Effectiveness of Local Government Systems, Pro-Poor Budgeting, and Policies for Marginalized Communities (original) (raw)
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UNISCI Journal, 2020
Contemporary development discourse confers a protuberant role to decentralization and local governance. To comply with this developmental demand, the Government of Pakistan introduced local governance and decentralization measures to use local governance system as a platform for localizing development and engaging local citizens. This article explores the historical level of the local governance system in Pakistan and the manifold problems that contributed to the absence of an adequate and capable local government system. Empowerment, accountability and transparency mechanisms in local governance systems are not functioning properly and hence the performance and results of the local governance system are very unsatisfactory.
Local Government Systems and Decentralization: Evidence from Pakistan’s Devolution Plan
Contemporary Economics, 2013
Most of the developing nations are still struggling for efficient use of their resources. In order to overcome physical and administrative constraints of the development, it is necessary to transfer the power from the central government to local authorities. Distribution of power from improves the management of resources and community participation which is considered key to sustainable development. Advocates of decentralization argue that decentralized government is source to improve community participation in rural development. Decentralized government is considered more responsive towards local needs and development of poor peoples. There are many obstacles to expand the citizen participation in rural areas. There are many approaches for participatory development but all have to face the same challenges. Current paper highlights the literature about Decentralization and participatory rural development. Concept and modalities of Decentralization, dimensions of participation, types of rural participation and obstacles to participation are also the part of this paper.
Decentralization in Pakistan - Making it Work for the Poor
Interestingly localization and globalization processes, either as result of domestic realization or in response to external demands is simultaneously making their room in Pakistan, each with its own hopes and commitments, problems and prospects. Local problems need local solutions and without reforming and reinvigorating local institutions in legal, political and economic terms, any effort for poverty reduction and development will be utterly sluggish and fragile. Strong and stable local government, no doubt with its own precautions and pitfalls, has enormous potential for effective and efficient service delivery and scope for economic opportunities with a direct bearing on the life of the poor. It is important to note here that in over half a century of its independent rule, Pakistan could have its local institutions out there three times only i.e. in 1960s, 1980s and 2000s, each time through a under the military government through presidential ordinance and all by a non-party electoral systems, hence the institutions have been standing on shaky grounds. Political parties and impartial analysts always suspect their legitimacy and read it as a tactics of the Military Government to legitimize their power and level playing field for their intention to become president mostly through engineered elections or maneuvered referendum. Financial system in the previous Local Governments was a centralized one and had a number of inherent flaws. The development funds were allocated to Provincial Ministries according to their expenditure plans. The main problem was the poor linkage between the ‘development’ and ‘non-development budget’. The development schemes and projects were undertaken with total disregard for the accompanying recurring costs. The funds earmarked for development could not be spent on non-development activities. The identification, appraisal, and approval of development projects were centralized. This led to projects, which had no relationship with the local priorities. The element of community participation was completely missing from the process. Project designs never insensitive to the community’s point of view. Adopting high cost technology projects was a common fashion where low cost technology could work. Measures for sustainability were overlooked in most of the cases. Allocation of funds was opaque and inequitable. Politicians were provided development funds on their own discretion to be spent on their own will, that were misappropriated or spent to enhance their own patronage within the community. At present, thickly populated urbanities and the nature of infrastructure necessitate city wide planning to achieve economies of scale, rationalize investments and deliver benefits of modern technologies to the people and the central objective of decentralization is to induce better environment, create new opportunities and make service delivery closer to people for their convenience, regular monitoring and constant improvisation. Along with the (GoP), several donors like Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Government of United Kingdom, Netherlands and Canada have are delivering funds for administrative and technical improvement, and to introduce a system of efficient financial management. After a precise description of the pattern of local government functioning at present, I will, here in this article, highlight the problems and constrains within the existing system of local government to realize that just putting a system in place without equipping it with technical and financial tools and fielding the necessary political support it can never facilitate people. On contrary to the claims, it might cause further difficulties to the life of the poor. Then finally, I will chalk out some of the recommendations and suggestions guided by theoretical insights and learned from the similar experiences around. Our assumption is that decentralization not only provides basic facilities to the people but if it functions at state of the art level, it is one of the most effective institutional arrangements that can help in reducing poverty.
