Asia \ Local government service delivery
Equitable and efficient service delivery is at the heart of local government’s mandate. The resources in this section focus on the management and delivery of key strategic, corporate and technical services, ranging from those for which local government has direct responsibility, to shared service provision, and services for which local government is a partner.
Featured
Participation at the Crossroads: Decentralisation and Water Politics in West Bengal ∗
There is a trend the world over to make governments more accountable and responsive to local people through decentralisation of authority. Such an effort is aimed at overcoming inefficient allocation of natural resources by centrally administered agencies. The objective is to encourage participation of people in the decision-making process at the grassroots level. In India, the 73rd constitutional amendment of 1992 decentralised agriculture, irrigation and management of drinking water to the Panchayats. In West Bengal, the Panchayats were revitalised much before the constitutional amendment, soon after the Left Front government came to power. While the initial phase of Left Front rule saw enthusiastic participation by the village poor, when the water crisis reached a peak during the last years of Left Front rule, relatively few people in villages took part in government-sponsored initiatives. This leads to the core question: Why do more people not participate? Why are small cultivators and agricultural labourers, who are most profoundly affected by decisions regarding water management, even less inclined to be involved in decision-making? Participation at the Crossroads discusses decentralised governance and the politics of water management in India, with specific focus on West Bengal. Through fieldwork in villages during the last years of Left Front rule in the state, the author highlights the little studied aspect of local participation in decision-making processes relating to allocation of water. Through his case studies, the author shows how the unavailability of water is causing small cultivators to turn away from agriculture; the reasons behind the low turnout of small cultivators and agricultural labourers at village meetings; and how political interference at various levels in decentralisation creates problems, often leading to a skewed access to water. This timely and important book will be very useful to students and scholars of development studies, political science, public administration, anthropology, and sociology. It will also be invaluable to practitioners working in the fields of water policy and rural management.
Author: Bhaskar Chakrabarti Publisher: Orient BlackSwan Publication year: 2016
Water Security Challenges of South and South East Asia: Mainstreaming Local Governance Institutions
In the backdrop of the growing concerns of increasing water security in the larger Asian, especially South and South East Asian (S&SEA) context, this paper examines the major water security challenges as well vulnerability of the countries in the region towards water-scarcity induced problems. It is observed that the water security concerns in the S&SEA region emerge from a host of factors that are attributed to growing populations, urbanization, industrial development and the nascent climate change induced threats. Apparently, all these factors continue to remain quite virulent in the future as well despite earnest efforts among individual countries to overcome many of these developmental issues through appropriate policies as well as adaptation and mitigation strategies. Following an analysis of the status of water across S&SEA and other countries, the paper makes a critical look at the major water security challenges as emerge from the empirical literature. Since water security issues are increasingly becoming potent affecting the sustainable livelihoods of human and cattle population as well as the survival of the environmental and ecosystems, it is all the more important that the countries concerned are to be highly sensitive and responsive in terms of mainstreaming the local governance, institutions and community based as well as other local development agencies for protecting and conserving the water resource systems. In this regard, the paper brings out the imperatives of evolving strategies for strengthening the ties between local institutions (state operated, private, and community/civil society based) as well as national governments?and?or?international/cross-border NGOs in?the regional context of the S&SEA to address the water security challenges from a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral perspectives. This essentially calls for constant interactions between countries as well as regions within a country, to use or the locally suited institutional models to address the multiple problems of access to water as well as strengthening the economic, political and financial capabilities of the local institutions to achieve the SDGs
Author: P .K. Viswanathan and Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati Publisher: Asian Profile Journal Publication year: 2017
Local governance to tackle multidimensional poverty and inequality
The general objective of this paper is to describe the position of Oxfam and ARCO on how local governance processes play a crucial role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We believe that a common understanding and framework for local governance is urgently required to build more consistent and effective development strategies and initiatives. In particular, we aim to emphasise the importance of enabling local actors to lead and influence policy action and practices within a system of multilevel relations, in order to tackle multidimensional poverty and inequality. To achieve this end, we embrace the Sustainable Human Development approach in order to analyse local governance and policy issues in relation to the SDGs and the localization of these goals. In this respect, this paper contributes to Oxfam’s Theory of Change – based on the combination of active citizens and effective states (Green, 2012) – by integrating in both conceptual and operational terms the synergies between local action and national policies leading to social change for human “flourishing”.
Author: Mario Biggeri, Andrea Ferrannini, Lorenzo Paoli Publisher: Oxfam Publication year: 2016
Local government 2030: achieving the vision - conference background paper
Background discussion for Commonwealth Local Government Conference 2015. CLGF commissioned two “thinkpieces” Local government 2030 achieving the vision – the role of local democracy and good governance and Local government 2030 achieving the vision – the importance of local government in economic development and cities as engines of economic growth.
Author: Lucy Slack, Bhaskar Chakrabarti, Joydeep Guha, Sue Bannister and Michael Sutcliffe Publisher: CLGF Publication year: 2015
Resource guide on decentralisation and local government
This resource guide provides practical guidance for designing, implementing and evaluating decentralisation reforms and local government practices to ensure they are as effective as possible. It also synthesises and presents current debates on the impact of decentralisation and local government on poverty reduction, service delivery and conflict as well as providing links to cutting-edge research and recent case studies.
Author: Zoe Scott and Munawwar Alam Publisher: Commonwealth Secretariat Publication year: 2011