Decentralised Administration In Africa

An exploration of why some decentralization reforms have led to viable systems of local governance in Africa, while others have failed. It outlines the key issues involved, provides historical context, and identifies the factors that have encouraged or discouraged success.

This edited collection explores how African governments have sought to decentralize power in order to enhance democratic governance. It offers a range of insightful case studies and makes a case for the usefulness of decentralization as a method of sharing power at all levels of society in Africa.

In recent decades laws passed by African governments to transfer power and resources to local and other subnational governments (SNGs) have been greeted by many in the policy community with enthusiasm. But how far has decentralization really gone in Africa? How well does it work? And what have been its consequences? The authors of Decentralization in Africa work within a common conceptual framework to examine the process in 10 countries contrasting clear increases in the legal authority of SNGs with the reality of limited successes in deepening democracy.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: B, Stellenbosch Universitiy, course: Southern African Political Economy, language: English, abstract: Dele Olowu and Soumana Sako (2002) point out that it is no secret that governance on the African continent has been under the spotlight, and for all the wrong reasons. Their have been improvements, however, with a shifting from autocracy to democracy in many African states; this has resulted in a move to better or good governance due to this democratic change. Good governance is a complex issue and there is no distinction between good, democratic and participatory governance. Furthermore, there has been little consensus pertaining to the criteria that distinguishes between good, bad, or better governance. This paper will not delve into the conceptualisation of good governance due to length restrictions. The bulk of the paper will provide a detailed analysis of decentralisation, as well as looking at systems of government and models of local government. That will be followed by an overview of decentralisation on the African continent, with specific reference to its impact on the East African state of Kenya. The influence of decentralisation has produced mixed reactions, depending on who it effects; the adequate conceptualisation and method of implementation of the term has also been disputed. This paper holds the position that decentralisation has had a positive effect on the continent as a whole as well as on Kenya. [...]

This book is an in-depth empirical study of four Asian and African attempts to create democratic, decentralised local governments in the late 1980s and 1990s. The case studies of Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Karnataka (India) and Bangladesh focus upon the enhancement of participation; accountability between people, politicians and bureaucrats; and, most importantly, on whether governmental performance actually improved in comparison with previous forms of administration. The book is systematically comparative, and based upon extensive popular surveys and local field work. It makes an important contribution to current debates in the development literature on whether 'good governance' and decentralisation can provide more responsive and effective services for the mass of the population - the poor and disadvantaged who live in the rural areas.

Decentralization reforms introduced to Africa in the 1990s have not always delivered the intended long-term outcomes. This is a collection on the consequences of these reforms two decades on. In addition to general and comparative overviews, the book contains case studies on Ghana, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ethiopia, and Uganda. The common theme across the chapters is that the reforms seem to have engendered political consequences beyond decentralization itself – mostly through interaction with the broader historical, political, social, and economic context. The book thus speaks both to the scholarly literature (on decentralization, democratization, and development) and to the community of development practitioners. Most of the literature on decentralization and development emphasizes questions of institutional design and policy, but here the harder-to-pin-down political patterns marking the workings of decentralization are the main focus of analysis. The debates on development, through the case studies, are connected to the scholarly literatures on comparative federalism, comparative decentralization, and local democracy. The main conclusion that emerges from the studies in the book is that no magic formula that can turn countries into peaceful, stable, and prosperous democracies overnight exists. Furthermore, there are risks involved in importing formal institutions without regard to the local historical, political, social, and economic context. The chapters of this book were originally published as a special issue in Regional and Federal Studies.