What information is needed to assess the effectiveness of decentralised government in developing and transitional countries? This paper proposes a framework for comparative assessment of a country’s local public sector based on an empowerment approach. The assessment framework covers the political, administrative and financial structures that support the local government system. Rather than just looking at the functioning of the local government level itself, however, the diagnostic considers the role of the central level, the local level, as well as civil society in assessing these three dimensions of decentralisation. The same three-by-three dimensions can be used to assess donor support to decentralisation. When complete, the analysis provides a comprehensive picture of decentralisation activities and resources, aid alignment, and effectiveness.
Most pro-poor public services are delivered at the local level, by the deconcentrated departments of line ministries or by devolved local government authorities. However, the local public sector’s typically weak institutional capacity in many developing countries limits the provision of local services.
Decentralisation and local government reforms are often hindered by a variety of technical, political and institutional obstacles. These challenges also affect the degree to which local communities are empowered by the process.
There is a wealth of research and analysis on the complex interrelations that drive the performance of decentralised political, administrative and fiscal systems. However, there is insufficient relevant comparative information and data on the details of these decentralised systems, especially in developing and transition economies. The authors propose a comparative decentralisation assessment framework that enables a rapid assessment of a country’s local public sector. This framework:
- Is based on a conceptual definition of decentralisation as empowering local people over their local public sector. This allows qualitative aspects to be assessed as well as the usual quantitative factors such as the revenue decentralisation ratio.
- Identifies the policy objectives of decentralisation in any given country in terms of one or more of five aims: improving economic growth, delivering better local services, improving democratic governance, political gain (irrespective of the preceding ‘good’ motives), strengthening the state.
- Uses the well-established dissection of decentralisation into political, administrative and financial aspects for its first axis. All three categories are used, to take into account cross-cutting technical issues.
- Looks at central, local, and civil society institutional aspects of decentralisation for its second axis. This enables examination of the degree to which local people as well as local government have been empowered.
The proposed framework can also be used to map development partner support to decentralisation programmes. However it is not sufficient to simply add another column on the institutional axis. International partners are external stakeholders, and should be assessed as such. Their interventions also take place across the full range of technical and institutional levels. Therefore donor activities are incorporated in the framework as a separate dimension, captured in a matrix of the same three-by-three dimensions as the assessment framework for the public sector. When complete, this presents the host government as well as the development partner a comprehensive picture of activities and resources for decentralisation. The development partner matrix:
- Must include projects that broadly involve the local public sector, not only those that narrowly focus on decentralising governance. This includes deconcentrated sectoral programmes.
- Shows how donor support harmonises or conflicts with public sector systems, and also whether the tenets of the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action are being met.
- Identifies whether and to what degree obstacles are being addressed, and how host governments and development partners can best align decentralisation efforts.
