Poland

ICMA International worked actively in Poland from 1990 to 2001—including the years in which the U.S. government supported Poland’s transition from a centralized political and economic system to a democratic, capitalist one.

In 1989, Poland was at the forefront of the transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Lech Wałęsa was elected president in 1990. To quickly move to reestablish a democratic system, local government elections were held in May 1990, following approval of the Local Government Elections Act in March of that year.

These quick actions mobilized more than 146,000 candidates to campaign for 52,000 local government elected seats in more than 2,400 municipalities. Democracy in local government had arrived. However, there was virtually no experience with political leadership or service delivery in a decentralized system. There was tremendous enthusiasm for change and improvement, but limited technical know-how, especially in terms of tools of modern, professional local government management.

Program Activities

ICMA was one of the first institutions to engage in work with local government in Poland. Activities through ICMA’s years of USAID-funded work there included:

Early assistance regarding membership services, organizational development, and leadership to the three national-level local government associations: Association of Polish Cities, Association of Rural Municipalities, and Association of Metropolitan Cities.
Direct technical assistance with a resident advisor who worked full-time for two years with the city of Krakow on professional management and organizational development.
Support for improved budgeting practices, continuing for more than seven years under two contracting mechanisms. This work resulted in the development and widespread application of the "task-based budget," based on program budgeting concepts that became a standard and that helped to introduce organizational accountability through local governments.
Cooperation with the Municipal Development Agency, a training and technical services organization established with support from USAID to assist local governments during the transition period, to manage several conferences that brought together U.S. and Polish experts to discuss local economic development and other topics.
Work on the ad-valorem property tax system in cooperation with the Krakow (Poland) Real Estate Institute.
Conducting a land use and economic development assessment of Krakow and the surrounding region, working with the Urban Land Institute.
Regional work with Poland and other nearby countries that included: (1) the Local Government Information Network (LOGIN), an information sharing platform for local governments, in cooperation with the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy; (2) a Municipal Finance and Budget Conference, held in cooperation with the city of Krakow; and (3) regional best practices conferences.
Performance as a key subcontractor on the final USAID program, the Local Government Partnership Program, which assisted 46 partner local governments directly, trained and worked with numerous local consultants, and reached out to the entire local government community and citizens in general to promote success stories about local government innovation and work. ICMA managed the information dissemination portion of this work and contributed significantly to technical assistance activities in budget and finance.