V. Kurian Baby, SPO, IRC
Empowered local self -governments (ELSGs) will be able to generate enough resources to meet their policy obligations. It depends on the depth and extent of decentralization; whether they are truly decentralized or only de-concentrated. Under genuine decentralization the powers, functions, finance and functionaries are fully devolved with a comprehensive empowerment /capacity building process on the basis of scientific need assessment to perform the devolved responsibilities. Responsibility drives capacity – if it can work at centralized level, it can effectively work at decentralized level too. However devolved responsibilities are to be determined through systematic activity mapping built strictly on the principle of subsidiarity – functions that could only be effectively designed and managed through decentralized delivery mechanism need to be devolved to the lowest appropriate level. Water and sanitation in developing country context is a typical case for local devolution whereas nuclear policy and defense shall not. Where participation and local ownership are indispensable for successful service delivery are to be devolved at the most appropriate level.
Most often skeptics argue that local governments have very little baseline capacity and hence devolution could be possible only after they gain critical mass of capacity threshold. This argument is the outcome of ‘’master morality of colonialists ‘’in history. There are global evidences of very successful wash delivery through decentralized management across the globe so also typical universal manifestations of service delivery failure through supply driven concentrated centralized delivery models in developing countries. There is also widespread scepticism about decentralization as a means to attain sustainable service delivery, as evidenced by the developing cracks in community management. The failure is not with decentralization but with the half backed process. The failure is systemic irrespective of centralized or decentralized institutional models. We have to take decentralized management further through deepening the process and professionalizing management. Professionalised management or professional support to management with adaptive local participation and ownership is the best delivery model for wash service delivery. One has to extricate himself from the conceptual shell of limited understanding of decentralization – synonymous to voluntarism and community management. There shall be a constitutionally/legally mandated local government in charge of governance for institutional anchoring and sustainability with a broad based and functional CBO network linked to the governance structure with transparency and role clarity. Voluntarism should give way to rational –economic human behaviour built on an incentive base in configuration to the degree and dynamics of social capital. It is quite illogical that an engineer or accountant working with private or government sector is well paid at the same time communities should contribute their labour voluntarily.
The decentralised model would reduce transaction cost, cost effective service delivery and maximize social welfare. Local governments are also ideal vehicles to manage very powerful informal governance structures typical for developing context.
