Political economy of decentralisation and local governance

Decentralisation reforms have rarely bred empowered democratic local authorities. Discretion and accountability relationships depend on the political economy of each country, and historical/colonial legacies. Findings result from...

The Democratic Decentralization Programming Handbook conceptualizes decentralization as a reform that advances the exercise of political freedom and individual economic choice in a context of stability and the rule of law...

What role does local government (LG) play in post-conflict reconstruction? What are the key issues for LG in post-conflict contexts? This paper, published by the United Nations Development Programme, argues that further research...

Ghana’s reviewed decentralization policy is likely to bring about incremental rather than transformational change. In the authors’ view, extensive decentralisation would be likely to exacerbate problems rather than solve them. The...

How does poor governance constrain development? This paper was prepared for the launch of the OECD DAC Network on Governance (GOVNET) work-stream on Aid and Domestic Accountability. It sets out a conceptual framework and approach...

This reference document from the European Commission (EC) provides guidance to EC sector specialists on how to improve the quality and impact of response strategies at sector level by analysing governance in sectors in a more...

This issue paper by Denmark’s Development Cooperation provides an overview of general and sectoral political economy and governance (PEG) approaches to development as well as guidance applicable to decentralisation reforms. The...

This participants’ kit explores the usefulness of political economy diagnostics for understanding decentralisation and local governance processes. It also looks at how domestic accountability works in decentralised contexts, and...

This presentation covers the rationale and history of decentralisation, basic concepts, introduces the open system of interacting elements in relation to decentralisationand warns of applying blueprints. You can access the full a...

This participants’ kit aims to provide a common understanding of the basic concepts of decentralisation, their history and rationale.It also explores the coherence and complementarities between the different elements of fiscal...