Decentralisation in Uganda: Prospects for Improved Service Delivery
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Date
2008
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Africa development
Abstract
Since the 1980s, many Sub-Saharan African countries have been undergoing
structural reforms with a view to promoting efficient service delivery. Decentrali-
sation, defined as the transfer of authority from central to local governments to
perform certain duties, is seen as one of the public sector reform strategies to
increase service delivery. Decentralisation in Uganda began in 1986 with the
coming into power of the National Resistance Movement, which aimed at pro-
moting democracy and enhancing local participation. In Uganda, political de-
centralisation developed along with financial decentralisation. The goal of po-
litical decentralisation was to promote people’s participation in the democratic
process of Uganda. This took the form of Administrative Units – Resistance
Councils (RC)1
running from the village to district levels. Financial decentralisa-
tion, on the other hand, attempted to assign responsibilities and taxes between
the centre and local governments, to enable the transfer of grants and other
resources to different parts of the country, and to improve service delivery. This
paper will review different government, public and academic documents as well
as findings of other researches such as UN reports about decentralisation and
service delivery in Uganda. Based on these sources the paper will answer the
following questions: to what extent does decentralisation increase service de-
livery? To what extent does decentralisation increase efficiency, participation,
accountability and effectiveness? What are the challenges of implementing de-
centralisation in Uganda?
Description
Keywords
Decentralisation, Accountability, Efficiency, Economy, Effectiveness and performance
Citation
Muriisa, R. K. (2008). Decentralisation in Uganda: prospects for improved service delivery. Africa development, 33(4).