LOCAL ACTORS, POWERS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN AFRICAN DECENTRALIZATIONS: A REVIEW OF ISSUES Paper Prepared for International Development Research Centre of Canada Assessment of Social Policy Reforms Initiative Final Draft 6 October 2001 Jesse C. Ribot Senior Associate Institutions and Governance Program World Resources Institute 10 G Street, N.E. #800 Washington, D.C. 20002 USA [email protected] Table of Contents ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................................IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .........................................................................................................................................IV BOX 1: DEFINING DECENTRALIZATION...................................................................................................... V EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................................VI INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................................................1 I. DECENTRALIZATION IN AFRICAN HISTORY..................................................................................4 II. WHY DECENTRALIZE? ................................................................................................................................7 Efficiency ............................................................................................................................................................ 8 Equity.................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Service Provision .............................................................................................................................................. 10 Participation and Democratization.................................................................................................................... 12 National Cohesion and Central Control ............................................................................................................ 13 Local Empowerment, Fiscal Crisis, Development and Poverty Reduction...................................................... 15 III. DIMENSIONS OF DECENTRALIZATION............................................................................................16 Actors ....................................................................................................................................................................17 Elected Councils as local authorities in Decentralization................................................................................. 17 Chiefs as Local Authorities in Decentralizations.............................................................................................. 21 NGOs as Local Authorities in Decentralizations.............................................................................................. 23 Management Committees ................................................................................................................................. 25 Administrative Bodies....................................................................................................................................... 25 Private Bodies ................................................................................................................................................... 25 Powers...................................................................................................................................................................26 Kinds of Powers................................................................................................................................................ 27 Principles of Power Allocation ......................................................................................................................... 27 Accountability......................................................................................................................................................30 IV. IMPLEMENTATION......................................................................................................................................33 Administrative-Political Relations, Oversight and Tutelle..........................................................................34 Planning Processes and the Problem of Instrumentality.............................................................................36 Enabling Environment........................................................................................................................................39 Sustainability and ‘Means of Transfer’...........................................................................................................41 Fiscal Transfers...................................................................................................................................................43 Capacity................................................................................................................................................................44 Legitimacy............................................................................................................................................................46 Conflict and Negotiation....................................................................................................................................49 Elite Capture and Patronage............................................................................................................................50 Sequencing and Implementing the Decentralization Process .....................................................................52 Democratic Local Government First................................................................................................................. 52 Freedom within Oversight—Establishing a Domain of Local Autonomy ....................................................... 52 Power before Capacity...................................................................................................................................... 53 Taking Time ...................................................................................................................................................... 54 Opposition to Decentralization.........................................................................................................................54 CONCLUSIONS AND RESEARCH PRIORITIES ..........................................................................................57 ANNEX A: RESEARCH QUESTIONS FOR EACH SECTION...................................................................63 ii ANNEX B: WHO ARE CHIEFS AND CUSTOMARY AUTHORITIES?.................................................73 ANNEX C: ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS ..........................................................................................78 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................................................84 ENDNOTES ..................................................................................................................................................................95 iii Abstract Decentralizations across Africa are re-organizing the roles and powers of local actors in the name of increasing participation of local populations in governance. How these reforms affect popular participation depends on the local institutional arrangements they create: which actors receive powers, what powers they receive, and the relations of accountability these actors are located in. This review covers a portion of the literature that characterizes decentralizations and attempts to explain their outcomes in Africa. Characterizing decentralizations illustrates the degree to which decentralizations are actually taking place, exploring the difference between discourse and practice. Explaining outcomes helps to identify ways forward. The review draws on the environmental decentralization literature, on cases from other sectors and on theoretical discussions of decentralization. The literature reveals a lack of systematic comparative research characterizing decentralizations or explaining their origins and outcomes. The review identifies opportunities and tension in current reforms and outlines research priorities. Acknowledgments Enormous thanks go to Diana Conyers, Aaron deGrassi and Peter Utting for their constructive comments on drafts of this review. I also want express my gratitude to the Dutch Government and U.S. Agency for International Development for supporting the Institutions and Governance Program at World Resources Institute to conduct a portion of the research that informed this document. I especially want to thank Tandika Mkandawire and Jean-Michel Labatut for inviting me to write this review in the first place. iv Box 1: Defining Decentralization Decentralization is any act in which a central government formally cedes powers to actors and institutions at lower levels in a political-administrative and territorial hierarchy (Mawhood 1983; Smith 1985). Political or Democratic Decentralization occurs when powers and resources are transferred to authorities representative of and downwardly accountable to local