Comprehensive local government reform is unrealistic in fragile states. This paper, published by the Danish Institute for International Studies, recommends using local service delivery as a point of departure for local governance reform. Strengthening local service delivery will slowly build sound local governance practices that can plant the seeds for more comprehensive democratic decentralisation in the future. Ignoring informal non-state authorities can considerably undermine any effort to reform local governance, whereas exclusive reliance on non-state authorities in service delivery can undermine efforts to strengthen state capacity and legitimacy in local arenas.
Existing local governance situations include those exhibiting strong state control and those with extensive formal democratic decentralisation, civil society organisations and de facto state control. There are also situations where non-state actors provide service delivery and security and where state institutions are present, but detached from, state regulations. These situations require a variety of strategies to meet the longer-term democratic local government objectives.
One reform position focuses on building central state institutions as the exclusive entry point for support in fragile states. Another focuses on civil society and parallel service delivery and ignores first-phase local government institutional support. Neither directly addresses de facto local governance situations.
Emphasis on local service delivery that relies in part on non-state actors would apply to all local governance situations and establish sound reform procedures and practices. Focus on service delivery would:
- Improve delivery of health, education, water, sanitation and personal security, all of which are generally provided inequitably. It would also improve the livelihoods of poor populations, thereby boosting the legitimacy of state and local government institutions.
- Improve the capacity of local service providers and trigger local democratic action by mobilising citizens around demands for services and participation in planning processes.
- Include specific use of non-state actors, such as traditional authorities, civil society organisations and local user groups in service management and delivery.
- Address the issue of non-state actors, who often impede formal institution building, by approaching them as both agents for change and targets for change.
- Encourage partnership- and alliance-building by civil society in support of government and reach marginal populations often neglected by traditional reform approaches.
- Sow the seeds for long-term local governance reform and state building by addressing policy making, local capacity building and citizen empowerment.
The following policy recommendations provide a realistic conceptual framework within which to adopt service delivery as the prime local governance reform mechanism:
- Service delivery combined with small-scale efforts to build local governance capacity and legitimacy would enhance long-term state-building efforts.
- Short-term service delivery investments and reliance on non-state actors should be based on long-term democratic decentralisation and state building objectives.
- Care should be taken not to undermine longer-term objectives by strengthening anti-democratic local governance practices often conducted by non-state authorities.
- External engagement in local governance needs to confront the realities of de facto local governance systems as an integral aspect of building formal government institutions.
