DUSHANBE, June 20, Asia-Plus -- Aga Khan Foundation/Mountain Societies Development Support Program and GBAO Regional Government organized a workshop on “Linking Government and Communities for Local Development” on June 20-21, 2006 in Khorog, Gorno Badakhshan. 

Representatives of the central and regional governments of Tajikistan , international development agencies and non-government organizations are participating at the workshop.

During the workshop AKF/MSDSP is informing the national-level partners about the results of the MSDSP implemented Tajikistan Governance and Livelihood Program (TGLP).  It also will share the experiences and lessons learned on community-local government collaboration in the local planning and decision making in GBAO.

The workshop is holding a discussion around the need for creating and enabling environment by government and donors, which brings together civil society, and local government together. 

The TGLP is funded by Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) since June 1, 2004 . It supports the local governments and communities to plan and implement the development projects at the sub-districts levels.

During the two-year project period 10 committees with the representatives of local government and community were active to promote the joint decision making process. Besides, more then 3000 representatives of the local government, community and NGOs were trained on local governance, participatory planning and other important issues.

This approach to local governance was considered as very successful by an external evaluation last December.