Democratic Decentralization Programming Handbook
Source: USAID | Year: 2021
The Democratic Decentralization Programming Handbook conceptualizes decentralization as a reform that advances democracy and development in a context of stability and the rule of law. Decentralization invests new actors with public responsibilities.The newly involved actors that decentralization empowers (or “should” empower) include appointed offcials in subnational administrations, elected offcials in subnational governments, and increasingly engaged citizens themselves. For the purposes of this Handbook, decentralization is defned as the transfer of power from national governments to subnational governments or to the subnational administrative units of national governments.This defnition is useful because it allows a discussion of decentralization’s two most common forms, deconcentration and devolution, without privileging one over the other.
This Handbook is designed to provide a theoretically-informed and empirically-supported foundation for USAID offcers undertaking work in missions around the world. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to key concepts in decentralization, including its main dimensions, goals, and arenas. Chapter 2 further describes the primary dimensions and forms of decentralization; while Chapter 3 elaborates the three major goals that countries often pursue through decentralization. Chapters 4 and 5 are structured around the most important arenas in which USAID is likely to intervene. Specifcally, Chapter 4 provides guidance about how to assess the national, subnational, and civil society environment in a given country; and Chapter 5 presents programming strategies that are targeted for each of these three arenas. Chapter 6 describes how USAID can reliably evaluate decentralization programs and learn from its experience. Chapter 7 presents concluding comments.
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