Decentralisation, Enablement, and Local Governance in Low-Income Countries

10.1068/c0040 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
A H J (Bert) Helmsing
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Local Planning ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
New Class ◽  
Basic Services

Decentralisation to local governments has acquired new dimensions. These dimensions refer to delivery of basic services as well as to public or collective demands and goals. Enablement is central to new decentralisation in which the role of government is to facilitate and regulate the overall framework within which other actors can make their most effective contribution. After situating decentralisation, I explore the notion of enablement. Subsequently the concept of local-government enablement of communities is operationalised. Criteria are formulated and applied to a (nonrepresentative) sample of local governments in seven countries. It is concluded that introducing enablement in local planning is comparatively easy. However, changing regulatory, administrative and financial public decisionmaking processes is much more difficult. In the final part of the paper I examine a number of issues in the local-governance debate. Decentralisation to local government takes place in the context of decentralisation to market and to communities. Issues are identified on the supply and demand sides of governance, and on the question of embedding of government. New decentralisation raises a new class of problems, for which, as yet, few answers are available.

Local governance and the crisis of water and sanitation provision in medium-sized urban centres: Evidence from three cities in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 026909422110353
Author(s):  
Kayode J Samuel ◽  
Samuel B Agbola ◽  
Olorunfemi A Olojede
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Regulatory Frameworks ◽  
The People ◽  
Efficient Delivery ◽  
Essential Services ◽  
Effective Delivery ◽  
Basic Services

Local governance encompasses the involvement of local governments and other community-based organizations in participatory decision-making for efficient delivery of public services. In the developing world, however, the weakness of the local government and local governance has inhibited the efficient and effective delivery of these services. Relying on water and sanitation data and interviews of relevant officials, this study analyses the structure of governance of water supply and sanitation (WSS) at the community levels in selected medium-sized urban centres in Nigeria. Results showed that majority of the city dwellers lacked access to safe water and sanitation, an indication of convoluted, poorly regulated provision regimes and the waning capacity of local governments to galvanize local actions towards the efficient provision and management of these services at community levels. Multiple provision regimes, weak coordinating and regulatory frameworks characterize WSS governance. Further, the sub-national authorities’ encroachment on local government funds which deprived these tiers of government the resources they could have used in providing these essential services presents a major setback. Local governments require financial and constitutional autonomy to provide basic services to the people and supervise and coordinate the activities of other governmental and non-governmental actors involved in service provision.

scholarly journals The Prospect of Accountability in Local Governance in Nepal

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hari P. Dhungana
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Government Accountability ◽  
Local Planning ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
The Government

Government accountability is intrinsic to democracies, as citizens can choose public officials through their popular vote and accordingly exercise some control and oversight over the officials. But elections held in periodic intervals do not allow the scrutiny of the decisions and activities that are conducted on a daily basis. This article examines how to confront this challenge of holding the governments to account, by looking into local governance in Nepal, where citizens have limited knowledge of the government decisions, activities, procedures followed, and their outcomes. This article is developed from the review of policies and laws and semi-structured interviews with elected leaders, civil service personnel, and other stakeholders in select local governments in Nepal. It argues that accountability in local government requires attention not only to laws, but also the practices of civic interaction and the willingness of elected officials and citizens in these engagements. It starts by establishing how the country’s new Constitution of Nepal (2015) espouses a local social contract in view of its division of jurisdictions. It then identifies and analyses the main approaches and tools on government accountability. These encompass broad constitutional provisions to specific legal, institutional and technocratic measures to hold officials to account. It then reveals recent local level experiences around the use of accountability tools and shows that the legacy of widespread collusion and misuse of power continues to be a bottleneck. It concludes that there is a need to foster greater civic demands on accountability and foster measures for deliberation at the municipal level on a more regular basis. Overall, local government accountability should be envisioned as a work-in-progress pursuit and should be coupled with systems of local planning and implementation and vitalization of local democracy.

scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment of Portuguese Local Governments (2009 to 2017)

