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South East Europe Municipal Finance Review : Local Government Finance in the Western BalkansThis report addresses the limited access
 to local governments of data and knowledge of municipal
 finance issues in South East Europe (SEE). The objective of
 the analytical work under the SEE Municipal Finance Review
 (MFR) aims to (i) contribute to improved understanding of
 local government management and finance in the SEE Region;
 and (ii) contribute to improving the quality and consistency
 of key municipal finance data for improved evidence based
 policy making. The analysis presented in this report
 comprises the first attempt to review and analyze a regional
 set of disaggregated sub-national finance data in the SEE
 Region. Main findings of the MFR are presented in this
 report. Following an introductory chapter, chapter 2
 provides an overview of the decentralization framework in
 the SEE Region, including on the administrative and
 political structure of sub-national governments, their
 population size and distribution, and the service functions
 assigned to local governments. Chapter 3 explains in more
 detail the local government finance framework. This includes
 an overview of the structure and composition of sub-national
 finances, in particular (i) revenue and expenditure
 assignments; (ii) transfers and intergovernmental fiscal
 relations; and (iii) the evolving framework and realities of
 sub-national borrowing and debt. Chapter 4 provides a
 summary of the key trends and findings from the
 cross-country, regional analysis, complemented by detailed
 analysis of the disaggregated datasets, where available.
 Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes conclusions and provides some
 recommendations for a possible way forward. In the medium to
 long term, access to municipal finance information would
 contribute to increasing transparency and accountability of
 local governments, improving revenue collection and
 expenditure performance, optimizing budget allocation
 procedures, and strengthen local authorities' role and
 position in intergovernmental fiscal considerations and
 negotiations in the SEE countries.
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An analysis of the role of the South African Police Service and the local government in crime preventionSummary in English and Afrikaans
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Involving informally housed communities
 in shaping local government policies
 aimed at poverty alleviation:
 a South African perspectiveThis thesis discusses the involvement of informally housed communities in shaping local government policies aimed at poverty alleviation. Involving the poor in the design of anti-poverty policies at local level is regarded as an invaluable opportunity that should be used by municipal governments to make poverty alleviation efforts more demand-driven and therefore more relevant to the people they are meant to benefit. The argument is that because the poor know about poverty first-hand, they would be in a position to revive local government's capacity to respond effectively to their needs. But this does not come without a price. Because of the complexity of public management, participative democracy is liable to slow down the process of governance. It may also become advantageous to the interests of some people or groups of people at the expense of others if attention is not paid to the representation and consideration of all the voices in the community–to name two drawbacks. For this reason, it is essential to the realization of an effective bottom-up approach to anti-poverty policy-making that certain conditions are in existence and practical issues of involvement are worked through. Accordingly, it is the intention of this study to focus on two particular areas (conditions and practical issues that would facilitate the process of involving informally housed communities in the design of local government policies that affect their lives), which are investigated with particular reference to the South African context. Drawing upon a series of field surveys and a broad selection of relevant works of scholars from both the international and local scene, the picture that emerges is that there needs to be a proper level of government's commitment, capacity and legally binding responsibility coupled with a healthy degree of community's motivation, ability and organizational capacity in order to involve the poor in local governance efficiently. The study has also found that there needs to be proper forms of involvement (the most relevant of which are identified as an ombudsman, public meetings and residents' committees) that are to be employed with attention to such issues as stakeholders to be engaged, degree of participation, timing of involvement and topics for which public debate may be sought.