Methodology for the Assessment of Capacity of Municipalities in Turkey and the Western Balkans to Deliver Services

This capacity assessment it is intended to identify and address strategic issues within each country that will have the most impact overall on the delivery of five basic services in each country, taking into account the limited resources available for capacity development responses: drinking water supply, liquid waste management, solid waste management, basic healthcare and primary education. In particular, the results of capacity assessment are intended to be used jointly by central, regional, and local stakeholders in each country to:

• Identify and prioritise capacity gaps;
• Identify, design, implement, and review appropriate capacity development responses;
• Support capacity development funding requests by demonstrating a clear link between capacity development project proposals and real, evidence-based needs that are well defined and documented.

Data are mainly obtained through a questionnaire and the information collected is both subjective and objective.The verification of survey results can be undertaken through focus groups and/or follow-up interviews.

The capacity assessment exercise consists of several steps: the capacity assessment survey undertaken through a questionnaire, the analysis and interpretation of the survey feedback, the verification of the survey results (e.g. by means of focus groups and/or follow-up interviews), the benchmarking, the gap identification and prioritisation (mainly at the national level). The capacity assessment exercise is supposed to be followed by the identification and the design of capacity development responses.

The questionnaire consists of three parts.

• Part 1 covers background information about the municipality (14 questions).
• Part 2 covers services that are the sole responsibility of the municipality (22 questions).
• Part 3 covers services where responsibility is shared by the municipality with one or more other service delivery organisations (6 questions).

A specific attention is given to the gender aspect of social exclusion in the region due to the particularly bad conditions of women’s access to assets, poverty and political representation, together with higher levels of poverty and unemployment amongst women than for men. As a result, the questionnaire aims, at a minimum, to
consider the situation of women in economic and political participation, and how they relate to the functions and services of the municipality.

The tool explicitly focuses on the capacity of municipal administrations to deliver services to all sectors of the community, in particular those members of the community facing increased risk of poverty and social exclusion. The questionnaire therefore includes questions that directly address the accessibility of public services to these groups (women, ethnic and religious minorities, old people,people with disabilities, migrants, etc.) with respect to their needs, their participation in defining these  services, and their participation in service delivery

• To what extent are specialist gender and human rights staff, departments, and other bodies (e.g. councils and committees) involved in policy, strategy, and service development activities for the five services?
• Overall,how do you rate the capacity of the municipal administration to translate the findings of monitoring and evaluation into service improvements for the following groups?

For more, please go to:

Capacity assessment questions

Users' Guide