Center on International Development and Governance |  Publications

Decentralization projects in developing and transitional countries are typically accompanied by efforts to increase the own-revenue powers of local governments. Both the literature of fiscal federalism and the practices of donors and domestic reformers often see the strengthening these powers as critically important to the success of local government reform initiatives. The recent history of Albanian intergovernmental finance reform, however, suggests that there can be too much of a good thing: Placing the enhancement of local government tax powers at the center of decentralization projects can not only crowd out—theoretically and practically—critically important efforts to develop stable, predictable, and adequate transfer systems, but can also be politically self-blocking. In this paper, we use the Albanian case to illustrate why in developing countries with highly skewed tax bases there are good reasons to focus first on stabilizing transfer systems, and only secondarily on expanding local government own-revenue powers.

Over the past 10 years, the international development community has often treated decentralization and local governance issues through a narrow lens, focusing exclusively on the devolution of financial resources within the context of elected local governments. This paper seeks to define a more detailed metric of (local) public sector finances, which recognizes that the central authorities in each country interact with residents, civil society, and the private sector in three ways: through the direct or delegated delivery of public services (by central government entities); through deconcentrated departments or jurisdictions; and/or through devolved local governments. Formulating a detailed methodology for measuring local public sector finances will serve as a foundation to better understanding of the production function of public sector outputs and outcomes.

This commentary reflects on a profound impact that the fiscal crisis has on management of public property and overall lack of advanced asset management practices at local governments even though 65-99 percent of the value of the wealth owned on the taxpayers' behalf is concentrated in public land, built-up property and infrastructure.

In this commentary for The Guardian - online, senior fellow Olga Kaganova discusses how local governments don't usually have advanced asset management practices even though 65-99 percent of the value of the wealth owned on the taxpayers' behalf is concentrated in land, built-up property and infrastructure.

One of the international community's overarching strategic objectives in Afghanistan is to promote a more capable public sector that serves the Afghan people. Afghanistan's Constitution and their Sub-National Governance Policy aim to establish a system of elected municipal governments and a framework that allows municipalities to effectively provide public services to their constituents. This will require a major transformation of municipalities from a weak public sector tier to a devoted local governance level. This paper reviews the current state of municipal governance in Afghanistan and discusses the re-orientation required in order for Afghanistan to achieve a more effective and responsive municipal sector.

Decentralization in Macedonia was conceived of in two different phases, allowing for an asymmetric allocation of fiscal powers. During the first phase, all local governments were assigned the responsibility to deliver only a few – mainly communal – local government functions. After fulfillment of specific conditions and approval by the central government, local governments in Macedonia would be allowed to take on their broader functional responsibilities. Using a detailed dataset of local government finances, this study analyzes the evolution of local government revenues and expenditures in Macedonia and highlights the main problems of the country's intergovernmental finance system.

Gender equality in property rights is a critical human rights issue and a key driver of overall economic development. This paper explores three issues in international development which are not often considered together or in terms of how they relate to each other. These issues are: (1) The rights of women to participate in property use and ownership with full legal and societal protection; (2) the importance to economic development of property rights in urban areas; and (3) the role of women in economic development. The final section offers recommendations for more effective development programming and implementation through the integration of these issues.

Post-Gadhafi Libya brims with promise, but also with pitfalls. The Urban Institute's Charles Cadwell and George Mason University's Jack Goldstone outline steps Libya should take if it is to make great strides toward democracy and its people are to enjoy their hard-won freedom.

The Constitution that Kenyans adopted in September 2010 represents an important step in the process of national reconciliation and an important attempt to make Kenya's public sector more efficient and more accountable through devolution. The new Constitution assigns a prominent role in the public sector to county-level governments, as it transfers detailed functional responsibilities to the county level and provides that at least 15 percent of national revenues are to be shared with county governments. This IDG Policy Brief discusses whether the implementation of the Constitution will bring about a sea-change in intergovernmental fiscal relations and public empowerment in Kenya, or whether the changes in Kenya's intergovernmental structure in practice will represent a smaller and more incremental step towards a more decentralized governance structure.

Although the timing and fervor of the unrest in Egypt over the past several weeks has come as a surprise to many, the underlying causes of the unrest do not come as a surprise. While the removal of President Hosni Mubarak signifies the achievement of the demonstrators' main demand, merely substituting the president or cabinet will not make Egypt more democratic, nor will a change in the national leadership empower the people over the public sector. Instead, deep structural reforms are needed within Egypt's public sector in order to ensure that the public sector is capable of being responsive to the needs of the people. This Policy Brief highlights the role that decentralization reform could play in that process.