Publication:
Decentralization and Governance : Does Decentralization Improve Public Service Delivery?

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (347.78 KB)
4,467 downloads
English Text (16.26 KB)
235 downloads
Date
2001-06
ISSN
Published
2001-06
Editor(s)
Abstract
Decentralization holds a lot of promise, but whether it improves public service delivery depends on the institutional arrangements governing its implementation. Several conditions must be met before the full benefits of decentralization can be reaped. First, for decentralization to increase allocative and productive efficiency, local governments need to have the authority to respond to local demand as well as adequate mechanisms for accountability. Because granting authority without accountability can lead to corruption and lower productive efficiency, decentralization needs to be accompanied by reforms that increase the transparency and accountability of local government. Second, functions need to be devolved to a low enough level of government for allocative efficiency to increase as a result of decentralization. Low-level governments are likely to be aware of local preferences and, if able to do so, are likely to adjust service delivery accordingly. Third, citizens should have channels to communicate their preferences and get their voices heard in local governments. But the existence of such channels is not enough. To effectively influence public policies and oversee local governments, citizens need to have information about government policies and activities. The media play a crucial role in this area.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Kahkonen, Satu; Lanyi, Anthony. 2001. Decentralization and Governance : Does Decentralization Improve Public Service Delivery?. PREM Notes; No. 55. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11382 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Decentralization and Service Delivery
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-05) Khemani, Stuti; Ahmad, Junaid; Shah, Shekhar; Devarajan, Shantayanan
    Dissatisfied with centralized approaches to delivering local public services, a large number of countries are decentralizing responsibility for these services to lower-level, locally elected governments. The results have been mixed. The paper provides a framework for evaluating the benefits and costs, in terms of service delivery, of different approaches to decentralization, based on relationships of accountability between different actors in the delivery chain. Moving from a model of central provision to that of decentralization to local governments introduces a new relationship of accountability-between national and local policymakers-while altering existing relationships, such as that between citizens and elected politicians. Only by examining how these relationships change can we understand why decentralization can, and sometimes cannot, lead to better service delivery. In particular, the various instruments of decentralization-fiscal, administrative, regulatory, market, and financial-can affect the incentives facing service providers, even though they relate only to local policymakers. Likewise, and perhaps more significantly, the incentives facing local and national politicians can have a profound effect on the provision of local services. Finally, the process of implementing decentralization can be as important as the design of the system in influencing service delivery outcomes.
  • Publication
    Republic of Burundi Fiscal Decentralization and Local Governance : Managing Trade-Offs to Promote Sustainable Reforms
    (Washington, DC, 2014-10) World Bank
    Despite the remarkable progress achieved since the end of the conflict, Burundi still faces significant development challenges. Since 2005, the Government of Burundi has embarked on a potentially transformative process of decentralization, with the aim of strengthening social cohesion, improving local governance, and promoting access to basic infrastructure and service delivery. The weakness of the communal tax system, coupled with low mobilization of local revenue and nonexistent (current) or negligible (capital) transfers from the national budget threaten the financial viability of communes, which struggle to support even basic operating costs. Addressing a specific government request, the present study aims to provide concrete policy recommendations to help the Government of Burundi improve the financial and institutional sustainability of the decentralization reform process, while enabling communes to address popular demands and deliver better services. The report will also look at the implications of these macro-level challenges at the sectoral level, through a case study of the recent experiences of decentralized land administration services, whose responsibilities were recently transferred to communes. The report is based on results from interviews, fieldwork research, and qualitative focus group discussion, combined with existing administrative data and secondary sources on decentralization in Burundi. The present study is organized into four thematic chapters. Chapter one provides a snapshot of Burundiapos;s political and macroeconomic context, and reviews the evolution of the decentralization process to better understand how institutional, political, and bureaucratic dynamics have shaped the historical trajectory of decentralization and generated the outcomes observed today. Chapter two provides a systematic investigation of the status of fiscal decentralization in Burundi, and identifies key policy issues to be considered to ensure the medium-term sustainability of the reform process while at the same time addressing the short-term financial needs of communes. Chapter three provides an in-depth diagnostic of a key service delivery responsibility recently devolved to communes - the provision of land registration services and discusses the challenges and opportunities related to ongoing efforts to scale up access to these land services across 116 rural communes and Bujumbura. Chapter four shifts the focus to the nature of state citizen 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
    Republic of Burundi Fiscal Decentralization and Local Governance
    (Washington, DC, 2014-10) World Bank
