This publication has been written with a view to providing material for strengthening rural institutions. It provides a thorough overview of the decentralization process in rural development from the issue of state withdrawal and higher efficiency to the rise of civil society and its enhanced role in sustainable development. This balance between the state and civil society is explored in all dimensions (historical, conceptual and operational) in such a way as to avoid the risks of a badly managed decentralization process. Experience demonstrates that institutional voids and blocked support can have serious implications for the most vulnerable rural producers. Based on FAO's experience in various countries, the text proposes an analytical model of decentralization (RED-IFO) and describes management modalities and ongoing processes. Questionnaires, surveys and analytical tools are proposed to allow readers to follow and work on the process in their own countries. The document offers practical tools to take the lead in facing up to various dimensions of the problems of decentralization in rural development. It also proposes ways in which the RED-IFO model can be applied
Nearly all countries worldwide are now experimenting with decentralization. Their motivation are diverse. Many countries are decentralizing because they believe this can help stimulate economic growth or reduce rural poverty, goals central government interventions have failed to achieve. Some countries see it as a way to strengthen civil society and deepen democracy. Some perceive it as a way to off-load expensive responsibilities onto lower level governments. Thus, decentralization is seen as a solution to many different kinds of problems. This report examines the origins and implications decentralization from a political economy perspective, with a focus on its promise and limitations. It explores why countries have often chosen not to decentralize, even when evidence suggests that doing so would be in the interests of the government. It seeks to explain why since the early 1980s many countries have undertaken some form of decentralization. This report also evaluates the evidence to understand where decentralization has considerable promise and where it does not. It identifies conditions needed for decentralization to succeed. It identifies the ways in which decentralization can promote rural development. And it names the goals which decentralization will probably not help achieve.
Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: B, Stellenbosch Universitiy, course: Southern African Political Economy, language: English, abstract: Dele Olowu and Soumana Sako (2002) point out that it is no secret that governance on the African continent has been under the spotlight, and for all the wrong reasons. Their have been improvements, however, with a shifting from autocracy to democracy in many African states; this has resulted in a move to better or good governance due to this democratic change. Good governance is a complex issue and there is no distinction between good, democratic and participatory governance. Furthermore, there has been little consensus pertaining to the criteria that distinguishes between good, bad, or better governance. This paper will not delve into the conceptualisation of good governance due to length restrictions. The bulk of the paper will provide a detailed analysis of decentralisation, as well as looking at systems of government and models of local government. That will be followed by an overview of decentralisation on the African continent, with specific reference to its impact on the East African state of Kenya. The influence of decentralisation has produced mixed reactions, depending on who it effects; the adequate conceptualisation and method of implementation of the term has also been disputed. This paper holds the position that decentralisation has had a positive effect on the continent as a whole as well as on Kenya. [...]
This book analyzes the reasons for lackluster performance selected Latin American countries in mobilizing subnational own-source revenues and explores policy options to increase these revenues as efficiently and equitably as possible. Seven case studies--Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela--span a wide range of characteristics, including federal and unitary countries, different geographical sizes, levels of economic development, and degrees of revenue decentralization. In this book, subnational governments include both intermediate and local levels of government, which are distinguished in the case studies. Together, the case studies provide a reasonably representative picture of the challenges faced throughout Latin America in mobilizing subnational own-source revenues in a manner that supports equitable growth.
Over the past three decades, decentralization has been seen as the means for allowing local governments to become more accountable, and for encouraging the deepening of democracy and the building of village communities. By drawing on original village-level case studies of six villages in three different Indian states, this book presents a systematic analysis of the impact of decentralization on the delivery of social services at the local level within India. Supplementing national and state-level data and analyzing the different historical legacies in each state, the book argues that decentralization is not simply a function of the structure of the decentralization program or of the relationship between higher-tiered and local government. Rather, the possibility of decentralization affecting social outcomes depends on several interacting factors, including the distribution of power among local elites, the dynamics of political competition, and the level of civil society mobilization. By examining constitutionally-mandated political decentralization across India, this book identifies the circumstances under which local government structures can lead to improved social services and societal wellbeing, as well as presenting a substantial contribution to studies on South Asian Politics and Local Government.
