2.1  Share the draft NUSP at the regional level of MAB through consultation workshops to facilitate assessment of the requirements of the municipalities are addressed to incorporate in the final NUSP:

National Urban Sector Policy led by the local government ministry through a long process is at the draft final stage lately from 2015. MAB will be working with the ministry to take it to a final stage. However, the draft final NUSP will be revisited and will be shared by MAB at the Regional level with a view to ensure that the updated policy requirements of the local government are reflected in the USP and aligned with the SDG. In order to do so, MAB will accomplish the following sub-activities:

• Collect the latest version of the draft National Urban Sector Policy and critically review the draft version with a view to analyzing policy to check how much it is aligned with the SDG and the government’s vision.
• Prepare for sharing the NUSP at the regional level through consultative meetings with the municipalities and seeking inputs from them. Preparation will include logistic supports, relevant documentary materials and presentations, etc.
• Through proper consideration of the relevant factors develop a schedule for the consultation workshops at all the eleven regions of MAB to reach the Mayors and municipal officials concerned for an effective consultation process.

2.2  Organize the consultation meeting with focal Ministries and relative concerned person to mobilize the approval process of the NUSP:While the process on getting the inputs and feedback from different regions of MAB on the draft Urban Sector Policy in line with the local priorities, national priorities, the MAB central Executive Committee will also liaise with the local government division and the ministry to mobilize the concerned officials at the ministry and accelerate the process of NUSP approval. In order to do so, MAB will carry out the following sub-activities:

• Identify such policy practice and formulation process and accordingly the progress for formulation of the NUSP, bottlenecks etc.
• Accordingly make strategic moves and hold consultations with the focal(s) Ministries and concerned to help mobilize the approval of the long awaited NUSP
• Develop a core group of concerned persons with relevant expertise from the urban platforms and CSOs.

2.3  Develop a policy brief note and Organize policy dialogues/seminars/conference on the need of an approved National Urban Sector Policy and identify the bottlenecks on its approval process:

MAB will engage the core group/policy expert to develop a policy brief with a view to sensitizing the policy makers and further accelerating the process for approval of the NUSP as soon as possible. In order to do so, following sub-activities will be carried out:

• Identify the urban platforms, stakeholders, activists, academia for participation in suitable exercise to analyze the urbanization trend, management and challenges for planned and useful/sustainable urbanization.
• Develop three categories of the urban centers as City Corporations, Municipalities, Upazila and others in the growing trends with challenges
• Develop a schedule to hold the suitable events for the issue considerably all over the urban context in eleven regions of the country. Aims of these events are to provide opportunity for Policy expert so that they can deliver policy brief in a concise manner.
• Organize the policy dialogues/seminars/conference on the need of an approved National Urban Sector Policy and identify the bottlenecks on its approval process

3.1 Collect information from all the municipalities of Bangladesh on the best practices through online platforms:

To expand and scale up municipality citizen services as well as best practices related to urban planning and governance MAB will collect all the necessary information regarding existing and future practices through online platforms. In order to do so, following sub-activities will be carried out:

• Develop an online system to collect information form the municipalities on their best practices along with development of the guideline
• Provide orientation on the online system to the municipalities and disseminate the online system to the municipalities so that they can feed data into the system. The online system will be very simple, and the guidelines will be prepared so that it can be self-explanatory. Where necessary, orientation will be provided online via Skype, Microsoft team, zoom, hangout or any other available platform that suits better for all parties. 
• Feed data by the municipality. In order to do so, MAB will ask the Mayors to nominate one focal point from each of the municipalities prior to proving orientation. A timeframe will be allowed for data feeding by the concerned municipalities.
• Analyze the collected data and generate report highlighting the best practices, their impact and how it can be replicated in an innovative way based on the experiences of the towns who have already successfully done it.
• The data feeding to this system will be opened for all municipalities and when there are any best practices that the towns identify and implements, they will report it to the online system. Therefore, this system will be a continuous system and MAB will develop it further as and when necessary.
• There would be an icon named Questionnaire

3.2 Identify the best practices through organizing regional horizontal learning programs with participation of the municipalities:

After collecting information regarding best practices, MAB will form a team to analyze the information and develop criteria for a champion practice. Later, it will be shared with the participants of municipalities. In order to demonstrate and showcase the best practices, one horizontal learning program will be organized where the selected municipalities will be presenting their best practice with process and results so that other municipalities can learn from them. In this regard, the sub-activities associated with this line activity are as follows:

• Process the sector wise information gathered through online and prepare a model to present it to the mayor and other personnel of municipalities
• Invite the selected municipalities to the regional horizontal learning program organize to participate and present their best practices.
• Prepare necessary materials by the concerned municipalities to present and showcase their best practices at the event. The materials will be posters showing processes, and results, 3d models, PowerPoint slides, etc. From MAB HQ side, they will also be advancing with necessary preparations like developing guidelines for the horizontal learning program, venue selection and all other logistics.
• Conduct the planned horizontal learning program with participation of all the selected municipalities. In this program, municipalities can also bring any partner organization related to the best practices they are presenting.
• Prepare a report with recommendation about the best practices that are suitable to replicate in other municipalities based on the outcome of the horizontal learning program and the online data collection.

3.3 Document the best practices and achievements of the municipalities and publish it in MAB’s newsletter and another communicable format regularly:

After identifying suitable models of best practices, MAB will prepare documentation in a specific format and take measures to publish it in newsletter, workshop, seminars and conference papers. Following sub-activities will be undertaken in this regard:

• Develop an appropriate format for subsequent documentation, compilation of the identified practices, achievements, views of some renowned urban experts, activists on those practices.
• Organize publishing those in the subsequent issues of MAB Newsletters and choose other suitable communicable form for wider circulation.
• Through rapport development with other peer organizations, efforts to get the matter included in their relevant publications or documentary materials for usual circulation during various workshop, seminars, conferences etc.
• The Newsletter will be quarterly basis. Therefore, 4 newsletters will be published by the MAB whereas in each version some of the best practices will be published. Apart from this, in the newsletter the positive changes in the governance of different municipalities will also be highlighted.

