LITERATURE REVIEW
2.10 MEANING OF DECENTRALISATION
Most of the developed and recently developing countries have become democratic as there are elections which are held every five years. Some of these countries have two three or four categories of government, namely national, regional, provincial and municipal or local spheres. The process is called decentralisation, when central government is trying to be visible and closer to the people, the majority of whom are women. The aim is to empower the people when government is brought closer to them and women are supposed to the rightful beneficiaries. Central governments decentralise responsibilities to local levels and ensure that there is effective service delivery (Charbit, 2011). Decentralization is there to ensure that there is transfer of power, resources and responsibility to local government and other decentralised entities which are closer to the people (UNESCO, 2006: 8). Decentralization transforms the way government works and interacts with the public. According to Smoke
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(2003: 13) decentralisation is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon that varies across countries with different, political, institutional, fiscal and cultural characteristics.
With decentralisation, decision-making powers move from centralised government local government officials and ensure that there is participation of all stakeholders (Govender, 2008). One can state that it leads to good governance and allow participation by the people at the lowest level of government. Decentralisation fosters good governance as lower level officials are able to deal with the needs and challenges and therefore respond positively to community issues (Loh, 2013). However, there are other authors such as Grindle (2007) who are of the view that the relationship between decentralisation and good governance is complicated. For example, Grindle (2007) argued that decentralisation improves public sector responsiveness, accountability and makes service delivery more efficient and effective. In this way, members of the public should be able to interact with local government official on daily basis. Public servants at decentralised level become accountable as they are closer to the people. They have a chance of directly dealing with the needs of the community people. That means there are more opportunities for participation, more accountability and responsiveness (Loh, 2013).
According to Loh (2013), decentralisation does not allow the central government to interfere with local issues. When limited resources are allocated such as budget, money should be used on projects which are mostly needed by the people. In fact, a number of scholars have argued that decentralization policies benefit local structures by giving them more autonomy and control in terms of managing their budgets and more resources (Tiebout 1956; Musgrave 1959; Oates 1977) by limiting the involvement of the central government in the economy (Brennan and Buchanan, 1980) and by making markets more competitive and efficient (Weigast, 1995; Treisman, 2007; Gonzalez, 2012). Decentralisation one can say is all about participation in the decision-making processes and increasing accountability at local government level. This means that decentralisation can be a tool which can be utilised by community members, including women, to participate and be represented in public institutions created by the government that they elected into power. Basically, decentralisation was predicted to improve or strengthen civil society; increase local capacity;
and make government more accountable and responsive, able to use resources to satisfy citizen needs (Tulchin, 2012). There are different kinds of decentralisation which can be beneficial to all citizen including women.
21 2.11 KINDS OF DECENTRALISATION
Decentralisation can be categorised into three types, namely, administrative, fiscal and democratic decentralisation, depending on the nature and type of power that is transferred.
2.11.1 Administrative Decentralisation
According to the World Bank (2000), administrative decentralisation allows elected local officials to strategize and implement policies on anything under their jurisdiction according to the needs of the people. Administrative decentralization involves three positions of power that is, deconcentration, delegation and devolution. Deconcentration, is all about political, administrative and fiscal duties taken down to local level from the national departments (Crook and Manor, 1998). Cohen and Peterson (1999) pointed out that deconcentration can be a strategy to extend central control and closely supervise and monitor the implementation of national directives. Loh (2013) argues that with deconcentration, the national government may have taken decisions and local government officials would be responsible for the implementation of those decisions. Under deconcentration, it is possible for appointed local officials to be more accountable to central government than local population. This can negatively affect women especially when their interests have been overlooked by central government. Sometimes local people may find it a challenge to accept those decisions as they did not make any input. Women from different communities and class might have different needs at a particular time.
However, delegation is where there is no direct control by national government but responsibilities are transferred to organisations that are outside government structures (Blair, 2000; Crook and Manor, 1998). This can involve organisations such as the NGOs, local business people, private voluntary organisations (PVOs) etc. in this case, women may benefit when they are allowed to participate, are represented or members of these structures or outside organisations.
Lastly, devolution is where local government is solely responsible for outcome of the decisions they have taken. With devolution, local government is given more administrative, fiscal and political powers and support in terms of executing their tasks (Blair, 2000; Crook and Manor, 1998). Therefore, the role that is played by officials in each structure must be clearly defined so that resources may not be wasted unnecessarily. At this stage, government
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can ensure that women are participating or represented in order to influence decisions which are taken especially on issues that affect them directly. The second kind of decentralisation is fiscal decentralisation.
2.11.2 Fiscal Decentralisation
Fiscal decentralisation gives substantial income and expenditure power to local governments and other local entities (World Bank, 2000). With fiscal decentralisation, government believe that local officials are aware of the needs and preferences of the local people and are responsible to provide good service as they are closer to the people (Charbit, 2011).
According to the World Bank (2015), fiscal decentralization is responsible for its own expenditure, can generate revenue and work with other local entities better than the national government. However, there are some arguments that local governments may not be able to deal their finances effectively or as expected (Charbit, 2011). Should this be the case, women would be the first group to suffer, as their daily activities such as cooking for the family rely on the services provided at local government level.
According to Bockenforde, Elbabour and Megerisi (2013), the fiscal question can affect other parts of decentralisation when it cannot generate revenue. Local governments are closer to the people, and they know where to best invest the money than national government. That is why government must ensure that women are part of the decision making process or represented at local government. Another kind of decentralisation is democratic decentralisation.
2.11.3 Democratic Decentralization
Democratic decentralisation is sometime referred to as political decentralisation because it allows local government to be run by people who have been elected by citizens in a specific area of jurisdiction. The World Bank (2000) emphasizes that political decentralisation is about the power that is given to municipalities and councils as the people have trusted them by electing them to power. Therefore, it is important to represent those people and deal directly with local issues (Charbit, 2011). In a democracy, when diverse groups including women are represented, they may influence the outcome of whatever decisions that are made.
In fact, ‘decisions that are made with greater participation would be better informed and more relevant to diverse interests in society as compared to those made by national authorities’
(PRIA International Academy, 2015). Bockenforde et al. (2013) argues that when political decentralisation is not supported by administrative and fiscal decentralisation, it would not
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have any major impact. As a result, women would be the most affected as their interests would not be entertained. That is why it is important to understand why central government decide to decentralise power, responsibilities and resources.