Training Fiscal Decentralisation and Local Finances

The way public finances are organised in a country forms the basis for all activities in cities, towns and villages. It is the responsibility of national governments to design and supervise a system that works, and a challenge for local authorities to use their - limited - resources for delivering better local services.

This course, organised in cooperation with the Urban Institute in Washington, helps you in answering questions such as: How can spending responsibilities and revenue resources be divided between the different government layers? To what extent can local authorities determine their own revenues and expenditures? And how can municipalities manage their finances and be held accountable in a transparant way?

After introducing basic concepts and practices of political, administrative and financial decentralisation, the course goes deeper into the four pillars of fiscal decentralisation: expenditure assignment, intergovernmental transfers, local revenue generation and local borrowing debt and capital finance. Then, we will zoom in on the local budgeting process and aspects of transparancy and accountability. We will discuss experiences with participatory budgeting and public private partnerships. A municipal finance game gives you insight in the way local public finances are organised in The Netherlands. During field visits you will experience how new concepts of public financing work out in practice.

Learning objectives

This course helps you in:

• Assessing and monitoring fiscal decentralisation practices in your country;
• Optimising the different sources of revenue, e.g. taxes, user fees and intergovernmental transfers;
• Finding effective financing structures and partnerships to accomplish most with limited resources;
• Being able to use revenue andexpenditure tools;
• Making your local governments financially accountable.

The experts

Our key expert in this course is Jamie Boex, public finance expert at the Urban Institute in Washington and former professor at Georgia State University. Jamie has extensive experience in fiscal policy reforms in developing and transitional countries such as Afghanistan, Armenia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Georgia, Russia, Malawi, Nepal and Uganda.

Practical information

Deadline for application is 15 September. The fee of this one-week training course is: € 2.850,-. This includes accommodation, meals as well as training materials and travel during the training. The course language is English.  

If you have questions or if you are interested in a tailor made course you can check our website www.thehagueacademy.com or contact us at: info@thehagueacademy.com, or +31-70-3738695.