Areas of Expertise and Examples of Projects
Libya - Supporting Local Governance through P2P
As Team Leader in the World Bank, Mr. Bottern managed and facilitated a program to support the emerging municipal system in Libya by i) a study on the financing of municipalities; ii) implementation of a south – south exchange and capacity building program to Tunisia, Turkey and Lebanon and iii) specific support to Tripoli and Benghazi city councils’ preparation of a vision for their development. The exchanges included government officials from the four countries, who successfully shared experiences on devolution, public service delivery and public participation during three exchanges. In Lebanon a visit was also carried out to Byblos focusing on municipal and touristic development. The project succeed in framing the emerging municipal system in Libya and devolution of in particular solid waste management to municipalities in the Western part.
Local Governance - Libya/Middle East
Bhutan. Municipal
Finance Policy: 2008 - 2010
In Bhutan Mr. Bottern formulated a Municipal Finance Policy covering all aspects of municipal finance - budgeting, revenues (property taxation, fees and charges), expenditure management, budget execution, accounting and audit. The assignment was carried out with the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement during missions in Bhutan, when five of the seven largest cities in Bhutan were visited. After successive presentations with government officials and development partners, the MFP was approved by the Gross National Happiness Commission and the Cabinet in 2010 and is under implementation. The client was DANIDA.
Municipal Development Palestine
Mr Bottern was part of the MDP 1, 2 and 3 with the World Bank in Palestine working in close cooperation with the Ministry of Local Government, the Municipal
Development and Lending Fund and development partners. During the preparation of the MDP's third phase he led the re-development of the municipal performance assessment system to cater for better links between municipal performance and the programme's aim to improve institutional performance. In parallel, he was also involved in the design and implementation of a result based programme (P4R) for improving village
councils’ service delivery including joint service delivery of several councils, public participation systems and funding arrangements.
Both programmes resulted in improved service provision to citizens in municipalities and in the smaller villages.
Ukraine: Mid-Term Evaluation U-LEAD with Europe
As Evaluation Expert Mr. Bottern was in 2019 part of the team to conduct the Mid-term Evaluation of the U-LEAD with Europe: Ukraine Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development Programme. The U-LEAD is an EU led program to support the regional and local government reform programmes in Ukraine (program volume EUR 106 mill). The assignments included visits to three regions and 7 municipalities and meetings with all stakeholders. The assignment was conducted for ARS Progetti and resulted in a list of recommendations for U-LEAD, which are now under implementation.
Ukraine MTE U-LEAD
Nicaragua - Local Government Development and Public Participation
As Danida-adviser and senior specialist in municipal finance in the programmes: INIFOM-Danida and PRODEMU, Mr Bottern worked with capacity building, strengthening of the local government system, decentralisation
and democratisation in 27 municipalities in North Nicaragua in the late 1990s/early2000s. This included:
- Programme management and liaison to ministries, stakeholders and Danida
- Municipal planning procedures including medium term financial planning
and strategies for building up planning and financial capacities
- Improvement of local governments tax collection, accounting and
auditing systems
- Training of municipal mayors, deputy mayors and staff in municipal
laws, management, finance, planning and tax collection Development of workshops and public campaigns for stimulating public
participation in decision-making
- Participation in DANIDA missions for better coordination and synergies
- Establishment of a regional association with 11 municipalities
(AMUNSE)
Gender Equality and Mainstreaming
Considerations about gender equality are important during any development action - basically - and for any action questions about how the action will affect men and women, should be asked.
As Team Leader during the Mid-term Evaluation and Feasibility Study of the Rural Development Project in Palestine, Mr Bottern led a team to prepare a new phase of a project (financed by AFD, France) to strengthen the development
of 19 communities in area C. The preparation was conducted with MoLG and other PA
institutions to reconsider mechanism for e.g. bottom up
community planning with equal participation of men and women and selection of projects to benefit all including youth and other marginalized groups. As a final step the project document
was fully gender mainstreamed and tools for gender analysis at community level included.
New Phase, Rural Development Project, Palestine Client: NIRAS Sweden and AFD (France)
Climate Change
For the formulation of a new phase of the Rural Development Project in Palestine Climate Change adaption and mitigation actions were incorporated as part of the community development process. Mr Bottern led the team to ensure that RDP will work with the communities’ adaptation to Climate Change
and if possibly also promote mitigation (CO2
reduction etc.). It will thus promote appropriate climate change actions
in the planning and project selection process, implementation of projects and
capacity development activities – and, support development of Climate Change
Master Plans.
New Phase, Rural Development Project, Palestine Client: NIRAS Sweden and AFD (France)
