Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms

Ugandan decentralization efforts of the 1990s represented an unusually authentic and powerful local government reform, compared to similar efforts pursued in many other low-income countries. However, over time the changing interests of the central...

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Main Author:	World Bank
Format:	Public Expenditure Review
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:	FISCAL SAVINGS GOVERNMENT REFORM INFLATION POPULATION PUBLIC FINANCE SERVICE DELIVERY VALUE FOR MONEY WAGE BILLS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/06/18018983/service-delivery-more-districts-uganda-fiscal-challenges-opportunities-reforms-public-expenditure-review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16012

id	okr-10986-16012
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-160122021-04-23T14:03:23Z Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms World Bank FISCAL SAVINGS GOVERNMENT REFORM INFLATION POPULATION PUBLIC FINANCE SERVICE DELIVERY VALUE FOR MONEY WAGE BILLS Ugandan decentralization efforts of the 1990s represented an unusually authentic and powerful local government reform, compared to similar efforts pursued in many other low-income countries. However, over time the changing interests of the central agencies, dissatisfaction with service outcomes, and the overall dynamics of the country's governance resulted in the adoption of a number of re-centralizing policies. The objective of this report is to take stock of the fiscal and institutional arrangements for service delivery by local governments in the context of district proliferation and in view of recent trends in national public finance, as well as to identify policy options that could facilitate improved service delivery. The report finds that, while district proliferation has not had any major effect on public finances so far, it may have serious adverse effects in the future if the institutional structures and funding mechanisms of district governments are not adjusted to the new realities. Its effect on public expenditure has been rather small since an increasing number of positions in district governments remain vacant, and because a recent bout of inflation has eroded their wage bills. Furthermore, at present the average population of a district is roughly equivalent to that of similar jurisdictions in other countries. The report concludes with a number of institutional and fiscal proposals designed to reduce this risk and to improve value-for-money in service delivery more generally. If Uganda manages to use district proliferation as an opportunity to implement these changes, the resulting fiscal savings and improvements in value-for-money would make it much easier to cover the costs of that process. 2013-10-02T16:56:08Z 2013-10-02T16:56:08Z 2013-06 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/06/18018983/service-delivery-more-districts-uganda-fiscal-challenges-opportunities-reforms-public-expenditure-review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16012 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Public Expenditure Review Economic & Sector Work Africa Uganda
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	FISCAL SAVINGS GOVERNMENT REFORM INFLATION POPULATION PUBLIC FINANCE SERVICE DELIVERY VALUE FOR MONEY WAGE BILLS
spellingShingle	FISCAL SAVINGS GOVERNMENT REFORM INFLATION POPULATION PUBLIC FINANCE SERVICE DELIVERY VALUE FOR MONEY WAGE BILLS World Bank Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms
geographic_facet	Africa Uganda
description	Ugandan decentralization efforts of the 1990s represented an unusually authentic and powerful local government reform, compared to similar efforts pursued in many other low-income countries. However, over time the changing interests of the central agencies, dissatisfaction with service outcomes, and the overall dynamics of the country's governance resulted in the adoption of a number of re-centralizing policies. The objective of this report is to take stock of the fiscal and institutional arrangements for service delivery by local governments in the context of district proliferation and in view of recent trends in national public finance, as well as to identify policy options that could facilitate improved service delivery. The report finds that, while district proliferation has not had any major effect on public finances so far, it may have serious adverse effects in the future if the institutional structures and funding mechanisms of district governments are not adjusted to the new realities. Its effect on public expenditure has been rather small since an increasing number of positions in district governments remain vacant, and because a recent bout of inflation has eroded their wage bills. Furthermore, at present the average population of a district is roughly equivalent to that of similar jurisdictions in other countries. The report concludes with a number of institutional and fiscal proposals designed to reduce this risk and to improve value-for-money in service delivery more generally. If Uganda manages to use district proliferation as an opportunity to implement these changes, the resulting fiscal savings and improvements in value-for-money would make it much easier to cover the costs of that process.
format	Economic & Sector Work :: Public Expenditure Review
author	World Bank
author_facet	World Bank
author_sort	World Bank
title	Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms
title_short	Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms
title_full	Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms
title_fullStr	Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms
title_full_unstemmed	Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms
title_sort	service delivery with more districts in uganda : fiscal challenges and opportunities for reforms
publisher	Washington, DC
publishDate	2013
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/06/18018983/service-delivery-more-districts-uganda-fiscal-challenges-opportunities-reforms-public-expenditure-review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16012
_version_	1764431476173045760

Service Delivery with More Districts in Uganda : Fiscal Challenges and Opportunities for Reforms

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