The EU-funded Local Area Development Programme (LADP) in Iraq has aimed to promote sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development in Iraq at the subnational level. Phase II was implemented by UNDP in partnership with UN-Habitat in the period 01 Feb 2015–30 July 2018, with focus to promote bottom-up participatory planning and budgeting/implementation practices that support local development priorities. It engaged 12 Beneficiary Governorates, extending some activities to all 18 Governorates.

LADP has provided direct support to Governorates to improve sector-wide planning and implementation capacity, to strengthen budget execution and service delivery, to improve coordination between central and governorate levels, and to increase the participation of communities and vulnerable groups in local development. All activities have been implemented using bottom-up approach and participatory capacity-building instruments (learning-by-doing, mentoring) – driving active participation of local administrations and stakeholders, and high level of ownership of outputs at the local level. All Programme outputs have been produced keeping in consideration their replicability/implementation – as relevant for their future use by target groups and donor initiatives.