    This study is highly selective and organized into four thematic chapters. Specifically, chapter 1 provides a snapshot of Burundi’s political and macroeconomic context, and reviews the evolution of the decentralization process to better understand how institutional, political, and bureaucratic dynamics have shaped the historical trajectory of decentralization and generated the outcomes observed today. Chapter 2 provides a systematic investigation of the status of fiscal decentralization in Burundi, and identifies key policy issues to be considered to ensure the medium-term sustainability of the reform process while at the same time addressing the short-term financial needs of communes. Chapter 3 provides an in-depth diagnostic of a key service delivery responsibility recently devolved to communes—the provision of land registration services—and discusses the challenges and opportunities related to ongoing efforts to scale up access to these land services across 116 rural communes and Bujumbura. 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
    Political Capture of Decentralization : Vote-Buying through Grants-Financed Local Jurisdictions
    (2010-06-01) Khemani, Stuti
    A recent trend in decentralization in several large and diverse countries is the creation of local jurisdictions below the regional level -- municipalities, towns, and villages -- whose spending is almost exclusively financed by grants from both regional and national governments. This paper argues that such grants-financed decentralization enables politicians to target benefits to pivotal voters and organized interest groups in exchange for political support. Decentralization, in this model, is subject to political capture, facilitating vote-buying, patronage, or pork-barrel projects, at the expense of effective provision of broad public goods. There is anecdotal evidence on local politics in several large countries that is consistent with this theory. The paper explores its implications for international development programs in support of decentralization.
  • Publication
    Decentralization in Client Countries : An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 1990-2007
    (Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008) Independent Evaluation Group
    The Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) assessed the effectiveness of Bank support for decentralization between fiscal 1990 and 2007 in 20 countries, seeking to inform the design and implementation of future support. Given the difficulties of measuring the results of decentralization, the evaluation used intermediate outcome indicators such as strengthened legal and regulatory frameworks for intergovernmental relations, improved administrative capacity, and increased accountability of subnational governments and functionaries to higher levels of government and to citizens to assess the results of Bank support in these 20 countries. To examine potential lessons at a sectoral level, the evaluation also assessed whether Bank support for decentralization improved intermediate outcomes for service delivery in the education sector in 6 of the 20 countries. Bank support contributed to more effective decentralization substantially in more than one-third of the 20 cases and modestly in the others. The most successful aspects of Bank support pertained to the legal frameworks for intergovernmental relations, the frameworks for intergovernmental fiscal transfers, and subnational financial management Bank support was less effective in clarifying the roles and responsibilities of different levels of government and in improving own-source revenue mobilization by subnational governments. This was often a result of lack of political will. Other things being equal, Bank support brought better results where there was consensus around the reform within the country prior to Bank engagement and when the support was combined with incentives for institutional reform at the subnational level. Looking forward, the results of Bank support for decentralization can be strengthened with more timely and coordinated analytical work to underpin it, by better coordinating fragmented sector-by-sector interventions, and by accompanying support for policy reform with technical assistance to strengthen local government capacity.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    An Overview of Agricultural Pollution in Vietnam
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017) Cassou, Emilie; Tran, Dai Nghia; Nguyen, Tin Hong; Dinh, Tung Xuan; Nguyen, Cong Van; Cao, Binh Thang; Jaffee, Steven; Ru, Jiang
    Vietnamese agriculture has experienced remarkable growth over the past twenty years. Today, however, Vietnamese agriculture is edging toward the limits of a growth model rooted more in the intensification of production systems featuring heavy use of labor, chemicals, and natural resources than in efficiency or value addition gains. Agricultural growth is decelerating and Vietnam’s competitiveness as a provider of bulk, undifferentiated commodities is flagging as the agricultural sector faces rising competition for labor, land, and other resources. The environmental fallout from intensification has also begun to adversely impact productivity and the position of Vietnam’s commodities in international markets. If it is to fulfill its ambitions and remain a motor of economic development, Vietnam’s agriculture will need to start producing More from Less. In this regard, tackling agricultural pollution represents a key challenge for Vietnam. Pollution has started to take a toll on the sector’s own resource base, potentially impacting soil fertility and yields, the effectiveness of chemicals in combating pests and disease, farmer health and productivity, environmental health, and the safety of food. Growing evidence and public concern about pollution have led the Vietnamese government to adopt a new outlook and to take measures to address the problem. The research upon which this summary report is based represents the first attempt to assemble existing evidence on the nature and magnitude of agricultural pollution in Vietnam, looking across the livestock, aquaculture, and crops subsectors. It is also an attempt to shed light on the socioeconomic impacts and drivers of agricultural pollution, including the shortcomings of existing policies and programs to reign in the problem.
