These case studies and the accompanying synthesis were prepared for the February 2004 Regional Seminar and Learning Event on Local Governance and Pro-Poor Service Delivery, hosted by the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. This Seminar is the occasion for practitioners and policy makers to come together to share lessons and to promote what is a critically important policy agenda in Asia.

UNCDF is delighted to be able to contribute to this agenda, and to do so in partnership with the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank Institute. We believe that these case studies on the role of local government in pro-poor infrastructure and service delivery in rural areas will help contribute to greater learning and to a more informed policy debate.

We also believe that this is an area which has been neglected. The majority of the literature on local government, and on better service delivery practice, focusses on the urban setting. Yet the challenges for improving service delivery in rural areas by rural local governments are in many ways qualitatively different, and frequently more daunting. Recipes which work for improving big city service delivery are often quite inappropriate when applied at rural Commune level. However, the fact that the great majority of the poor in Asia continue to live in the rural areas is a compelling reason for us to better understand these challenges, and also the opportunities for change.

Indeed the more positive note is that we believe there are important but little-known innovations – in policy, procedure and practice – which can greatly enhance the performance of rural local governments in Asia, and which can be replicated and mainstreamed into policy. The focus of these case studies is on a number of such innovations which UNCDF has been piloting in the countries under review. The three Asian case studies are supplemented by the case study from Uganda, in recognition of the widespread interest that Ugandan experience in decentralization is eliciting.

About this publication

This publication includes a synthesis of the case studies, prepared under the editorial direction of Roger Shotton, with substantial contributions by Richard Slater, Andrew Preston and Mike Winter. Summaries of the case studies are included in the appendix, and a CD-ROM with the full-text of the case studies is included with the publication. The case studies themselves cover the following themes:

Bangladesh: Local Governance & Service Delivery to the Poor, by Richard Slater and Andrew Preston. This study outlines lessons on the scope for piloting innovations in financing, participatory planning and implementing of basic infrastructure & service delivery by rural Union Parishad authorities in one district of Bangladesh, and documents their effectiveness, even within a national policy context which is not at the moment especially conducive for decentralization.

Nepal: Local Government Infrastructure & Service Delivery in Rural Areas, by Michael Winter. This study outlines issues and challenges in promoting innovations for more effective and equitable financing, planning and management of basic infrastructure and services by authorities at District and Village level in Nepal, and for feeding these into the national policy framework, but within the limits imposed by the Maoist insurgency and the current suspension of local elected bodies.

Cambodia: Decentralization Reforms and Commune-Level Service Delivery in Cambodia, by Leonardo Romeo and Luc Spyckerelle. This study documents the effectiveness of recent innovations in the financing, planning, and management of local infrastructure development and decentralized service delivery by commune councils. These innovations have now been mainstreamed as national policy in Cambodia, as part of the decentralized governance systems of elected commune authorities in both rural and urban areas.

Uganda: Lessons from Experience in Decentralizing Infrastructure & Service Delivery to Rural Areas, by Martin Onyach-Olaa. This study outlines the radical and comprehensive policy and institutional framework for devolution and local service delivery in Uganda and, within this, the role played by such innovations as performance-linked funding to District and sub-County governments in rural areas.

The publication of these studies, together with a set of companion case studies prepared for the Africities Conference (held in Yaounde’, Cameroon, December, 2003) marks the beginning of an important new direction on the part of the UNCDF Local Governance Unit. As an organization with a unique portfolio of operations across the Least Developed Countries, all aiming to promote pro-poor service delivery innovations in partnership with rural local governments, we intend to do more to document our experience and to share the lessons which emerge from this. We therefore look forward to contributing further to policy debates in this important area and to help, in a very modest way, in achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Kadmiel Wekwete
Director, Local Governance Unit
United Nations Capital Development Fund

[ Return to top ] [ Return to menu ]