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Decentralization, Accountability and Local Services in Sierra Leone : Situation Analysis, Key Challenges and Opportunities for ReformFollowing years of civil war that ended
 in 2002, Sierra Leone has pursued a policy of
 decentralization, devolving responsibility for many
 government functions to the Local Council level. The aims of
 this policy include achieving a more equitable and inclusive
 access to public services across the national territory, in
 part to alleviate regional inequities that contributed to
 the civil war. The implementation of the decentralization
 policy has faced many obstacles, however, including the need
 to rebuild local government institutions and capacity after
 30 years of centrally dominated governance; the limited
 devolution of financial resources; and multifaceted
 political economy hurdles. This report, first, analyzes the
 current state of decentralization in Sierra Leone; second,
 identifies the most prominent challenges to continued
 decentralization; and, third, discusses options for the way
 forward. The report draws on qualitative and quantitative
 data collected from both central and local government
 stakeholders, and takes the perspective that
 decentralization and strengthened local governance
 institutions are an effective means to localize development
 and improve the effective and equitable delivery of key
 public services. The study focuses on progress to date and
 standing challenges in four key areas of analysis: fiscal
 decentralization, human resource decentralization, ensuring
 inclusivity and accountability in local governance, and
 ensuring efficiency and responsiveness in service delivery.
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Cameroon - The Path to Fiscal Decentralization : Opportunities and ChallengesDecentralization in Cameroon is an instrument to meet multiple objectives. This report takes stock of Cameroon s experience with decentralization. It examines whether the design has been coherently formulated and preconditions for decentralization have been put in place. It also suggests short to medium-term proposals to make the process work better, within the constraints of significant data limitations. The design of the decentralization process in Cameroon reflects the normative approaches to decentralization-assuming benign officials and policy makers, and stipulating a normative allocation of responsibilities. In reality, a political economy story is at play, as suggested by developments in the positive literature that drop the assumption of disinterested officials. The legal framework relating to decentralization is overlapping, cumbersome and contradictory, and in many respects open to different interpretations. The main difficulty is that decentralized functions are ill-defined and not distinct from deconcentrated operations of the central government. This report examines the building blocks of the decentralization framework-starting in chapter one with a description of the status quo and the methods to be used. In chapter two discuss the unclear legal framework in Cameroon. The fuzzy spending responsibilities and lack of effective strategy to address the extent and scope of decentralization are examined in chapter three. The weaknesses in information flows and public financial management (PFM) issues, including in the budgeting, treasury and debt management systems are addressed in chapter four. Examine in chapter five the absence of effective own-source revenues that limits the accountability of local governments. This accentuates a general absence of hard budget constraints at the sub national level. In chapter six review some options for redesigning the transfer system, and some institutional arrangements. Finally, in chapter seven address the special issues related to forestry.
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Local Governance in Developing CountriesThis book develops a comparative institutional framework for responsive, responsible, and accountable governance in developing countries. It provides a synthesis of analytical literature on local governance. It traces the historical evolution of local governance and presents a stylized view of alternative models of local governance practiced in various countries. It also presents case studies for 10 countries by leading national and international scholars. The country case studies present an in-depth view of local government organization and finance in each country.