Good Governance, Decentralisation, Poverty Reduction and Participation of Civil Society

GOOD GOVERNANCE AND DECENTRALISATION

Overly centralised governance is not very efficient at creating incentives for the good governance of different sectors by subordinate human or institutional actors. Governance is more effective and efficient when it is localised, and local governance is also much less removed from problems and more sensitive to and knowledgeable about them. This is the argument for decreasing centralisation and increasing the semi autonomy of local governance; the 'bottom up' rather than the 'top down' approach. However, decentralisation does not occur overnight but evolves as a process, and its success depends on giving local authorities incentives that will drive their individual governance; it also depends on the clear definition of roles and duties, improvement of accountability apparatus and the clear definition of reporting relationships in a government structure, which is much like that of an organizational structure. Community participation, the fair and pervasive distribution of authority in a locality, and the transfer of taxation and market responsibilities from the federal or provincial government to the municipal or local government, are all vital aspects.

(Joint U.N.D.P. Government of Germany, 1999, p. 20).

Joint U.N.D.P. Government of Germany. (1999, Octobe). Decentralization: A Sampling of Definitions. [Working Paper]. Retrieved 6 February 2011 from http://www.undp.org/evaluation/documents/decentralization_working_report.PDF

GOOD GOVERNANCE AND POVERTY REDUCTION

Good governance plays multiple roles related to the reduction of poverty in a community. It enhances the volume and transparency of information about the services of the local government accessible to the public. These services include utilities such as running water, electricity, health care, and schooling. Good governance also leads to more transparency and accountability regarding the expenditure of locally collected taxes, and can reveal how much of...