Decentralization in Africa : Emerging Trends and Progress
Decentralization, defined broadly as the transfer of public authority, resources, and personnel from the national level to sub-national jurisdictions, has been a recurrent theme in African countries since independence. In the last decade or so dece...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/08/2490250/decentralization-africa-emerging-trends-progress http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9726 |
| Summary: | Decentralization, defined broadly as the
transfer of public authority, resources, and personnel from
the national level to sub-national jurisdictions, has been a
recurrent theme in African countries since independence. In
the last decade or so decentralization has gained prominence
as an expressed goal or as an actual programmatic pursuit in
the context of or as a consequence of two prominent
movements affecting the African state. One consists of
structural adjustment programs that sought to reform the
public sector starting in the 1980s while the other is the
ongoing transition toward more democratic and competitive
politics. In nearly all African countries, structures of
local administration exist but are often subordinated in
their legal creation, mandate, and operation to the central
state, especially the executive. As elsewhere in the
developing world, political and economic liberalization have
opened possibilities or at least revived claims for greater
decentralization. Major development donors have also pushed
decentralization as a pathway to improving governance and
service delivery in developing countries. |
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