Partners-Romania designs and conducts programs to help local governments improve the management of local public services, in order to better address the interests and needs of their local communities. Local officials from more than 30 municipalities have participated in its programs, together with citizens and representatives from the private sector.

Partners-Romania designed a recent program in Faget to improve local water supply and garbage collection services by improving the knowledge and skills of local government officials in these areas and by improving communications among representatives of citizens, local government, and public services providers from the private sector. The UN Habitat manual “Total Quality Maintenance of the Operation and Management of Public Services,” translated and adapted into Romanian, was used in this problem-solving process.

In the first phase of the program, Partners-Romania surveyed public service providers about managerial and staff responsibilities, available local resources, and the constraints and opportunities in providing and improving these services. Partners-Romania then organized a seven-day workshop for local officials, including the mayor and deputy mayor, public services managers and technical staff, and representatives from the private sector. Discussions focused on identifying and analyzing the problems, prioritizing them, and developing possible solutions. Participants worked to define the problems and possible solutions. The water supply service team identified the absence of water meters to measure how much water individual households consume as their number one problem, while the garbage collection service team identified the lack of proper trucks and cans for garbage collection as theirs. Participants appreciated this step of the process, saying, “a well defined problem is half solved.”

The teams then decided to develop objectives for the following two to three years. The water supply service team wanted to provide water meters to all city households, and the garbage collection service team’s goal was to purchase the necessary trucks and cans for trash collection. Stakeholders who had an interest in fixing these problems were identified so they could be enlisted in the effort. The teams developed action plans to move from the planning stage to implementation.

Since the workshop, a water meter system to measure water consumption has been installed, and inhabitants of Faget are more satisfied with the water supply service. The waste collection service has purchased new trucks and provided garbage cans to households, and Faget is now perceived by its citizens to be a cleaner city.

Faget’s participatory process has since been used as a model for the towns of Brasov, Oradea, Suceava, Craiova and Piatra Neamt. The deputy mayor of Brasov, Radu Dolghin, was pleased with “the opportunity to learn a new and original, participatory and interactive approach.” A participant in Suceava said the process was “extremely relevant to our organizational needs, as it focused on concrete problem analysis. It made a great contribution to improving the quality of our decision-making.”