empowerment and decentralization: the demand side

Empowerment and Decentralization: The Demand Side

Deepa Narayan, Senior Advisor

PREM,World BankMarch 26, 2003

Decentralization through an Empowerment Lens

• Efforts to date focused primarily on supply side• Empowerment approach focuses on demand side

Empower local communities through mechanisms that increase the four elements of empowerment

Focus on relationship between citizens and local governments

How can Empowered Local Governments Empower Poor People?

What is Empowerment?

Empowerment is expansion of the assets and capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control, and hold accountable the institutions that affect their lives.

• Capability

• Institutions - social, economic, state and global

• Participation and negotiation, voice and representation

• Accountability

• It is about change, in capacity of people, and the enabling environment

Empowerment Framework

Reform of State Institutions Local and National

Investment in Poor People And Their Organizations


INDIVIDUAL

ASSETS AND CAPABILITIES

• Material• Human• Social • Political




INDIVIDUAL



COLLECTIVE

• Voice• Organization• Representation




SUPPORT FOR EMPOWERMENT

• Information

• Inclusion/ Participation

• Accountability

• Local Organizational Capacity

INDIVIDUAL



COLLECTIVE• Voice• Organization• Representation

Rules, Incentives,

Resources

Norms, Behaviors, Processes




Nature of Social & Political Structures


• Information


• Accountability


INDIVIDUAL






Rules, Incentives,

Resources



Nature of Social & Political Structures

• Improved governance and access to justice

• Functioning and more inclusive basic services

• More equitable access to markets and business services

• Strengthened civil society

• Strengthened poor people’s organizations

• Increased assets and freedom of choice


• Information


• Accountability


INDIVIDUAL






Development Outcomes


Rules, Incentives,

Resources

No Single Institutional Model

Principles/Elements of Empowerment

Rights, Resources, and Support to:

• Information

• Inclusion/Participation• Accountability


Information• Uganda’s Decentralization: Elite capture

Citizens rely on the media for information about national politics (64%), but on community leaders for local information (70%)

Use of media impacts corruption perception at the local level Media access has positive effect on quality of service delivery

Inclusion/Participation• Project Performance in Indonesia

Study of 48 villages 38 % of all community development activities initiated by

communities without any government involvement Outperformed government activities on every outcome measure

Four Elements of Empowerment

Accountability• Corruption in Peru

Rated most important problem by 85% of public service users Local governments perform worse than national agencies Majority of users do not know how to report corruption

Local Organizational Capacity• C’Ote D’Ivoire, Water User’s Groups

Responsibility shifted from government to water user groups Breakdown rates were reduced from 50% to 11% Results sustained only where well-functioning community

organizations existed

Four Elements of Empowerment

Bolivia’s Experience

Decentralization through an Empowerment Lens

• Law on Popular Participation, 1994 Empowered communities to oversee actions of municipal

governments

• Administrative Decentralization Law, 1995 Redefined roles of administrative departments

• Survey of public officials in Bolivia Municipalities with greater transparency and citizen involvement

have greater poverty reduction, less bribery and job purchase Only where poor people’s organizations were already strong could

they take advantage of the new laws and openness Where local organizations are weak, vested interests of political

parties dominate

30

40

50

60

70

Low ModeratelyLow

ModeratelyHigh

High

Voice

Povert

y R

eduction Im

pact

10

20

30

40

50

Low ModeratelyLow

ModeratelyHigh

High

Voice

Fre

quency o

f B

ribery

45

55

65

75

Low ModeratelyLow

ModeratelyHigh

High

Voice

Quality

of S

erv

ices

Simple Average Association Controlled Causal link Margin of Error

30

40

50

60

70

Low ModeratelyLow

ModeratelyHigh

High

Voice

Accessib

ilit

y t

o t

he P

oo

r

Source: World Bank. 2001. Voice of the Poor and Taming of the Shrew: Evidence from the Bolivia Public Officials’ Survey.

Voice, Corruption, and Service Delivery in Bolivia

(based on responses of public officials of 57 government agencies)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Index of Transparency

Index of Corr-uption

High

Low

r =0.68

Supreme Court

Judges

Defensoria del Pueblo

Congress

National Institute for Development

Transparency and Corruption in Peru

Composite index based on the percent of respondents reporting that decisions about personnel management, bidding procedures and resource allocation in their own agency are transparent

Source: World Bank Institute. 2001. “Voices of the Misgoverned and Misruled: An Empirical Diagnostic Study on Governance, Rule of Law and Corruption for Peru.”

(based on responses of public officials of 57 government agencies)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

50 60 70 80 90 100

Index of Voice and Accountability

Index of Corr-uption

Low

High

High Low

Voice, Accountability, and Corruption in Peru

Composite index describing the existence of a system of external audit, consumer feedback, complaint mechanisms for the agency regarding personnel and budgetary decisions

Source: World Bank Institute. 2001. “Voices of the Misgoverned and Misruled: An Empirical Diagnostic Study on Governance, Rule of Law and Corruption for Peru.”

Community Groups

Local Government

What Has to Change?

Community Groups

Local Government

empowerment and decentralization: the demand side

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