Table 2. A breakdown of responsibilities across sub-national levels of government. REGIONAL LEVEL
INTERMEDIARY LEVEL
Heterogeneous and more or less extensive responsibilities depending on whether it is a federal or unitary country
Specialized and more limited responsibilities of supra-municipal interest
Services of regional interest:
An important role of assistance towards small municipalities
• Secondary/higher education and professional training • Spatial planning • Regional economic development and innovation • Health (secondary care and hospitals) • Social affairs (e.g., employment services training, inclusion, support to special groups, etc.) • Environmental protection • Social housing • Public order and safety (e.g., regional police, civil protection) • Local government supervision (in federal countries)
May exercise responsibilities delegated by regions and central government Responsibilities determined by the functional level and the geographic area: • Secondary or specialized education • Supra-municipal social and youth welfare • Secondary roads and publics transport • Environment
MUNICIPAL LEVEL A wide range of responsibilities: • General clause of competence • Eventually, additional allocations by the law Community services: • Education (nursery schools, preelementary and primary school) • Urban planning and management • Local utility networks (water, sewerage, waste, hygiene, etc.) • Primary and preventive healthcare • Recreation (sport and culture) • Public order and safety (municipal police, fire brigades) • Local economic development, tourism, trade affairs • Environment (green areas) • Social housing • Administrative and permit services
Source: OECD (2016) OECD Regions at a Glance 2016.
In Africa, various waves of decentralization have swept Northern African and Sub-Saharan countries since the 1990s. According to a 2015 study, while there was an overall improvement of policy and enabling environments to include and empower local governments, critical differences between countries persist.5 The ratio of local revenues as part of total public revenues gives a first approximation to the weight of local government’s role in national budgets. It varies from 40% in Nigeria (although only 18.4% for municipalities) to 24.3% in Kenya (where the last round of reforms created counties as the main decentralized tier of government), and to 1% in Togo, where progress on decentralization has been marginal. Countries like Uganda (19.2%) or Morocco (15.1%) have experienced progress in decentralization reform, while in Benin and Zimbabwe local governments still account for a very low percentage of national government budgets (6.7% and 7.8% respectively).6 In Botswana, finally, local authorities receive up to 95% of their revenues from the central government. Diversity is even greater in the Asian context. Decentralization reforms in South-East Asia have brought about major institutional innovations for local policy-making and management. While Indonesia and the Philippines experimented, at the end of last century, a rapid decentralization process – known as the ‘big bang’ –, in Thailand the process developed gradually, at a slower pace, over a couple of decades. Local governments’ revenues amount to 42.6% of total national budget in Indonesia, 22.7% in the Philippines, and 18.7% in Thailand. In India, despite a series
5 UCLGA and Cities Alliance, Assessing Institutional Environment of Local Governments in Africa, http://www.localafrica.org/en/component/k2/ item/633-assessing-the-institutional-environment-of-local-governments-in-africa-2015,-2nd-edition. 6 Source for Africa, Asia and Latin America: OECD and UCLG (2016), Subnational Governments around the World – Structure and Finance. All data from 2013.
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