Decentralisation and Public Sector Management

Decentralisation covers a broad range of concepts. Each type of decentralisation has its own character-istics, policy implications and conditions for success. Political, administrative, fiscal and market decentralisation can appear in different forms and combinations across countries, within countries and even within sectors. GFA Consulting Group supports the process of transferring various forms of power and authority to local governments in Latin America, Africa, Europe, in the Maghreb and the Middle East, and in Asia. We take a comprehensive approach to local development. The need to enhance local governance and improve the delivery of services to the local population is seen as paramount for reducing poverty.

GFA ensures efficiency-gains and responsiveness by adapting the level of service quality and quantity to meet local needs and conditions; political accountability by participatory control and monitoring mechanisms at the local level; managerial accountability by using innovative approaches to decision-making and the provision of services; and inclusiveness by strengthening local democracy through an enabling environment that promotes citizen participation in local decision-making processes. Public sector performance and institutional quality have been given greater attention as a result of the debate on good governance.

GFA stresses the need for a new approach to capacity building that is comprehensive and holistic and linked to verifiable management and performance criteria. Governance matters and efficient and effective public sector management are prerequisites for effective decentralisation and poverty reduction. Here GFA emphasises the need to understand governance arrangements in the public sector and their link to public sector performance.

GFA focuses on capacity building in policy making so as to make institutions more conducive to pro-poor growth; on enhancing public service delivery by providing support to the respective government institutions and on improving accountability by strengthening public expenditure management.

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