The Indian political party Aam Aadmi, which assumed power in the city-state of Delhi in 2015, introduced Mohalla Clinics (i.e. neighbourhood clinics) to provide free primary health services for all, as a response to the rising inaccessibility of primary healthcare facilities for the urban poor. These clinics were to be governed through Mohalla Sabhas (i.e. neighbourhood committees), which are instruments of participatory governance within the neighbourhood. The research compares promises and practice for Mohalla Clinics, especially focusing on governance and the politics surrounding it. The authors find that in their current form Mohalla Clinics are limited to providing primary curative healthcare and have shown limited success, although Mohalla Clinic users do save time and expenditure on primary healthcare, and the clinics have led to a more comprehensive form of primary healthcare than in the past. However, Mohalla Clinics are governed in a top-down fashion by the Government of the National Capital Territory-Delhi, and not by urban local bodies or the envisaged neighbourhood committees. As a result, they face problems that may inhibit their functioning in the long term.
{"title":"Decentralisation and urban primary health services: a case study of Delhi’s Mohalla Clinics","authors":"Sejal Patel, Priyankita Pant","doi":"10.5130/cjlg.vi23.6987","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.vi23.6987","url":null,"abstract":"The Indian political party Aam Aadmi, which assumed power in the city-state of Delhi in 2015, introduced Mohalla Clinics (i.e. neighbourhood clinics) to provide free primary health services for all, as a response to the rising inaccessibility of primary healthcare facilities for the urban poor. These clinics were to be governed through Mohalla Sabhas (i.e. neighbourhood committees), which are instruments of participatory governance within the neighbourhood. The research compares promises and practice for Mohalla Clinics, especially focusing on governance and the politics surrounding it. The authors find that in their current form Mohalla Clinics are limited to providing primary curative healthcare and have shown limited success, although Mohalla Clinic users do save time and expenditure on primary healthcare, and the clinics have led to a more comprehensive form of primary healthcare than in the past. However, Mohalla Clinics are governed in a top-down fashion by the Government of the National Capital Territory-Delhi, and not by urban local bodies or the envisaged neighbourhood committees. As a result, they face problems that may inhibit their functioning in the long term.","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46336162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper is a shortened version of a ‘think-piece’ prepared as a contribution to the dialogue at the 2018 Kigali meeting of the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network. Its purpose is to highlight both challenges and emerging practices in mobilising local governments, and other stakeholders, including those in other spheres of government and the private sector, towards advancing the scale and scope of local economic development outcomes around critical dimensions of inclusion. The paper is not intended to be an exhaustive report covering all the aspects of contemporary local economic development approaches, but rather to offer selective insights that might contribute to deepening relevant policy and implementation processes in an increasingly urban world.
{"title":"Promoting inclusive urban economies in a world of changing technology and patterns of trade","authors":"G. Robbins","doi":"10.5130/CJLG.VI23.7547","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/CJLG.VI23.7547","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is a shortened version of a ‘think-piece’ prepared as a contribution to the dialogue at the 2018 Kigali meeting of the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network. Its purpose is to highlight both challenges and emerging practices in mobilising local governments, and other stakeholders, including those in other spheres of government and the private sector, towards advancing the scale and scope of local economic development outcomes around critical dimensions of inclusion. The paper is not intended to be an exhaustive report covering all the aspects of contemporary local economic development approaches, but rather to offer selective insights that might contribute to deepening relevant policy and implementation processes in an increasingly urban world.","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48956417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper traces the history of local government in England (as opposed to the United Kingdom) since the early nineteenth century, and explores five long-term trends in its evolution. These are path dependence; the occurrence of major structural change; the phenomenon of policy reversal; the treatment of urban areas; and resistance to regional government. The author concludes that throughout the period under study, policy towards local government has exhibited a ‘pendulum effect’, with two opposing emphases operating in a sequential, rather than a simultaneous manner.
