Thematic Papers

Poverty and local governments

Food and the Poor and their relationship to the Millennium Development Goals How can democratic local governments reduce food insecurity in Africa? June 2007 [ html ] [ pdf ]

LAFIAS Local Authorities Financial and Institutional Management System a support tool for decision-making October 2007 [ html ] [ pdf ]

Achieving Results: Performance Budgeting in the Least Developed Countries August 2006 [ html ] [ pdf ]

Delivering the Goods: Building Local Government Capacity to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals A Practitioner's Guide from UNCDF Experience in Least Developed Countries October 2005 [ html ] [ pdf ]

Local Government Initiative: Pro-poor Infrastructure and Service Delivery in Asia Prepared for the February 2004 Regional Seminar and Learning Event on Local Governance and Pro-Poor Service Delivery in Manila, Philippines – co-sponsored by UNCDF, the Asian Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank Institute. [ html ]

Local Government Initiative: Pro-poor Infrastructure and Service Delivery in Rural sub-Saharan Africa. A synthesis of case studies prepared for the Third Africities Summit in Yaoundé, Cameroon in December 2003. This study is considered an important contribution to the policy debate on the linkage between improving local governance and poverty reduction. The full synthesis and accompanying case studies from four UNCDF local governance programmes programmes in Africa are available. [ html ]

Empowering the Poor: Local Governance for Poverty Reduction Analyzes some of the most important current international development initiatives and identifies some aspects of the conceptual frameworks of major international organizations and bi-laterals on poverty and on poverty reduction approaches. By focusing on a new understanding of poverty and its underlying factors, these frameworks, initiatives, and strategic thinking have achieved a broad consensus about the knowledge base on poverty and the challenges ahead. [ html ] [ pdf ]

Fiscal decentralization

Malawi Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers Study, Government of Malawi, UNCDF, UNDP (April 2001)
[ html ] [ pdf ]

Improving Revenue Mobilization in Malawi - A Study on Business Licensing and Property Rates (November 2001)
[ html ] [ pdf ]

Accountability in Decentralized Planning and Financing for Rural Services in Uganda
(Laura Kullenberg and Doug Porter)
[ html ]

Decentralized Financing - A background paper for the UNCDF Policy Publication, Taking Risks
(by Roger Shotton, UNCDF Senior Technical Advisor)
[ html ]

Fiscal Decentralization and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations (paper delivered at the UNCDF-sponsored Cape Town Participatory Symposium on Decentralization and Local Governance in Africa)
(Remy Prud'homme)
[ pdf ]

Transferencias fiscales en Nicaragua: de vuelta a lo básico
[ pdf (Spanish only) ]

Natural resource management

Lands of the Poor: Local Environmental Governance and the Decentralization of Natural Resources This paper focuses on local environmental governance and decentralized natural resource management. [ html ] [ pdf ]

Proceedings from the Cotonou Workshop on Decentralized Natural Resource Management, 2000
[ html ]

Participatory Eco-Development
(Susanne Frueh and Barbara Pesce)
[ html ]

Decentralized Natural Resource Management (paper delivered at the UNCDF-sponsored Cape Town Participatory Symposium on Decentralization and Local Governance in Africa)
by Jesse C. Ribot
[ pdf ]

Review of the UNCDF Eco-development programme
[ html ]

Decentralized planning and financing

Policy Impact and Replication

• Policy and Institutional Analysis and Programming Strategies A working paper to set out an initial framework for analysis and strategy in UNCDF programmes
  By Roger Shotton (1997)
  [ html ]
• Local Political and Institutional Structures and Processes (paper delivered at the UNCDF-sponsored Cape Town Participatory Symposium on Decentralization and Local Governance in Africa)
  by Dele Olowu
  [ pdf ]

Decentralization

• Cape Town Symposium on Local Governance in Africa Final Report
  [ html ]
• Key Issues in Sectoral Decentralization (paper delivered at the UNCDF-sponsored Cape Town Participatory Symposium on Decentralization and Local Governance in Africa)
  by Larry Schroeder & Matt Andrews
  [ pdf ]

Local Economic Development

• Local Economic Development (paper delivered at the UNCDF-sponsored Cape Town Participatory Symposium on Decentralization and Local Governance in Africa)
  by A.H.J. (Bert) Helmsing
  [ pdf ]

Local Development Programmes

• Governance and Local Development: Lessons from UNCDF in Africa
  This paper was presented at the Workshop On Local Governance and Poverty Alleviation Lessons of Experience, held in Tunis, Tunisia, in June 2005. The paper discusses the role of local governments of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the provision of infrastructure services. It is a key issue, because there is increasing evidence that a sustained investment in local infrastructure is a critical element for poverty reduction. [ pdf of paper ] [ pdf of PowerPoint Presentation ]
• Local Governance and Poverty: The UNCDF approach [2002]
  By Angelo Bonfiglioli, UNCDF LGU Senior Technical Advisor
  [ html ] (Abstract) [ pdf ] (French only)
• Policy and Institutional Analysis and Programming Strategies A working paper to set out an initial framework for analysis and strategy in UNCDF programmes
  By Roger Shotton (1997)
  [ html ]
• Technical Consultation on Decentralization: Supporting Rural Local Governments in Practice
  December 1997
  [ html ]
• Review of the Local Development Funds 1998
  [ html ]
• Local Development Funds: Promoting decentralized, participatory planning and financing [December 1996]
  By Leonardo Romeo, UNCDF Senior Technical Advisor
  [ html ]

Participatory Development Planning

• Gender Development: Investment Methods for Great Equity (Dec 2006): A UNCDF Working Paper, by Senior Technical Advisor Ronald McGill.
  [ pdf ]
• Decentralized Development Planning: Issues and Early Lessons from UNCDF-Supported Local Development Fund Programmes By Leonardo Romeo
  [ html ]
• Inclusive Planning and Allocation for Rural Services
  By Doug Porter and Martin Onyach-Olaa
  [ html ]

Post-conflict countries

Local Governance and Community-Driven Infrastructure and Service Delivery in Afghanistan, A Discussion Paper drafted by Sultan Aziz, UNDP, and Roger Shotton, UNCDF/UNDP
[ pdf ]

Local Governance Approach to Social Reintegration and Economic Recovery in Post-Conflict Countries: Towards a Definition and a Rationale, by Leonardo Romeo, Senior Technical Advisor, UNCDF. A paper submitted to an International Workshop on the Local Governance Approach to Post-Conflict Recovery (October 2002) organized by UNCDF, UNDP and NYU's Institute for Public Administration.
[ pdf ]

Communications for Development @ UNCDF

Participatory Diffusion or Semantic Confusion: The Endless Debate on the What and How of Development Communication Adam Rogers, Head of Communications and Public Information, UNCDF (November 2006). Originally published as a chapter in Media Matters: Perspectives on Advancing Governance and Development from the Global Forum for Media Development. [ pdf ]

ICT will ultimately bridge the digital and poverty divides Adam Rogers, Head of Communications and Public Information, UNCDF (November 2006) [ html ]

The state of communications in international development and its relevance to the work of the United Nations Adam Rogers, Head of Communications and Public Information, UNCDF (March 2005) [ html ] [ pdf ]