipality of Brunswick sent Razgrad Hospital a container with medicines and consumer items, and will send another one by the end of the year; Spokane granted a PC to a school in Dobrich. All participants in the conference shared the view that the period of financial support has been quite brief, and expressed the hope that the US Agency for International Development, financial supporter of the Technical Twinning Program so far, will continue to support its further implementation.
The Technical Twinning coordinators - the International City/County Management Association and the Foundation for Local Government Reform - presented at the conference the concept for future development of the Program. A proposal for a Third Phase of the Program is being drafted. Basically, it will allow new Bulgarian municipalities, and by way of competition - some of the municipalities, which had participated so far in Phase One and Two - to receive financial assistance in order to intensify and strengthen a technical partnership with US partners. The third component to be proposed by the Program coordinators is assistance for building an institutional partnership between a Bulgarian professional association of local government specialists and a relevant American organization. The comments and proposals of the participants, which were made during the conference discussions, are extremely useful, and will be taken into consideration in the proposal for implementing a Third Phase of the Program.
The USAID representatives, present at the conference - John Grant, USAID Representative for Bulgaria, Kaye Pyle, Local Government Specialist, Pat Eisman, Democracy Department Specialist, Kiril Kiriakov, Program Specialist - gave an extremely high assessment of the implementation of the Technical Twinning Program. They expressed their satisfaction with the fact that tangible and measurable results have been achieved, and that the main goal of the Program was obtained, i. e. strengthening local self-government capacity by introducing alternative approaches and implementing innovative ideas, in partnership with other public and private organizations Mr. John Grant and Ms. Kaye Pyle expressed willingness to support a Third Phase of the Technical Twinning Program in order to allow the partnerships to become sustainable, and to enlarge the scope of Bulgarian municipalities and organizations which can benefit from that effective exchange for municipal development. It was emphasized, that it is particularly important the experience accumulated so far to be summarized and disseminated by the Program coordinators, FLGR and ICMA, thus, achieving multiplication of its effect.