{"title":"Local government in England: evolution and long-term trends","authors":"J. Parr","doi":"10.5130/cjlg.vi23.7382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.vi23.7382","url":null,"abstract":"This paper traces the history of local government in England (as opposed to the United Kingdom) since the early nineteenth century, and explores five long-term trends in its evolution. These are path dependence; the occurrence of major structural change; the phenomenon of policy reversal; the treatment of urban areas; and resistance to regional government. The author concludes that throughout the period under study, policy towards local government has exhibited a ‘pendulum effect’, with two opposing emphases operating in a sequential, rather than a simultaneous manner.","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43300309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"Gareth Wall","doi":"10.5130/cjlg.vi22.7468","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.vi22.7468","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46982507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The emergence of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought many development activities to a standstill. The disruption to economic and other livelihood activities is unprecedented. Within the Ghanaian landscape, COVID-19 has become an overarching pandemic that has engulfed every facet of the national economy. The pandemic has exposed existing vulnerabilities in our communities that must be addressed to ensure resilient recovery. Serious economic challenges lie ahead that risk exacerbating poverty and unemployment, with national and local governments increasingly struggling to meet the needs of citizens. Addressing these challenges will require a paradigm shift in the way local businesses are modelled, livelihoods are shaped and how jobs are created. This is where Local Economic Development (LED) as a driver of innovation, employment and growth presents a great opportunity.
{"title":"Post-Covid-19 and local economic development (LED): sharing experiences from Ghana","authors":"Bilattey Bimi","doi":"10.5130/cjlg.vi22.7454","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.vi22.7454","url":null,"abstract":"The emergence of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought many development activities to a standstill. The disruption to economic and other livelihood activities is unprecedented. Within the Ghanaian landscape, COVID-19 has become an overarching pandemic that has engulfed every facet of the national economy. The pandemic has exposed existing vulnerabilities in our communities that must be addressed to ensure resilient recovery. Serious economic challenges lie ahead that risk exacerbating poverty and unemployment, with national and local governments increasingly struggling to meet the needs of citizens. Addressing these challenges will require a paradigm shift in the way local businesses are modelled, livelihoods are shaped and how jobs are created. This is where Local Economic Development (LED) as a driver of innovation, employment and growth presents a great opportunity.","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.5130/cjlg.vi22.7454","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43471159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article aims to assess whether or not property rates in Ghana are a good potential source of local revenue. Through detailed analysis of six local government case studies, we find that present prospects for most rural local areas to raise substantial rate revenue are circumscribed, but in urban councils they are more promising. Nevertheless, no council is able to collect rates fully and from all rateable properties. This is attributed to several factors: the politicisation of taxation; ethnic homogeneity; intergovernmental transfers; partisan local government elections; resistance caused by elite design; and the denial of public information. Although these factors have been identified in previous literature, the study includes new findings which challenge received academic thinking on how they affect local tax collection in developing countries.
{"title":"Property rate in Ghana: a poor local revenue source or underexploited potential?","authors":"A. Mohammed","doi":"10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7447","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7447","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to assess whether or not property rates in Ghana are a good potential source of local revenue. Through detailed analysis of six local government case studies, we find that present prospects for most rural local areas to raise substantial rate revenue are circumscribed, but in urban councils they are more promising. Nevertheless, no council is able to collect rates fully and from all rateable properties. This is attributed to several factors: the politicisation of taxation; ethnic homogeneity; intergovernmental transfers; partisan local government elections; resistance caused by elite design; and the denial of public information. Although these factors have been identified in previous literature, the study includes new findings which challenge received academic thinking on how they affect local tax collection in developing countries.","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49661536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Drawing on innovative local government and community initiatives from the United Kingdom and the United States, Guinan and O’Neill’s 'The Case for Community Wealth Building' is a timely and optimistically critical contribution to discussions on inclusive community-owned local economic development. This short thesis aimed at practitioners, policy-makers and theorists alike, looks at alternative models of local economic ownership. At just 116 pages, this accessible book, whilst drawing on a good if limited range of academic and case study literature, reads more in the tradition of a radical political pamphlet than a dense academic text.