2020 ◽  
pp. 80-104
Author(s):  
Paula Gomes dos Santos ◽  
Carla Martinho
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Accounting Information ◽  
Financial Sustainability ◽  
Public Governance ◽  
Transparency And Accountability

Public governance must ensure financial sustainability. This investigation aims to assess Portuguese local governments financial sustainability as the ability to service the upcoming obligations in commercial transactions (under the Late Payment Directive framework) and to study if accounting information enables public local governance with greater transparency and accountability about their financial sustainability. The study will focus on the 308 Portuguese local governments from 2009 to 2017. The number of local governments with average payment periods (PMPs) within 30 days had an increasing tendency. However, their adjusted average payment periods greatly exceed the 30 days, which means limited financial sustainability. In 2017, only 29% of the local governments have an adjusted PMP within 30 days against the 63% if it is used the officials PMPs. Therefore, accounting information does not enable public governance with greater transparency and accountability about Portuguese local government financial sustainability.

Local Government as a Democracy Actor or a Service Delivery Actor

2014 ◽  
pp. 127-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Demediuk ◽  
Stephen Burgess ◽  
Rolf Solli
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Governance Practice

Local governance occurs where a local government gives citizens a say in things that really matter to them, and e-governance initiatives provide electronic means to enable citizens to participate in this shared governing of the community. The clearer a local government is about the nature and degree to which it needs to act as a democracy actor (better citizens and better government) and/or a service delivery actor (better decision making), the greater the prospect that it can choose appropriate electronic means through an e-governance approach to meet those ends. In order to guide an e-governance practice and inform further research, this chapter: provides models that articulate the elements that constitute better decision making, better citizens, and better government, and presents examples from five local governments of how electronic means can satisfy particular ends.

scholarly journals Learning in Australian local government: A roadmap for improving education & training

2016 ◽  
pp. 108-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Woods ◽  
Sarah Artist ◽  
Geraldine O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Workforce Development ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Critical Skills

Faced with a context of national and state reform agendas as well as resource scarcity, Australian local government has pressing workforce development issues. This level of government is small in scale, geographically dispersed and subject to variations in state jurisdiction. These factors represent structural constraints to identifying and advocating a national approach for addressing workforce needs such as the provision of tailored education and professional development. This paper documents a sector consultation process exploring education and professional development for local government which aimed to identify needs on both supply and demand sides. The research found that aspirations for education and professional development tailored to the needs of local government aim to support the development of better local governance and leadership, and to address critical skills shortage issues. This may provide empirical grounds for promoting, planning, implementing and evaluating capacity-building initiatives in this third tier of government in the Australian federation.

scholarly journals Critique of the functional assignment architecture of Punjab’s local governance legislation of 2013 & 2019

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moazzam Ali Janjua ◽  
Rainer Rohdewohld
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Functional Assignment ◽  
Institutional Strengthening ◽  
Government Legislation ◽  
New System

In 2013 and 2019, the local government legislation of the province of Punjab in Pakistan saw two rounds of major changes – each of which led to a new local government Act being passed. In 2013 the changes were driven by constitutional and judicial requirements and in 2019 by the political will of Pakistan’s new coalition government. This article analyses and compares the functional assignment (FA) architecture of the two Acts against a set of parameters. The study finds that marginal improvements to the FA architecture introduced by the 2019 Act are offset by continuing inconsistencies and lack of clarity over ‘who does what’ in the functions assigned to local governments. The authors suggest that improving the functionality of local governments requires full implementation of the design features of the new system, including institutional strengthening of provincial-level entities which regulate and oversee the local government system.

