Document Library

Administrative Decentralization: A Review of Staffing Practices in Eight Countries

Author: Anne Evans, with Nick Manning
Date: 2004
Size: 78 pages (562 KB)

Access full text: available online

Summary

What impact do different dimensions of managerial control have on administrative decentralisation? What lessons can be learned from the paths taken by countries with relatively high levels of administrative decentralisation? This unpublished paper prepared for the World Bank examines staffing and managerial control within the context of decentralisation. Based on case studies of decentralisation in Benin, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, and Uganda it proposes a framework for analysing managerial control.

Administrative decentralisation aims to enable local government: to hold staff accountable, to allocate staff, to manage financial resources and to attract and retain skilled staff. The means to achieve these objectives is to shift managerial control from higher levels of government to subnational government. Key dimensions of managerial control include budget transparency, budget and establishment control, recruitment, career management, performance management and pay policy. Changes in each of these dimensions contribute towards achieving the different objectives of administrative decentralisation.

Assessing the case study countries against the above framework of objectives and dimensions of managerial control reveals a range of decentralisation models. ‘Strong decentralisers’ tend to have strongly decentralised mechanisms for budget transparency, budget and establishment control, and performance management. Control over recruitment, career management and performance management, meanwhile, are the preferred points of entry for ‘intermediate’ decentralisers. Across all countries, there continues to be constraints on local control over wages, and the ability to attract and retain skilled staff remains a problem. Finally, administrative decentralisation will vary in its degree according to the extent to which it is in step with fiscal and political decentralisation.

Specific examples of practices from the case study countries include the following:

• Rapid assessment appraisals - The Philippines and Indonesia have used rapid field appraisals to provide quick feedback to government and recommend adjustments to decentralisation where needed.
• Coordinating committees - Some countries have used coordinating committees to deal with transition issues. In Mexico, for example, the National Health Council contributed to the relative success of decentralisation in the health sector.
• Local government associations - The creation of various ‘leagues’ of local government units has been a major feature of the shift to local governance in the Philippines.
• District service commissions (DSCs) - In Uganda, DSCs are responsible for recruiting staff and providing oversight of personnel practices in local government. They have the potential to promote recruitment of a qualified, professional local civil service.
• Recognition of excellence - The Philippines has established awards for innovation in local governance, which has encouraged innovation by local governments and highlights best practices.

The case studies can provide a number of lessons for developing an action strategy for administrative decentralisation, including the following:

• Recognise that some entry points are more feasible. Decentralisers should first think about devolving authority over performance management, career management and recruitment. They should provide local control over staff levels and allocation.
• Build on the entry points by decentralising mechanisms for budget transparency, budget and establishment control, recruitment, career management and performance management.
• Recognise constraints. Centrally-established base wage rates are unlikely to be devolved in the short or medium-term. Independent oversight of recruitment is difficult to establish.
• Recognise that achieving inter-local government mobility for senior staff by creating an open public sector labour market at the local level is institutionally challenging. However, an incremental approach may have a greater chance of success.

Access full text: available online

Source: Evans, A. with Manning, N., 2004, 'Administrative Decentralization: A Review of Staffing Practices in Eight Countries', Unpublished paper prepared for the World Bank.