  • Publication
    The New Microfinance Handbook : A Financial Market System Perspective
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-02) Ledgerwood, Joanna; Ledgerwood, Joanna
    The new microfinance handbook provides a primer on financial services for the poor. It is written for a wide audience, including practitioners, facilitators, policy makers, regulators, investors, and donors working to improve the financial system, but who are relatively new to the sector. It will also be useful for telecommunication companies and other support service providers, students and academics, and consultants and trainers. Although this book is in part an update of the original handbook, the growth of the sector and the complexity of the financial market system have led to a perspective much broader than the previous 'financial and institutional perspective.' As a result, additional chapters have been added to address issues more relevant than when the original handbook was written. To reflect this complexity, the author invited a number of experts to write many of the new chapters. In addition, given that this book does not go into as much detail as the previous book did, a list of key resources at the end of each chapter provides readers additional information on specific topics. Finally, although the title still uses the term microfinance, the book very much addresses the wider financial ecosystem, moving beyond the traditional meaning of microfinance to inclusive financial systems.
  • Publication
    Market Study for Vietnam
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-09-28) World Bank Group
    Vietnam's public and private sector stakeholders are increasingly active in addressing plastics waste. The Vietnam Government has set ambitious national plastics waste management goals to combat the economic and environmental consequences of mismanaged plastics waste nationally. This study uses a plastics value chain approach to evaluate Vietnam’s plastics recycling industry and its role in supporting a circular economy.
  • Publication
    Migrating to Opportunity
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-10-08) Testaverde, Mauro; Moroz, Harry; Hollweg, Claire H.; Schmillen, Achim
    The movement of people in Southeast Asia is an issue of increasing importance. Countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are now the origin of 8 percent of the world's migrants. These countries host only 4 percent of the world's migrants but intra-regional migration has turned Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand into regional migration hubs that are home to 6.5 million ASEAN migrants. However, significant international and domestic labor mobility costs limit the ability of workers to change firms, sectors, and geographies in ASEAN. This report takes an innovative approach to estimate the costs for workers to migrate internationally. Singapore and Malaysia have the lowest international labor mobility costs in ASEAN while workers migrating to Myanmar and Vietnam have the highest costs. Singapore and Malaysia's more developed migration systems are a key reason for their lower labor mobility costs. How easily workers can move to take advantage of new opportunities is important in determining how they fare under the increased economic integration planned for ASEAN. To study this question, the report simulates how worker welfare is affected by enhanced trade integration under different scenarios of labor mobility costs. Region-wide, worker welfare would be 14 percent higher if barriers to mobility were reduced for skilled workers, and an additional 29 percent if barriers to mobility were lowered for all workers. Weaknesses in migration systems increase international labor mobility costs, but policy reforms can help. Destination countries should work toward systems that are responsive to economic needs and consistent with domestic policies. Sending countries should balance protections for migrant workers with the needs of economic development.
  • Publication
    Assistive Technologies for Children with Disabilities in Inclusive and Special Schools in Indonesia
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-09-25) Hata, Anna; Wang, Han; Yuwono, Joko; Nomura, Shinsaku
    This empirical study of the Indonesian context aims to rigorously examine availability and usage of AT for children with disabilities. It reviews key challenges and support needed in both inclusive and special schools, focusing on teachers in primary and secondary education in Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (MoECRT). Key questions included: 1) What is the availability and use of AT for students with disabilities in schools in Indonesia? 2) In what ways can teachers, schools, and local and national stakeholders work together to promote equitable and quality learning through AT for children with disabilities? To answer these questions, this study employed a mixed method to enhance the validity and quality of evidence based analysis of AT for children with disabilities in Indonesia, including a national level teacher survey with over 2,000 teachers who participated voluntarily, focus group discussions with teachers, school principals and policy makers as well as an international review of practices on AT for children with disabilities to address the lack of previous studies in Indonesia.