Decentralization initiatives, Economic and Community Development in Pakistan
ijtef.org
The aim of this research is to give brief overview and introduction of community participation and Decentralization initiatives in Pakistan. Decentralized governmental system provides more room for community to participate and decides in collective manner for self improvement. History of Community development projects, structure of government before and after Decentralization, importance of collective action and government seven point agenda is part of this paper. Data was collected from 7 union councils of District Abbottabad of Khyber Paktunkhawa through questionnaire using stratified random sampling technique. Results reveals that Community based projects are more sustainable than that of projects implemented by local government.
Local Government System in Pakistan: A Historical and Critical Review
Pakistan Journal of History & Culture, 2017
The devolution of power in the structure of local government is the most effective way of enhancing public participation in the political affairs at grass root levels. This paper examines the process of decentralization in Pakistan. It provides an in-depth analysis of the historical overview of local government reforms starting with pre-independent period up to the current political setup. It is an interesting paradox that every representative political government in Pakistan has simply ignored the importance of local self-government and undermined these structure reforms, while each of the three military regimes of General. Ayub Khan, General. Zia-ul-Haq and Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has initiated and implemented the local self-governments reforms. Since the inception of Pakistan, negligence of decentralization by the politicians, the bureaucratic control, dictatorial apprehension, eventually led local government plans to regression. Comparative analyses of three systems of local self-government introduced by the dictatorial regimes have been made and the motives behind every local government plan and the potential impacts have also been explore
Provincial Local Government Systems of Pakistan; A Comparative Perspective
Annual Review of Social Policy and Development Centre, 2016
An empowered, accountable and efficient local government that is capable of addressing the needs of the people and promoting democratic participation is an imperative for appropriate allocation of resources and improved delivery of services. Pakistan's experience of Local Government is unique as all the local government reforms carried out in its history have been initiated by the non-representative military regimes. The democratic regimes have undermined those reforms and have largely unwelcomed autonomous local governments. A glance at history shows that no local government plans have been implemented by democratic governments resulting in the concentration of decision making in the center. The Eighteenth Amendment passed in 2010 by a democratic regime can thus be considered as an achievement towards devolution as it not only empowered the provinces, but also made it obligatory for the provinces to further devolve power to Local Government institutions. This is the first time in the history that Local Government System has not been devised from the center; consequently, the system is not uniform across the country. The extent of authority, functions, and fiscal discretions conferred to the Local Government varies in each province. The proposed paper compares the Local Government Acts of the four provinces. It offers a structural comparison exploring the rural-urban mechanisms of governance, provides an analysis of the local representation, administrative authority, mechanisms of provincial oversight and extent of fiscal devolution in each province. The paper concludes with recommendations for enhancing efficient service delivery at the local level.
Local Government System in Pakistan: A Historical Background
Pakistan Languages and Humanities Review, 2022
Most analysis in decentralization in emerging nations reveals that the disappointment of delegation of power is because of deficiency of the local government system, inefficient execution or catch of local authorities by the vested party, or a blend of these variables. The drawback was the insufficient conveyance of administration at the local level and the inability to reinforce the grassroots democratic system. This paper examines the local government system in Pakistan. The study analyzes its evolution in a historical context to better understand the potential cause behind the decentralization. Analyzing the evolution of the local government system is very interesting because a major step was taken to make this experiment. This research is descriptive and analytical and provides a brief overview of decentralization reforms starting with the pre-independence period up to the revival of local government from 1985 to 1999. The aim here is to take a look at the local government system in terms of their involvement and contribution to the country.