During the last decade, the EU has been supporting decentralisation reforms across the developing world, mobilising a growing amount of funds and making use of different ‘entry points’ (e.g. support to national policies, bottom-up initiatives, etc.) and instruments (e.g. budget support or projects). There has also been a steady intensification of relations with local authorities and their associations. In 2012, a major thematic evaluation was concluded on the relevance and impact of EU support to decentralisation and local governance. While the evaluation recognised the added value of many EU-supported programmes, it clearly stressed the need ...
The first pilot training course on Harmonisation, Decentralisation and Local Governance took place in Brussels from 24-28 January. It was the initiative of the informal Development Partners Working Group on Local Governance and Decentralisation (DPWG-LGD) which aims to contribute to an improved understanding of different donor approaches and to build a consensus around fundamental issues that need to be considered when supporting decentralisation and local governance processes in partner countries. The course was developed by DPWG-LGD together with ECDPM, The Hague Academy for Local Governance and Wageningen CDI. These co-organising institutes also co-facilitated the actual ...
The newsletter includes reports from recent key meetings and notification of key documents. It also reports on the preparation of inputs to next year’s High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. Practices of aid harmonization and effectives in local governance and decentralization were explored through three in-depth case studies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia and Uganda. Four additional case studies on Benin, Ghana, Mozambique and Peru will be conducted and a synthesis of the findings will be an input into the High Level Forum process.
The European Commission is conducting a “structured dialogue” process aimed at reaching a multi-stakeholder consensus on the main topics linked to increasing the effectiveness of the involvement of civil society and local authorities in EC development cooperation. This draft document, to be presented during the European Development Days conference on 7 December, provides a summary of the discussions and preliminary conclusions and recommendations arising from meetings held with stakeholders over the past nine months on complementarity and coherence within the aid effectiveness agenda and the roles and added-value of civil society organisations and local authorities. ...
Members of the All-African Ministerial Conference on Decentralisation and Local Development (AMCOD) held an extraordinary session in Yaoundé on 30 September. Ministers responsible for Decentralisation and Local Development discussed and validated the revision of AMCOD’s legal basis and agreed on joint strategic orientations for the years 2010 to 2015. The agreement has been welcomed by international observers and representatives of the African local government movement as a breakthrough and an important step towards anchoring AMCOD and the topic of decentralisation in the governance structures of the African Union.
Decentralization has been an important reform in many developing countries and a major focus of the considerable support provided by development partners to public sector reform. Yet its record is mixed at best in terms of realizing many of the stated objectives of reform, such as enabling more efficient service delivery, advancing democratic reform, and promoting economic development and poverty reduction. The underlying premise of this World Bank publication is that systematic analysis of political economy issues can productively complement the dominantly technical diagnostic work carried out by development partners seeking to undertake decentralization reforms. ...
The deepening engagement of China in Africa has led to debates about the evolving nature of this relationship. The focus of analysis has largely been confined to the interactions between states while relatively little attention has been paid to the growing dialogue between Chinese and African civil society organisations. This collection of essays published by Fahamu Books and Pambazuka Press and written by scholars and activists, explores the interaction between African and Chinese non-state actors and argues that the future of Africa-China relations rests on including such voices if a robust and vibrant engagement and ...