Political Hostility and Local Government Crisis in Bangladesh: Ruling Party’s Supremacy and Opposition Party’s Costs of Being Outside of the State Power

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-134
Author(s):  
Khandakar Farid Uddin
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Legal Process ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ruling Party

Bangladesh has a history of political unrest and supremacy of the ruling party. Recently, representatives of the local government were suspended for being accused in cases of political violence. The ruling party is defining the suspensions as a legal process; on the contrary, the opposition political parties are claiming it as political hostility and a way of controlling local governments. There are shortages of research on contemporary political challenges and its consequences. Thus, this study considered local government representative suspensions as a case to exemplify the political hostility and local government crisis in Bangladesh. This study also demonstrated some theoretical points to frame the conceptual thoughts, likewise explained the status and some historical illustration of governmental intrusion over local government. Besides, this study applied the qualitative method to discover the research queries. Consequently, the analysis outlined substantial political supremacy and hostility in Bangladesh and its adverse impact on local governance.

scholarly journals The Evaluation of Sustainable Capacity Building for Decentralization (SCBD) Project in Banjarnegara Regency

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Widjonarko - ◽  
Brotosunaryo
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Human Resources Management ◽  
Local Government Level ◽  
The Government ◽  
Institutional Capacity Building ◽  
Sustainable Capacity

The Sustainable Capacity Building for Decentralization (SCBD) project funded by the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) aimed to strengthen the capacity of local governments in Indonesia.Banjarnegara Regency was selected by the ministry of internal affairs for the implementation ofthe project. The SCBD Project in Banjarnegara consists of five components including frameworkof capacity building, institutional capacity building, human resources management, humanresources development and sustainable financial and budgeting. This project will is held in fiveyears using two funding schemes phases, donor funded the first 3 years (2009‐2011), thencontinued by the local government of Banjarnegara. During the 2009‐2011period, the projecthas finished all five components, PMU then conducted evaluation to ensure achievement of theSCBD’s main goal: strengthening local governance for delivering good public services. The expostevaluation method used to evaluate the SCBD Project for short term outcomes found thatthe project hasn’t directly improved the public services performance even having completed allfive components of the project. Most people in Banjarnegara Regency felt no significantimprovement of public services provided by the government. The ineffectiveness of publicservices can be understood, because not all of the components of the SCBD project had beenthoroughly implemented at local government level. Moreover, many activities of the projecttend to overlap implying lack of coordination among the project implementation units.Key words: evaluation, SCBD

Challenges of the Implementation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in Romania’s Legislation

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 873-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tudor Cristian Ticlau ◽  
Bogdan Andrei Moldovan ◽  
Cristina Maria Hintea
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
East European ◽  
Significant Power ◽  
Financial Autonomy ◽  
Current Article ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
European Family ◽  
The Eu

The European Charter on Local Self-government is a defining document for local governments across the EU and was a guideline for developing a framework of local governance based on local autonomy, decentralization that is close to the citizens. It was especially important for Central and East European Countries as they faced the challenges of a total overhaul of their administrative systems after the fall of the communist regimes. Romania fits into this picture as a late comer to the European family, with an administrative system that transitioned slowly from a hyper centralized arrangement to one that offers significant power to local governments. After 20 years since the ratification of the Charter, local government in Romania displays mixed elements, between progressive (protection of local authorities) and conservative (consultation of authorities, financial autonomy) in relation to the charter recommendations. The current article is an analysis on the state of affairs concerning local governance in Romania using the Charter as the main theoretical framework.

scholarly journals Local Government Response to COVID-19: Revitalizing Local Democracy in Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-712
Author(s):  
A.N.M. Zakir Hossain
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Local Democracy ◽  
Google Docs

The study aims to identify the role of local government and its transformation in response to the COVID-19. It also shows how local governments extended the scope of accountability and transparency to strengthen democracy. The study followed the social survey method and collected data online through Google Docs form. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics to generate expected results and test the hypothesis by the Spearman correlation coefficient. The study found local governments were positive during COVID-19 to provide services and offered more public engagement in policy formulation, thus more democratic. The health sector has shown the highest priority, with food and environmental services. Inefficient management capacity of leaders and apathy in public engagement hamper resource mobilization at the local level. During COVID-19, ICT intervention and innovation for digital transformation in local governance increased accountability and transparency through easy and effective participation of mass people to strengthen local democracy to respond effectively against COVID-19.

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