ÔThis volume provides a splendid and wide-ranging collection of studies analyzing the political-economy of decentralization in Latin-America. ItÕs a fascinating story with numerous and profound insights into how fiscal decentralization actually works in the context of a variety of fiscal institutions and in a setting with a high degree of inequality in the distribution of income and territorial disparities.Õ Ð Wallace E. Oates, University of Maryland, US ÔThe volume on Decentralization and Reform in Latin America is an important addition to the growing literature on decentralization. Some of the issues in the implementation and effectiveness of decentralization are similar all over the world, but there are issues of particular salience to Latin America, a region where decentralization reforms have come sometimes in the wake of major political reforms. This volume pays special attention to the complexity of issues (both relating to equity and efficiency) arising in the context of vertical fiscal imbalance and inter-governmental transfers, in the delivery of social services or investment spending, in the sharing of rent from natural resources among social and regional groups and in macro-fiscal stabilization. I expect the volume to receive widespread attention.Õ Ð Pranab Bhardan, University of California, Berkeley, US ÔWhen it comes to fiscal decentralization in developing countries, Latin America has long led the way. In the two decades prior to the mid-1990s, some countries in the region extensively decentralized expenditures, especially social expenditures, and to a much lesser extent revenues to subnational governments. Some excesses and distortions resulted from these initial efforts and over the next decade major attempts were made to offset such problems, primarily by changing fiscal rules and transfer systems. The recent boom in natural resource revenues has again exacerbated pressure on the intergovernmental fiscal system in many countries, leading to further attempts to adjust the flow of finance between governments in order to maintain macroeconomic balance while achieving both more effective service delivery and greater social cohesion. This book, which provides both description and analysis of the rich Latin American experience, should be required reading not only for all those interested in the region but for scholars and policy-makers anywhere who are concerned with the complex and many-faceted issues associated with decentralization.Õ Ð Richard M. Bird, University of Toronto, Canada ÔGiorgio Brosio and Juan Pablo JimŽnez have made a remarkable job in preparing the best comprehensive treatment of comparative decentralization experiences in Latin America. The volume reviews all aspects of the decentralization process: its constitutional roots and its contribution to social cohesion; the provision of social services and infrastructure; taxation, sharing in natural resource revenues and the design of the intergovernmental transfers; and its macro-financial implications and associated fiscal rules. It will be essential reading for analysts of fiscal and local government issues in the region and a very useful tool for Latin Americanists in general.Õ Ð JosŽ Antonio Ocampo, Professor, Columbia University. Former Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and Finance Minister of Colombia Decentralisation and Reform in Latin America analyses the process of intergovernmental reform in Latin America in the last two decades and presents a number of emerging issues. These include the impacts of decentralization and the response of countries in the region to challenge such as social cohesion, interregional and interpersonal disparities, the assignment of social and infrastructure expenditure, macrofinancial shocks, fiscal rules and the sharing of natural resources revenue. The main aim of the book is to assess the effective working of decentralized arrangements and institutions, with a view of suggesting corrections and reforms where the system is not working according to expectations. Policymakers, researchers and academics with an interest in subjects related to public policy, fiscal rules, intergovernmental relations, governance and decentralization will find this book invaluable.
Despite the recent economic upswing in many Latin American countries, rural poverty rates in the region have actually increased during the past two decades. Experts blame excessively centralized public administrations for the lackluster performance of public policy initiatives. In response, decentralization reformshave become a common government strategy for improving public sector performance in rural areas. The effect of these reforms is a topic of considerable debate among government officials, policy scholars, and citizensÕ groups. This book offers a systematic analysis of how local governments and farmer groups in Latin America are actually faring today. Based on interviews with more than 1,200 mayors, local officials, and farmers in 390 municipal territories in four Latin American nations, the authors analyze the ways in which different forms of decentralization affect the governance arrangements for rural development Òon the ground.Ó Their comparative analysis suggests that rural development outcomes are systemically linked to locally negotiated institutional arrangementsÑformal and informalÑbetween government officials, NGOs, and farmer groups that operate in the local sphere. They find that local-government actors contribute to public services that better assist the rural poor when local actors cooperate to develop their own institutional arrangements for participatory planning, horizontal learning, and the joint production of services. This study brings substantive data and empirical analysis to a discussion that has, until now, more often depended on qualitative research in isolated cases. With more than 60 percent of Latin AmericaÕs rural population living in poverty, the results are both timely and crucial.
