Publication: Estimating Financing Needs for Local Services in Madagascar
Date
2003-11
ISSN
Published
2003-11
Author(s)
Fengler, Wolfgang
Wietzke, Frank Borge
Abstract
This note presents the methodology and
findings of a field study on the financing needs of
Madagascar's communes-the country's lowest but
most institutionally advanced level of subnational
government. Following a first round of municipal elections
in 1995, more than 1,500 communes are now formally
responsible for maintaining basic administrative services
and social and economic infrastructure, including local
waste disposal and sanitation. In addition, communes are
responsible for identifying and coordinating local
investments and for supporting implementation of the
national Poverty Reduction Strategy at the local level. To
finance these activities, communes receive population-based
transfers and small conditional transfers, and can collect
revenue from property, market, and consumption taxes as well
as user charges. Yet little is known about how much these
fiscal assignments satisfy local needs. As part of its
policy dialogue with the government of Madagascar, the World
Bank is engaged in extensive research that includes
geographic mapping of social spending and a review of
opportunities and obstacles to fiscal and sectoral
decentralization. This research generated the following
analysis of local and cross-sectoral service needs and
available financing.
Citation
“Fengler, Wolfgang; Wietzke, Frank Borge. 2003. Estimating Financing Needs for Local Services in Madagascar. PREM Notes; No. 81. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/cb101b9f-1c98-5aa1-a95a-a11715e663d0 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”