{"title":"Review: The case for Community Wealth Building by Joe Guinan and Martin O’Neill","authors":"Gareth J. Wall","doi":"10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7442","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7442","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on innovative local government and community initiatives from the United Kingdom and the United States, Guinan and O’Neill’s 'The Case for Community Wealth Building' is a timely and optimistically critical contribution to discussions on inclusive community-owned local economic development. This short thesis aimed at practitioners, policy-makers and theorists alike, looks at alternative models of local economic ownership. At just 116 pages, this accessible book, whilst drawing on a good if limited range of academic and case study literature, reads more in the tradition of a radical political pamphlet than a dense academic text.","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43826207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 2013 and 2019, the local government legislation of the province of Punjab in Pakistan saw two rounds of major changes – each of which led to a new local government Act being passed. In 2013 the changes were driven by constitutional and judicial requirements and in 2019 by the political will of Pakistan’s new coalition government. This article analyses and compares the functional assignment (FA) architecture of the two Acts against a set of parameters. The study finds that marginal improvements to the FA architecture introduced by the 2019 Act are offset by continuing inconsistencies and lack of clarity over ‘who does what’ in the functions assigned to local governments. The authors suggest that improving the functionality of local governments requires full implementation of the design features of the new system, including institutional strengthening of provincial-level entities which regulate and oversee the local government system. Introduction Functional assignment (FA) is a diagnostic approach which seeks to specify the exact roles and functions of each level in a system (i.e. ‘who does what’). In recent years it has become a key concept in the academic discourse on decentralisation and local governance, following a growing realisation that judicious FA choices are an important component in the division of power and functions in a multilevel governance system, and a key element of strategies to strengthen the functionality of subnational governments (Ferrazzi 2005; GTZ 2009; Ferrazzi and Rohdewohld 2017). As a technique, FA has gained considerable traction in Asian-Pacific countries, and can be seen in Indonesia (Ferrazzi and Rohdewohld 2017), India (Aiyar 2015; Davis 2016), Cambodia (Ferrazzi and Rohdewohld 2017; Moazzam Ali Janjua Independent Development Consultant Islamabad Pakistan Email: majanjua58@outlook.com
2013年和2019年，巴基斯坦旁遮普邦的地方政府立法经历了两轮重大变化，每一轮都通过了一项新的地方政府法案。2013年，宪法和司法要求以及2019年巴基斯坦新联合政府的政治意愿推动了这些变化。本文针对一组参数分析和比较了两个Act的功能分配（FA）架构。研究发现，2019年法案对FA架构的微小改进被持续的不一致和对分配给地方政府的职能“谁做什么”缺乏明确性所抵消。作者建议，要提高地方政府的职能，就必须充分落实新制度的设计特点，包括加强对地方政府系统进行监管的省级实体的制度建设。引言功能分配（FA）是一种诊断方法，旨在指定系统中每个级别的确切角色和功能（即“谁做什么”）。近年来，随着人们越来越认识到明智的FA选择是多级治理体系中权力和职能划分的重要组成部分，它已成为权力下放和地方治理学术讨论中的一个关键概念，以及加强国家以下各级政府职能的战略的一个关键要素（Ferrazzi，2005年；GTZ，2009年；Ferrazzi和Rohdewohld，2017年）。作为一种技术，FA在亚太国家获得了相当大的吸引力，在印度尼西亚（Ferrazzi和Rohdewohld，2017年）、印度（Aiyar，2015年；Davis，2016年）、柬埔寨（FerrazziandRohdewhold，2017年；Moazzam Ali Janjua独立发展顾问伊斯兰堡-巴基斯坦电子邮件：majanjua58@outlook.com
{"title":"Critique of the functional assignment architecture of Punjab’s local governance legislation of 2013 & 2019","authors":"Moazzam Ali Janjua, Rainer Rohdewohld","doi":"10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7408","url":null,"abstract":"In 2013 and 2019, the local government legislation of the province of Punjab in Pakistan saw two rounds of major changes – each of which led to a new local government Act being passed. In 2013 the changes were driven by constitutional and judicial requirements and in 2019 by the political will of Pakistan’s new coalition government. This article analyses and compares the functional assignment (FA) architecture of the two Acts against a set of parameters. The study finds that marginal improvements to the FA architecture introduced by the 2019 Act are offset by continuing inconsistencies and lack of clarity over ‘who does what’ in the functions assigned to local governments. The authors suggest that improving the functionality of local governments requires full implementation of the design features of the new system, including institutional strengthening of provincial-level entities which regulate and oversee the local government system. Introduction Functional assignment (FA) is a