Publication: Decentralization in Madagascar
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2004-06
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2004-06
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This paper takes stock of Madagascar's first 10 years of decentralization. As it happened in many other developing countries, particularly in Africa, Madagascar's decentralization process has seen reversals, uncertainties and lack of clarity all along. This explains why Madagascar, despite the experience with decentralization, remains a highly centralized country with only about 3-4 percent of expenditures spent below the center and with very few prerogatives decentralized to the local level. Notwithstanding the structural impediments to decentralization in poor countries, many positive lessons can be drawn from the Madagascar case, which point to the potentials of the decentralization process. This study provides a detailed analysis of local government finances and develops a methodology for measuring local financing needs (local fiscal gap methodology). Based on this analysis, the study argues that a lot can be gained from simplifying administrative arrangements and fiscal relationships. Instead of a full-blown and ambitious decentralization strategy, this book suggests a number of reforms, which would go a long way by making the current structure work better. These reforms include: (1) a full transfer of the (limited) local competencies to commune, particularly local revenue collection; (2) increasing transfers to rural communes so that per capita allocations would be the same across communes-rural and urban; and (3) assigning revenues to one level of government only, except for some very specific types of taxes (such as on natural resources).
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“World Bank. 2004. Decentralization in Madagascar. World Bank Country Study;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14921 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Chapter 4 shifts the focus to the nature of statecitizen relations in an effort to better understand how citizen engagement in the decision-making process may be improved and local authorities held accountable for the provision of basic services.Publication Peru : The Decentralization Process and its Links with Public Expenditure Efficiency(Washington, DC, 2010-06-07)Decentralization in Peru is an ongoing process that is in its infancy and faces key challenges. This study aims to take stock of the process and identify these challenges. The main goal of the report is to help think through these issues with a view of identifying priorities and opportunities for fruitful engagement in this area. Much of the stock-taking serves as an introduction to the topic for the general reader and draws on what has become by now extensive secondary literature. The report distils the key challenges of the decentralization process and adds value in three specific areas. 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