Development of a framework for improving municipal governance The purpose of the grant is to support decentralization policies and on-going programs to strengthen Municipal Administrations to enhance governance at the local level.  The grant would be executed by  INDESOL.  The overall cost of the program covered is estimated to be $359,500 of which the grant would cover $254,000 (70.65%) The grant is organized in three components. Each component has distinct activities: Component 1.  Analysis of on-going experiences of professionalization. The grant will provide means to make independent monitoring of  on-going experiences. This would provide an insight over the relative merits of these approaches, which would serve as input to other states willing to develop their own systems, and would provide a set of best practices and warnings- to inspire those that are actually working in this field. Activities of this sub-component include: (i) design of a methodology to compare experiences in professionalization of public servants; (ii) regular monitoring of on-going selected experiences; (iii) periodic analysis and evaluations of the progress of the monitored experiences; (iv) dissemination of findings to all states and Municipalities. Dissemination would rely on workshops that would permit wide discussion of monitored advances and developments.  Participants in these workshops would be qualified stakeholders such as state authorities, Municipal Associations, academia and international experts.  This approach would facilitate the development of contacts between persons that at present work in similar fields but do not interact.   The cost of the sub-component would be $91,000 and the grant would cover $67,000 (73.6%). Component 2. Design and analysis of next MID Survey.  The Municipal Institutional Development Survey is a non-periodic study. The last one was performed in 2000; a new survey which is currently under way in June 2002 will show the situation two years later, when all Municipalities have already changed their administrations. During the second half of the grant execution, a new national Municipal Institutional Development Survey to be executed in 2004, would be designed to shed a more precise light on advancements made to resolve issues reported by previous surveys, and to begin reporting on certain issues that were not satisfactory covered in the last survey. The design would include a model for analyzing the data. This model would be used for the actual analysis when the data had been released by the Statistics, Geography and Informatics Institute (Instituto Nacional de EstadÃ­stica GeografÃ­a e InformÃ¡tica, INEGI) and the Population National Council (Consejo Nacional de PoblaciÃ³n, CONAPO ), who would be the institutions that will actually collect the survey data. Activities in this sub-component include: (i) Analysis of the results provided by past surveys; and (ii) Design of the 2004 Survey, incorporating improvements to overcome shortcomings observed in the past ones. In this component, only one workshop is considered, to discuss methodological changes to be introduced in the design of next surveys. The cost of the sub-component would be $53,000 and the grant would finance $35,000 (65.4%). Component 3. Dissemination of best practices.  A dissemination program for reaching all types of municipalities with recognized best-practice and the use of instruments useful for enhancing and improving their governance, is a concrete need in a country where the weaker municipalities those with poorer governance- lie in marginated zones. The grant would support the identification, production and dissemination of appropriate material using existing communication infrastructure. Since the targets are Municipalities in marginated conditions, this material would be  produced in Spanish and four main indigenous dialects.  Activities of this sub-component include: (i) identification and selection of best practices; (ii) preparation of case studies showing selected best practices; (iii) translation to selected dialects; (iv) training of trainers in the use of case studies. The training of trainers is approached through regional workshops where future trainers receive the case kits, and learn how to make use of them. Each kit would contain the case documentation, including methodological guidelines for trainers. The cost of the sub-component would be $215,000 and the grant would finance $152,000 (70.7%). Likely outcome.   The activities supported by the grant would improve the Institutional Development approach of the Federal and State agencies that have responsibilities regarding municipalities and would be reflected in clearer guidance offered to municipalities. The expected impact of the different activities would be a progressive improvement of governance in municipal governments which would be reflected in an increased efficiency in the management of public investments under their responsibility.