3.4 Replicate selected best practices in non-LIUPCP municipalities:

After documenting and publishing of the best practices, MAB will replicate those practices related to poverty reductions in non-LIUPCP municipalities. This activity will include the following sub-activities:

• List the group of non-LIUPCP municipalities considering suitability for replication of the identified best practices related to poverty reductions. Pilot replication shall be in five municipalities where Mayors are very keen and willing to replicate the best practice in their respective municipalities. Due to limited budget availability the best practices that are of low-cost will get the priority to replicate.
• Develop necessary materials in both hard and softcopy as the guidelines for distribution and communication to the target municipal authorities for replication.
• Monitor the progress of the activities and ensure that the replication is going smoothly as per plan.
• Organize suitable event for communication, interaction with the group at convenience in the MAB regions. Ultimately this will be expected to be an issue of development concerns for the respective MAB regional committees towards achievement.
• Share the findings / results at the municipality level with wider municipal stakeholders.
• Prepare a report on the replicated best practices and submit to UNDP.

• 4.1 Support MAB’s regular operational activities to represent all the municipalities in Bangladesh and uphold their rights:

  With partial support from UNDP, MAB HQ will mobilize the regional committees to come forward and meet regularly so that together the mayors can be a bigger part of national and local level policy changes towards a poverty free urban Bangladesh. In connection to this thought, after listing the major roles of MAB categorically, quarterly meetings from regional to central levels are needed to be organized in such manners that it will represent all the municipalities in the country. These will include following sub-activity:

  • Complete recruitment process for the positions as agreed by UNDP/MAB and places the officials with necessary arrangement of accommodation, logistics and secretariat supports for taking over the responsibilities derived from the activities at large.
  • Review and update the ToR where applicable in a more realistic manner for the regional committees a list of major operational activities of MAB with its eleven regional bodies to facilitate its effective systemic role of representation of all the municipalities in the country upholding respective rights.
  • Categorize the activities in order to the respective priority to be orderly addressed aiming at achieving better MAB roles as per the laid objectives developing urban local governance.
  • Help systemic formation of MAB regional committees and supports to be functional as per mandate
  • Support organize quarterly meetings of MAB system from the regional to central levels and bringing the development and rights issues of concern forward to the national level for due attention. All the meetings must be recorded with meeting minutes approved by all legitimate members and preserve the minutes electronically so that it can be accessed anytime when required by the members.

   

  4.2 Develop and enable online system through MAB’s website to store information, database for all the municipalities in Bangladesh:

  A main database platform will be developed to collect, store and analyze information through MAB’s website. All the municipalities of Bangladesh will provide information in an online-based system. Capacity and User interface of the MAB’s website need to be assessed and if needed will be improved further.

  • Arrange IT supports to improve MAB website and link the data center with the web interface.
  • Develop datacenter and necessary interfaces for the municipalities so that they can enter the required data through online and store in the datacenter. Collection of information from the municipality should be robust meaning that it should be easily handled but secured, it can be easily updated, it can directly feed the data to the dashboard of MAB website, etc. There will be some generic information and some specific intervention-based information. MAB will also try to build formal partnership with A2i project of Government of Bangladesh and UNDP to better facilitate the process and get the results.
  • Make a priority list of contents like information on the roles and status of Municipalities, urban local governance, contextual demands on major urban issues, poverty status/pockets, trend of rural-urban migration and major causes with regional variations that are expected to be available through the MAB website.
  • Develop guidelines and orient the focal persons at the municipalities on the improved online systems and get the municipalities started the data feeding

   

  4.3 Organize a series of webinars (at least 4) with participation of municipal mayors and document the lessons learned on nCOVID impact by the MAB members for policy advocacy:

  Municipal Association of Bangladesh (MAB) will organize a series of webinars on the nCOVID-19 impact in participation with the municipal mayors and a few selected high-level government officials/ministers.  The lessons from each participating municipality will be discussed and presented by the mayor in the webinar. These lessons will be documented to reflect the report which will later be used for policy advocacy.

  • Participating mayors and other members will be discussing what they have done so far to tackle the nCOVID-19 at the local level, what challenges they have faced, how they have overcome the challenges, how the national initiatives helped to face the challenges at the local level, what more initiatives needs to be taken by the central government to support effective prevention of the nCOVID-19 and how the livelihoods of the urban poor can be restored in the city, etc. The discussion points should be published in the local and national media, for which MAB needs to engage journalists during these webinars. The engagement of journalists should be as many as possible in numbers to maximize media coverage. 
  • Upon completion of the webinars and after publishing the news in different newspapers/media, MAB will prepare a scrapbook containing the news/media coverage and will submit to the LIUPCP. Each of the Webinar sessions is expected to be 2-3 hours long. The Webinar session will be moderated by some renowned senior journalists. 
  • After completing all the webinars, MAB will prepare a report based on the discussions and the findings of the webinars with some policy recommendations, which will later be used for policy briefing. Therefore, in a single webinar, it is expected that the following participants will be present and actively participate in the discussion: (i) Mayor-10/12, (ii) Minister / Sr. Bureaucrat – 1/2, (iii) Sr. Journalist as Moderator – 1, (iv) Journalist (to take notes for news) – 15/20, and (v) representative from MAB Executive body-1/2.