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Industrialized countries typically spend 50% or more of public sector resources to fund public services at the local level including public health services, access to drinking water, local infrastructure development, and so on. In contrast, developing economies typically dedicate a much smaller share of public resources to front-line service delivery within the local public sector. In countries like Bangladesh or Egypt, only about 20% of all public sector spending trickles down to the local level for service delivery. Dr. Jamie Boex, a Senior Research Associate, discusses the ramifications of this for international development and how The Urban Institute's Local Public Sector Initiative plays a role.

This short note provides an overview of the current and previous attempts to systematically measure -and collect data on- the scope and nature of (political, administrative and fiscal) decentralization in countries around the world. Despite the considerable quantity of scholarship devoted to the investigation of the causes and effects of decentralization, the current efforts to collect data on the various aspects of decentralization and local governance have not given rise to a single authoritative methodology. This void in the data with regard to decentralization provides policy makers and the research community with a considerably incomplete patchwork of information regarding decentralization, rather than resulting in a single, consistent and robust dataset regarding the depth and breadth of decentralization in countries around the world.

Although the Afghan Constitution provides a framework for a unitary and highly centralized public sector, the Constitution also recognizes the importance of subnational governance. The country’s policy framework for subnational governance and intergovernmental relations is contained in the Sub-National Governance Policy (SNGP) which was adopted by Cabinet in March 2010. Despite considerable efforts over the past few years by the Government and its development partners, only limited progress has been made on improving the effectiveness as well as the inclusiveness of subnational governance and service delivery. This Policy Brief argues that the primary obstacle to progress on subnational governance reforms is the absence of consensus -among government officials, policy makers, and development partners alike- on the organizational and budgetary status of subnational entities at the provincial, district and village levels.

In developing countries, through the process of decentralization, municipal officials are constrained by administrative and governing practices that reflect a highly centralized, command driven economic system that has left a lasting impact on the culture and behavior of municipal administrations. In order for these local governments to become efficient and responsive providers of local infrastructure and public services, individuals and the organizations in which they work have to be transformed from entities that are local administrators of centrally-mandated public functions -which in large part requires compliance with central government rules and responsiveness to instructions from the top- into high-performing local government organizations (HPLGOs) which are capable of proactively identifying and responding to local needs.

Bangladesh is widely considered to be one of the most centralized countries in the world. Yet in recent years, substantive reforms have taken place in support of a more decentralized public sector. Indeed, its Sixth Five Year Plan (SFYP) the national government has committed to bringing "basic public services to people's doorsteps." The government's stated policy ambition leads to a simple question: what share of public resources is currently used to fund public services "at the door step of the people"? In other words, what is the size of the local public sector in Bangladesh? Initial analysis suggests that the total size of local public sector expenditures in Bangladesh (expressed as a percentage of total public expenditures) is approximately 16.2 percent. Based on this information, the Government needs to decide whether the share of public spending that is currently being devoted to the local public sector is adequate to reach its policy objectives, or whether it should increase local public spending in the future.

Will Nepal's ongoing restructuring of the government improve the performance of the public sector? The signs are not positive. The process of restructuring is driven by ideological and perceived political opportunity, rather than by an analysis of the public services that the government provides to society. In this short Policy Brief, we raise the concern that the lack of emphasis placed on the local government level in the restructuring of the public sector—and the possibility that the district level might disappear in a future federal structure—is likely to worsen the already poor performance of Nepal’s public sector in terms of providing responsive, effective, and accountable public services.

This document is addressed to policy-makers, legislators, and their advisors in countries that are embarking on revising their land governance where it deals with government-owned land. The document suggests a well-balanced policy and regulatory framework for managing government land and other real estate (buildings, structures), building upon a generalization of relevant international experiences to date. This framework does not consider the issue of codifying property rights, property restitution, and other issues of general property reform.

This guidebook is designed to assist local governments on making initial steps for improving management of municipal land and build-up property, within a better-governance and better-practice framework. While this edition reflects some specifics of municipal land and asset management in Central and Eastern Europe and other former centrally-planned economies, it contains main elements that can be useful for local governments elsewhere. The guidebook covers 14 different activities, from how to get organized for a systematic effort to improve asset management, to issues of land and property inventorying, land management, financial analysis of properties and portfolios, and comprehensive asset planning.

This Guidebook provides practical advice to local governments on how to make municipally owned or controlled vacant land more attractive for potential investors. In other words, how to attract investors to buying land and make them willing to pay more for it. The Guidebook is addressed to decision-makers and technical experts at local governments who are engaged in marketing land to private users. This edition is revised from a version prepared initially for Serbia, and we believe this edition can be useful in any country where local governments try to release urban land under their control for private sector activities.

Angelina Jolie's movie, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," does not purport to tell us how conflicts like the one in Bosnia in the early 90's can be avoided, but it builds a mighty strong case for worrying about that question. It cries out for us to think about which present-day tensions or low-level conflicts are Bosnias-in-waiting, says the Institute’s Center for International Development and Governance director Charles Cadwell in this commentary for the McClatchy News Services.