Decentralisation and local governance

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This gateway guide is designed to point readers to the most useful, credible and up-to-date resources available on the internet in relation to decentralisation and local governance (D&LG) in a development context. It was prepared by Andrew McDevitt and was last updated in October 2011. Suggestions are welcome at: enquiries@gsdrc.org.

Contents:

• D&LG guidance
• Academic resources
• Networks and regional partnerships
• Journals

D&LG guidance

• World Bank: Decentralization and Subnational Regional Economics
  This World Bank thematic group provides a broad overview of the key themes relating to decentralisation and subnational economics with an emphasis on fiscal and administrative decentralisation. It includes guidance tools, seminar material and country level data on decentralisation.
  
• United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Local Development
  This website presents the UNCDF's approach to decentralisation and local development through institutional reform, policy change and capacity building. It includes a substantial collection of policy papers, country project papers, thematic papers and technical reports.
  
• UN-HABITAT: Urban Governance
  The urban governance section of the UN-HABITAT website includes a range of reports and other publications as well as information on the Urban Governance Index. The website also provides information on UN-HABITAT's Global Campaign on Urban Governance which aims to increase the capacity of local governments and other stakeholders to practice good urban governance.
  
• Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN): The Online Sourcebook on Decentralization and Local Development
  The CIESIN Online Sourcebook on Decentralization and Local Development is a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and three European donors. It contains an overview of key themes relating to decentralisation and a number of country case studies. It also explores issues in programme design and offers guidance on the RED-IFO model on decentralisation designed to support decentralisation policy-making and evaluation.
• UNDP Governance Assessment Portal: Local Governance and Decentralization
  This site explains how local governance indicators can inform local policy and strengthen local accountability, and how local governance assessment can be useful at national level in order to enhance decentralisation policies, strengthen capacities and compare trends across cities or districts. Resources include A Users' Guide to Measuring Local Governance, which provides guidance on the many different tools and methods being used to measure, assess and monitor governance at the local level.
• USAID Democratic Decentralization Programming Handbook (2009) 
  This Handbook conceptualises decentralisation as a reform that advances the exercise of political freedom and individual economic choice in a context of stability and the rule of law. It introduces key concepts, describes different forms, and discusses the goals of and programming strategies for pursuing decentralisation.

Academic resources

• The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) – Rural Decentralization and Local Governance
  This information portal on Rural Decentralization and Local Governance provides access to a range of full-text electronic publications, e-journals, e-newsletters, e-discussion groups and forums, websites, bibliographic databases, and directories of organisations and projects. It also includes three dossiers with a range of information resources on:
  - Capacity development for governance and decentralization
  - Natural resource management & land tenure  
  - Participatory planning, monitoring and evaluation
  
• Eldis: Decentralisation and Local Governance 
  This thematic sub-section of the Eldis Governance resource guide includes a regularly updated selection of research on decentralisation and local governance from a wide range of sources. The resource guide also has a sub-section on Urban Governance.
  
• GTZ – URBANET Online Library
  URBANET is a network of development professionals working in the fields of municipal and urban development, decentralisation and regionalisation. The online library contains a large collection of selected manuals, materials, workshop documentation, conference proceedings and technical literature from a wide range of sources.
  
• The Learning Initiative on Citizen Participation in Local Governance (Logolink)
  LogoLink is a global network of development practitioners working to deepen democracy through greater citizen participation in local governance. The website includes workshop documents, research reports and working papers, as well as a Topic Guide on Resources, Citizen Engagements and Democratic Local Governance (ReCitE).
  
• Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IDP): Decentralization Task Force
  The IPD at Columbia University has a number of international expert task forces which provide overviews of policy options for government officials and civil society. The decentralization task force analyses government decentralization policies using case studies to illustrate good and bad practice. The website includes a collection of background papers and presentations from task force meetings.
  
• European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM): Local Governance and Decentralisation
  This sub-page of the ECDPM's governance section hosts a collection of ECDPM publications on local governance and decentralisation with a focus on monitoring evaluation and case study material.
  
• Commonwealth Secretariat: Topic Guide on Decentralisation and Local Government
  This topic guide, produced by the GSDRC, provides practical guidance for designing, implementing and evaluating decentralisation reforms. It  presents current debates on the impact of decentralisation and local government on poverty reduction, service delivery and conflict as well as providing links to cutting-edge research and recent case studies.

Networks and regional partnerships

New additions