MUNICIPAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: CASE OF PALESTINE

Abstract

The municipalities in Palestine function as the main organizations which deliver essential public services while they also participate in developing their communities. The Palestinian situation requires a complete approach for performance evaluation to help service delivery because the country faces unique social, economic and political challenges. The study assessed how the Palestinian municipalities performed and outlined an evaluation system that matches the needs of developing countries, specifically the Palestinian context. A descriptive-analytical methodology was followed to achieve the aim of the research. A structured questionnaire was prepared after conducting a thorough literature review and studying international best practices, and was used to collect data. The study sample included department managers and administrative staff from 28 representative Palestinian municipalities across the West Bank. The instrument's reliability was established through statistical testing which showed a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 92.7% that confirmed high internal consistency. The assessment examined five main performance areas which included Financial Performance and Sustainability, Institutional Performance, Transparency, Accountability and Community Participation. The assessment showed that municipalities performed at an extremely high level because their average score reached 4.35 which corresponds to 87%. The strongest performance areas of the assessment showed Financial Performance and Community Participation. The Multivariate Analysis of Variance showed that demographic factors such as gender, years of experience and job position did not affect evaluation outcomes except for educational qualification which created significant differences. The research ends by introducing a conceptual framework which can be used to evaluate the operational effectiveness of the municipalities. The framework functions as a solution to governance problems by enabling cities to allocate their financial resources based on performance metrics which the Municipal Development and Lending Fund assess. The framework emphasizes the need for re-engineering organizational structures, continuous investment in capacity building, and maintaining strong legal and transparent frameworks which municipalities must follow to achieve sustainable development in their challenging geopolitical context.