000			01844pab a2200169 454500
008			180718b2003 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aRomeo, Leonardo G.
245			_aThe role of external assistance in supporting decentralisation reform
260			_c2003
300			_ap.89-96.
362			_a1 Feb
520			_aA paradigm linking public sector decentralisation reform to poverty reduction via improved local governance and development has provided the rationale for donor support of decentralisation and parallel efforts to build local government capacity. This article briefly considers the paradigm and reviews modalities of external aid to decentralisation, highlighting key limitations and contradictions. In spite of much rhetoric, decentralisation remains marginalised in a donor-government policy dialogue dominated by macro-economic and sectoral issues. Compartmentalisation within major aid organisations of the expertise and responsibilities to support administrative reforms, sectoral assistance programmes and commu nity development projects, produces fragmented and competing interventions that do not address and even retard the systemic changes needed to advance decentralisation. New and more effective partnership arrangements between decentralising governments and their external partners are necessary to link `downstream' assistance to local governments to `upstream' development of the national decentralisation reform framework and to help manage a gradual and strategic approach to implementation of the reforms. Donor support to `decentralisation policy experiments' may provide a new model for policy dialogue and the basis for building more effective partnerships. - Reproduced.
650			_aDecentralization
650			_aPoverty
773			_aPublic Administration and Development
909			_a55669
999			_c55669 _d55669