scholarly journals Power to the people? Local governance and politics in Vietnam

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Mattner
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Kayode J Samuel ◽  
Samuel B Agbola ◽  
Olorunfemi A Olojede

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Fakhrul Islam ◽  
Md. Amdadul Haque

The principle of good governance is difficult and controversial. Governance opens new space which provides a concept that allows us to discuss the role of government in coping with public issues and the contribution that other players may make. It opens one’s mind to the possibility that groups in society other than government. Good governance is responsive to the present and future needs of society. Strengthening local governance can be ensured through the importation of the component of good governance at the local level. This paper intent to  examine spaces where principles of good governance are required to apply to ensure better service delivery system at Union Parishad. This paper has been followed by social survey method. The data collection technique of this study has covered quantitative technique. Union Parishad as a local self government body ensuring community participations, people can approach and communicates clearly to their representatives and regularly issuing its progress report to the people for their transparency. Besides, dealing with convicted corruption was found most effective in manner.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khet R Dahal ◽  
Chandra P Poudyal ◽  
Prajwal Adhikari ◽  
Subodh Sharma ◽  
Jitendra Ghimire

CORRECTION: The correct PDF for this article was loaded on 22/04/2013.The study was carried out in the vicinity of the Tinau river, Rupandehi, Nepal from July 2011 to June 2012. Ten number of shallow tube wells (STWs) of depths 5.18 m to 7.62 m, four shallow tube wells (STWs) of depths 28.96 m to 36.58 m. from Amawa and Farsatikar Village Development Committees and one dug well (DW) from Butwal Municipality were selected for the purpose of this study. The depth of the STWs was different but many STWs were of 6.09 m deep. The DW was of 18.29 m. The information was collected from the owners during field visit of the sites. A standard questionnaire was prepared and asked to the affected persons. The site observation was done in the dry season as well as in the rainy seasons. It was found that the extraction of riverbed materials from the river channel and the flood plain area has adversely affected the aquatic environment of the Tinau river. Massive extraction of the riverbed materials from this river started after the enforcement of local governance act, and regulation 1999. The income generated from the riverbed materials is quite enough. This is one of the major sources of income generation of DDC Rupandehi and the VDCs attached to this river (from Butwal to Bethari). The depth of the river increased due to extraction activities as a result groundwater table lowered. The STWs having depth of 5.18 to 7.62 m stopped discharging water from the aquifer in the dry season. Similarly DW of Butwal municipality having depth of 18.29 m stopped discharging water at dry season. But the STWs of depths from 28.96 m to 36.58 m. located at the same area/site were not affected by the extraction in the Tinau river. The people, who are residing on the bank of the river Tinau, suffered from drinking water problem because they are using the water from STWs. The effect is directly facing the people of low and medium level having low income generation. The extraction activity is going on and the deficit of water availability in STWs and DW is common in the vicinity of the Tinau river especially in the upstream (from Butwal to Paschim Amawa), whereas there is less effects of riverbed extraction for STWs of depths more than 27.43 m in the same sites. Nepal Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 13, No. 2 (2012) 133-140 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njst.v13i2.7726


Author(s):  
Bishnu Ragoonath

In the Commonwealth Caribbean countries of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, local government reform has been and continues to remain on the agenda. The proposals are all based on the philosophy that there should be elected local government, which in turn should facilitate substantive levels of participatory democracy and citizen involvement. But whilst there is general acceptance of this philosophy, central governments are seemingly reluctant to implement any reforms which would return power to the people. Citizen involvement and participatory democracy has thus become the bug-bear in the process, and has led to the stalling of local government reform in all three countries. With reforms having stalled, one wonders whether the next step will be the dissolution of systems of local government in these states.


Author(s):  
Harrison Kofi Belley

Local governments have been created as agents of local development in which the people in the local areas are given greater opportunities to influence policies and programs that directly affect their well-being and thereby reducing their poverty levels. But the implementation of the policies and programmes is bedeviled with many problems. Key among them is the issue of financing the local development projects in order to reduce rural poverty. The government of Ghana attempted to reduce this problem when it introduced a development fund in1994 known as the – District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to encourage local governance and deepen Government’s commitment to decentralization in general and fiscal devolution in particular. The study therefore, seeks to assess the impact of District Assembly Common Fund on Local Government Development in the Adaklu District Assembly in the Volta Region of Ghana. The study mainly adopted qualitative methods of research to obtain information on the experiences of the poor people in the Adaklu communities selected as study areas. Interview guides were used to obtain information from the people in the communities, staff of the Assembly and some heads of the decentralized departments. A major finding of the study is that the assembly did not involve the rural people in the poverty reduction programmes in the district.


PCD Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pratikno Pratikno ◽  
Cornelis Lay

This paper discusses democratisation practiced in Surakarta, Indonesia, which has been claimed by many experts as a municipality with "best practices" of democratic local governance in Indonesia. Their analyses focus on the actors and claim that participation is a possible way of crafting stable democracy. This participation in turn, they suggest, is a result of decentralisation which thus strengthen local democracy. Presenting the civil society participation and the decentralisation in the city of Surakarta, this paper shows that what actually happens is otherwise. It argues that the rise of popular participation was rooted in contentious local politics. Besides, the constitution of the new forms of popular representation are not supported by, and produced within, a clear ideological framework from the people in Surakarta.


Author(s):  
Chester Crocker ◽  

Accountability and transparency are key principles to fight corruption and achieve good governance in any country, especially in a democratic setting. Accountability and transparency are the criteria for goof governance which bring about legitimacy and popular support from the people. The economy of the country cannot develop when its members lack a sense of duty and accountability. In create an administration that will be responsive to the yearnings and aspiration of the people by the government, the role of accountability and transparency cannot be over stressed. This paper examines the concept of accountability, transparency and corruption in decentralized governance. It highlights the types of accountability and identify that the process of accountability should increase the pressure for more transparent local governance.


2020 ◽  
pp. 002190962093005
Author(s):  
Kevin S Fridy ◽  
Mary R Anderson ◽  
Isaac K Yen

In June 2012 the government of Ghana added 42 new districts to the country’s system of local governance. This paper measures the impact of one new district in terms of private wealth accumulation, access to public services and political engagement. Data analysed comes from a panel survey of residents of the new district capital and two similarly sized villages, one in the new district and one just outside. Proponents of government fragmentation promise personal, public and political gains when government is brought closer to the people. Evidence weighed here suggests that these gains are largely realized by residents.


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