Conduct a detailed baseline study on the status of complaints in Palestinian Local Government Units.

Project Overview

This assignment is being conducted under the Local Governance Reform Program of GIZ (GIZ-LGRP) which supports reform measures in the local governance sector in Palestine. The second phase of LGRP II is supporting Local Government Units (LGUs) in improving and enhancing their performance in service delivery, by supporting four main outputs:The local planning in LGUs is enhanced. The relationship and dialogue mechanisms between LGUs and their citizens are enhanced.The fiscal abilities of LGUs are enhanced; andThe cooperation between different tiers of government is enhanced.The programme is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and coordinates closely with other donors active in the sector to achieve maximum sustainable effects. One of the important elements related to the second planned output, is the process of complaints submission and management (i.e., the ability of citizens to submit complaints and the commitment of the LGU to respond and handle the complaint). The right to complain is one of the key rights the guaranteed by the Basic Law, and it is considered/ one of the public accountability tools at the local and national levels.In particular, the study will help GIZ-LGRP in obtaining baseline data on the relevant and specific indicator of LGRDP related to “the proportion of officially filed complaints about poor local service delivery, which are escalated to the next level due to excessive processing times or dissatisfaction of the complainants, de-creases by 30%, with no differences in the processing between male and female complainants”. Within this framework, GIZ-LGRP is supporting the MoLG in scaling up and institutionalizing the complaint guideline that was developed with the support of GIZ-LGRDP to all LGUs in West Bank and Gaza. To do that, and to assess the effectiveness of these measures, GIZ-LGRP needs to secure baseline data on the current status of complaint systems and complaints related to LGU services. The purpose of this assignment is to support GIZ by conducting a baseline study that would produce reliable detailed baseline data to be used by GIZ, MoLG and other stakeholders. In this context, GIZ has contracted General Consulting and Training (GCT), to conduct this assignment according to their requirements and expectations.