Democratic decentralisation programming handbook

This handbook conceives decentralisation as a means to achieve democratisation. Decentralisation is a reform that advances the exercise of political freedom and individual economic choice in a context of stability and the rule of law. It is defined in this document as as the transfer of power and resources from national governments to sub-national administrative units. The countries that pursue decentralisation have the goals of promoting “democratisation,” “stabilisation” and “economic development.” The document is intended to support USAID programming processes due to its increasing involvement in countries whose circumstances are not favorable to democratisation. It aims to make decentralisation programs strategically conceived to support stable, sustainable long-term paths to democracy, with full consideration of adverse country circumstances and potential conflicts. It offers developing country examples that illustrate principles discussed.

The handbook states that decentralisation often encounters shortcomings, perils, and unforeseen consequences. In many instances, it has failed to fix the problems it was operationalised for. The document tackles the subject matter as follows:

• it provides an introduction to key concepts in decentralisation, with a particular focus on decentralisation’s essential characteristics: authority, autonomy, accountability, and capacity
• it describes the primary dimensions and forms of decentralisation
• it discusses the three major goals that countries often pursue through decentralisation
• it provides guidance about how to assess the national, sub-national, and civil society environment in a given country 
• it presents programming strategies that are targeted for each of these three arenas
• it describes how USAID can reliably evaluate the impacts of decentralisation programs and learn from its experience.

The document proffers the following fundamental propositions:

• decentralisation support processes should and do reflect primary goals
• the three forms of decentralisation of deconcentration, delegation and devolution, or any combinations of them, may be a legitimate path to democratic decentralisation
• programs of decentralisation support should consider activities in the arenas of National, Sub-national and Civil Society
• decentralisation can be usefully analysed in the political, fiscal and administrative dimensions
• the characteristics of decentralisation processes and outcomes can be usefully and comprehensively described in terms of the mix of authority, autonomy, accountability and capacity.