Public Sector Reform & Decentralisation

Paul Smoke, Professor of Public Finance and Planning and Director of International Programs, from NYU University, agrees that accountability is key to decentralisation, but argues that we need to look further than elections at the local level. Citizens need to connect with their local governments and this can be done through different mechanisms such as participatory planning and budgeting, citizen report cards, etc. For these mechanisms to work it is important that their benefit is clear (strong feedback loops) for the citizen and that they are developed and adapated to the particular place where they are going to be implemented.