SUPPORT TO DECENTRALIZATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES NEWSLETTER Nº 6/ MAY 2012
Content:
Project advances
Indicators: overview of first results
FLACMA congress, in Santiago de Chile, Chile
Launch of the Council of Local Authorities (CCT), in Niamey, Niger
EALGA meets with the Secretary General of the EAC
Southeast Asian high level conference held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Project Advances and Recent Activities The first round of pilot trials for the Indicator on Local Government and Decentralization were finalized and their results analyzed in view of revising and improving the methodology before the 2nd round of pilot trials. Important meetings were undertaken or in the final stages of planning in each of the project regions to strengthen the dialogue between local governments and ministers within the context of each regions institution of integration.
Results of the first pilot trail of the Indicators on Local Government and Decentralization (ILGD) The survey was completed in nine countries: Benin, Kenya, and Mali in Africa; Honduras, Mexico and Panama in Latin America; Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam in Asia. Over 500 questionnaires were collected from local authorities (an average of 40-80 mayors by country). In parallel a questionnaire for experts from the local government association was also run in the same countries. The questionnaires were divided into four thematic areas: Local Democracy, Administrative Capacity, Local Finance and Central-Local Relations. The mayor’s questionnaire was also answered by a few members of the UCLG World Council, from developed countries, which allowed for some comparison of the understanding of the questionnaire between local authorities in different hemispheres. Some first conclusions: A) Local governments in developing countries tend to over evaluate the situation of local government; while local governments in developed countries tend to be pessimistic with regard to the situation of their cities halls, in particular with regard to the economic crisis.
Results of the 1st Pilot phase of the indicators
This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of UCLG and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union
This has resulted in a tendency for lowering the final scores of developed countries and raising that of developing countries (see graph) B) Local governments from developing countries tend to increase the value they assign in the political section and reduce the value given in the administrative and financial questions, while developed countries the opposite phenomenon was found. In the section on local finance answers were the more coherent. C) Within developing countries local authorities in African and Asian countries were the most “optimistic”. Their responses did not allow for a clear correlation with the advances of the decentralization (and local democracy) in those countries. The cases of Vietnam and Cambodia are with highlighting, both countries where local government is still in the process of consolidation or which has a limited local independence. However in the questionnaires they gave very high score to the political section (local democracy and central and local relations). Within the observations collected from the local authorities the need to