Encapsulating some achievements of the Equi-City

The Equi-City Project, funded by EU (European Union),
is being implemented by All India Institute of Local
Self-Government(AIILSG) and the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). The main objective of this Project is to promote equity in delivery of municipal services and diversity in Local Authority Organizations in India. Detailed below are some of the highlights of the team’s work in Nagpur

Equi-City project had been conceived to promote inclusive, sustainable growth of Indian cities through a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach using participatory governance between local authorities and stakeholders to ensure an equitable provision of municipal services, to promote diversity within municipalities and capacity development of local government organizations. The project aims to improve the skills of municipal employees through capacity building and also by promoting diversity within the local authorities. It addresses all actions required to mobilise resources, accountability, and knowledge sharing and best practices.

City Development Forum
One of the main objectives of the project was to engage stakeholders in finding collaborative solutions for the city through a common platform. Working in this direction, Equi-City organised the City Development Forum. Streamlining participatory forums like City Development Forum and Intercity Forum is crucial as it provides a platform to citizens as well as stakeholders to become a part of the governance structure of the city. Utilising the already functioning CDF, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation organised a CDF Meeting on 2nd June, 2018 to discuss the Disaster Management Plan for Nagpur City. Feedback and suggestions from various stakeholders and CDF Members were taken into account. The action has helped Nagpur Municipal Corporation to mobilise resources in a participatory manner using an innovative City Development Forum (CDF) which comprised of various key stakeholders.

The Intercity Forum
An Intercity Forum has also been formed to promote coordinated development in the region around Nagpur. The Intercity Forum was first introduced under the Equi-City project on 27th October, 2018 at the Annual Mayor’s Conclave in Nagpur. The conclave saw participation from mayors of almost 20 cities, along with several ward members and elected representatives from municipal corporations across the state of Maharashtra. The
Equi-City team, in the presence of Nanda Jichkar, Mayor, Nagpur and Ranjit Chavan, President, AIILSG, gave a short presentation on the Intercity Forum and further introduced its concept. The Intercity Forum is the premier participatory platform establishing coordination, communication and linkages between various cities, along with Nagpur. The forum also acts as an overall advisory forum to share best practices, knowledge and problem solving sounding board between and among local authorities for diversity and efficiency in provision of civic services. The learnings of the Intercity Forum will help develop efficient service delivery centric city governments and local authorities.

Service Level Benchmarks
In the earlier years of the project, a brief report was made on the topic “Service Level Benchmarks” to identify the regional, national and international standards and norms, methodologies, techniques and figures on the level of access to services. All relevant sectors were covered in order to capture the citizen perception on service delivery as a key milestone towards equitable provision of services. The Citizen Report Card (CRC) and Community Score Card (CSC) for Municipal Rating System was developed by conducting the household survey and the Focus Group Discussion, the former being done quantitatively and the latter qualitatively.
Recognising the growing importance of improving efficiency in delivery of basic services in our cities, the Equi-City project has developed monitoring and evaluation tools which will allow both stakeholders and local authorities to ensure transparent and accountable delivery of municipal services. Municipal Rating System of the services has been done on the basis of their performance among the different zones in Nagpur and data regarding their performance has been collected.
The information is generated through the Citizen Feedback Survey by an onfield assessment of service delivery conducted in four zones of Nagpur in June 2018. The citizens are also empowered in the process and are encouraged to give their feedback on the gaps in service delivery to demand for qualitative improvement in services. Further, the Equi-City project has a core element of capacity building wherein officials are sensitised and trained to become leaders and tackle specialised issues faced by the target cities to ensure equitable service delivery. The capacity building programme has been developed by engaging with the stakeholders through interactive participatory sessions, like the ones highlighted above, and strengthened by research. The elected representatives were sensitised on both organisational and citizen needs. The training programme equips the municipal officials and elected representatives to translate their learnings into action and pave way for the equitable and efficient municipal services.

Urban Awareness Campaigns
Further, Equi-City oroject has envisaged sensitising 2,00,000 citizens and 50,000 urban poor under its objectives on the themes of water and sanitation. For accomplishing this objective, city wide campaigns were conducted by Equi-City team. A total of 37 Urban Awareness Campaigns were conducted on relevant themes at various locations in Nagpur in 2018 and 2019.
Under these campaigns, Equi-City team sensitised households in the slums and students from various schools and colleges by conducting workshops, distributing pamphlets and educating them around the designated location on the themes of Water & Sanitation, Cleanliness, Rejuvenation of Water Bodies and No Tobacco Spitting Campaign. Also, four focus group discussions in four divisions of Nagpur were conducted on similar themes under the exercise of developing Municipal Rating System.
The activities conducted towards the objectives of the Equi-City project provide useful insights into citizen’s views and concerns, which will be valuable for the Municipal Corporation to undertake service improvements and reforms in the future.