diagnostic approach which seeks to specify the exact roles and functions of each level in a system (i.e. ‘who does what’). In recent years it has become a key concept in the academic discourse on decentralisation and local governance, following a growing realisation that judicious FA choices are an important component in the division of power and functions in a multilevel governance system, and a key element of strategies to strengthen the functionality of subnational governments (Ferrazzi 2005; GTZ 2009; Ferrazzi and Rohdewohld 2017). As a technique, FA has gained considerable traction in Asian-Pacific countries, and can be seen in Indonesia (Ferrazzi and Rohdewohld 2017), India (Aiyar 2015; Davis 2016), Cambodia (Ferrazzi and Rohdewohld 2017; Moazzam Ali Janjua Independent Development Consultant Islamabad Pakistan Email: majanjua58@outlook.com","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7408","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45052216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines performance management in Ghana’s local governments through a case study of the on-the-ground experiences of staff at Ada East District Assembly, in the south-east of the country. The study found that performance management is envisaged in the preparation of action plans. However, the evidence also showed that severe logistical constraints, poor capacity resulting from inadequate training and poor supervision remain key challenges. In practice it was shown that performance management may achieve its intended results when accompanied by continuous employee performance evaluation.
{"title":"Performance management in Ghana’s local government: a case study of Ada East District Assembly","authors":"Justice Nuse Sosu","doi":"10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7376","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/CJLG.VI22.7376","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines performance management in Ghana’s local governments through a case study of the on-the-ground experiences of staff at Ada East District Assembly, in the south-east of the country. The study found that performance management is envisaged in the preparation of action plans. However, the evidence also showed that severe logistical constraints, poor capacity resulting from inadequate training and poor supervision remain key challenges. In practice it was shown that performance management may achieve its intended results when accompanied by continuous employee performance evaluation.","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42055288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Government of Lesotho has drafted the Local Government Bill 2016. The Bill is supposed to be a reformist piece of legislation to transform not only the model of decentralisation established by the Local Government Act of 1997, but to also undo the colonial legacy of de-concentration. To this end, the government adopted a new decentralisation policy in 2014, which unequivocally provides that the model of decentralisation in Lesotho shall be ‘devolution’. Hence, the 2016 Bill is assessed in this light: whether it implements this policy decision. This paper contends that, while an attempt is made by the Bill to introduce some semblance of autonomy for local authorities, the model of devolution it introduces is in fact very weak and needs significant strengthening if decentralisation is to succeed.
{"title":"A critique of the newly proposed model of decentralisation in Lesotho","authors":"H. Nyane","doi":"10.5130/cjlg.vi22.7074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.vi22.7074","url":null,"abstract":"The Government of Lesotho has drafted the Local Government Bill 2016. The Bill is supposed to be a reformist piece of legislation to transform not only the model of decentralisation established by the Local Government Act of 1997, but to also undo the colonial legacy of de-concentration. To this end, the government adopted a new decentralisation policy in 2014, which unequivocally provides that the model of decentralisation in Lesotho shall be ‘devolution’. Hence, the 2016 Bill is assessed in this light: whether it implements this policy decision. This paper contends that, while an attempt is made by the Bill to introduce some semblance of autonomy for local authorities, the model of devolution it introduces is in fact very weak and needs significant strengthening if decentralisation is to succeed.","PeriodicalId":43511,"journal":{"name":"Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.5130/cjlg.vi22.7074","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44124210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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