Administrative Decentralization Flashcards
What are functional assignments?
Functional assignments are the processes whereby state competencies are transferred from the central government to subnational governments and other local entities. They are aimed at clarifying who does what and imply a restructuring of the policy-making and implementation processes pursuant to a given allocation of competencies. This means that functional assignments determine the division of labour across different entities and levels of government in terms of policy making and policy implementation.
Functional assignments are a multifaceted process. How they work in a given context requires asking the following questions:
- What are the responsibilities that are transferred?
- How are responsibilities transferred and through what modalities?
- To whom are they transferred and with what level of discretion?
Why are functional assignments important?
Functional assignments clarify the division of labour across different levels of government in a country (intergovernmental relations) and within the local public sector (horizontal relations). This means that they do not only concern one level of government but all of them, as they determine who does what in the provision and in the production of services. Such division of labour is key to translate inputs into outputs and to ensure that citizens have equal access to services across the country.
They set the framework for effective fiscal decentralizations frameworks:
- Expenditure assignments: Expenditure assignments focus only on the authority to spend, whereas functional assignments are broader, as they include functions that do not entail any expenditure. Hence, expenditure assignments build on functional assignments and should be coherent with them.
- Revenue assignments: the amounts, the nature and the sources of revenues with which LGUs have to carry out their mandates cannot be adequately defined if the assignment of responsibilities is fuzzy.
- Clear mandates and local autonomy: the choice of levels of government to which responsibilities are allocated and the choice of modality to do so greatly determines the policy-making autonomy at subnational levels, which is a key ingredient for successful (fiscal) decentralisation.
Functional assignments are key for accountability: citizens can hold LGUs to account only if the assignment of powers is clear and transparent and if stakeholders know who is responsible for what.
Policy Choices
Policy choices are an essential consideration when assigning functions to various entities and government levels. A sector such as education or health is not decentralised altogether as a ‘block’. Every sector is composed of smaller units or inputs, such as subsectors, functions, sub-functions or tasks. Each of these is allocated to a different level of government or local entity, following one of the three transfer modalities (deconcentration, delegation, devolution).
The assignment of responsibilities is a multifaceted process, as it needs to distinguish responsibilities according to:
- functional classification (N.B. OECD Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG))
- roles in the policy process that are necessary to carry out a (sub) function—policy setting or service provision
- whether functions are shared or exclusive—carried out exclusively at one level or shared between two or more layers of government
- the modality through which responsibilities are transferred—deconcentration, delegation, devolution
Policy coordination in decentralized contexts
Formulating and implementing public policies in decentralised contexts requires a full understanding of how the public sector is organised (mapping different entities and their functions) and effective communication and coordination between different entities and levels.
Horizontal coordination at central level: inter-ministerial coordination is key for two reasons. The first is that different ministries are in charge of different dimensions of decentralisation and, therefore, need to coordinate to ensure effective decentralised frameworks. The second is that effective public action requires sector policies and decentralisation policies to be consistent with each other. This is generally ensured by means of functional assignments, structural and procedural reforms, and the transfer of sector resources to subnational authorities.
Horizontal coordination at subnational level for the provision and production of
services: efficient use of public resources in decentralised contexts requires great
coordination between the local government system and the sector system at
each subnational level.
Assessing the quality of functional assignments
Service provision and public action in decentralised contexts are very difficult endeavours. Ill-designed functional assignments can be one reason for poor policy results and a major bottleneck for service delivery.
If you want to assess whether functional assignments in a given country or sector are conducive to results, you may ask yourself the following questions:
- Are functional assignments in line with the principle of subsidiarity? If not, are there any mitigating measures in place?
- Are functional assignments stable, clear and known?
- Are functional assignments gradual and viable?
- Is administrative decentralisation funded or unfunded?
- Have functional assignments been based on adequate phasing and iteration?
Subsidiarity
The principle of subsidiarity posits that functions should be assigned to the lowest
level of government that is capable of efficiently undertaking these functions. The objective is to maximise efficient and accountable decisionmaking for improved service delivery and to ensure that there is a closer match between services provided and beneficiaries.
However, there is no one single best assignment or blueprint for defining the degree
of decentralisation that must prevail in the provision of a service. The assignment of responsibilities depends on many country specific factors, such as political, economic, geographical, historical and sociological trajectories.
Stable, clear and known functional assignments
Stability: functional assignments are unstable when higher levels can unilaterally modify attributions without clear, transparent and predictable rules. This creates confusions and spaces for opportunistic behaviours.
Knowledge: it is essential that functional assignments are defined in a clear and unambiguous manner and that all stakeholders know who does what and what is their particular mandate. Otherwise, it is unlikely that they will respect each other’s legal mandates and carry out theirs.
Clarity: particular attention needs to be paid to ‘shared responsibilities’. Frequently, legal texts only state that a function, for instance health, is a shared responsibility between the central and local levels. Such ambiguity can lead to disruption of public services (inertia) or inefficient use of public resources (duplication). It blurs accountability lines, preventing citizens from holding LGUs and central level to account for their respective responsibilities and leading to mutual complaints.
Gradual and viable assignments
For the benefits of decentralization to be realised lower tiers ogovernmenttn need to have the capacity to deliver their assigned functions.
Applying a uniform rule nation-wide: some countries opt to implement decentralisation to all jurisdictions at the same time and with the same ‘package’ of transferred functions and responsibilities at the risk of some entities not having the capacity to deliver.
Asymmetric allocation of functions: the asymmetric model accommodates a
dynamic and differentiated approach which allows the linking of capacities and
responsibilities, experimenting and sequencing reforms accordingly.
Funded or unfunded administrative decentralization
Funded mandates: central level finances the functions that local entities carry out on its behalf. To this aim, it allocates sources of revenues to meet administrative and delivery costs.
Unfunded mandates: subnational governments bear alone the costs of the services with their own pre-existing and already insufficient revenues. This undermines service delivery.
Phasing and iteration of functional assignments
Ideally functional assignments should include the following steps to ensure smooth implementation:
- definition of the responsibilities
- costing of the responsibilities
- assessing affordability
- composition of the funding sources for each service.
This process should be iterative in order to readjust the ‘package’ of transferred
responsibilities to the findings on their costing and affordability. It should also be inclusive, in order to integrate stakeholders’ inputs and to make sure they are knowledgeable.
Human resources and decentralization
The question of human resources is a frequent challenge for policy implementation in decentralised contexts. Shortage of local staff (e.g. health extension workers), highturn-over rates, absenteeism in rural areas, inadequate
profiles, lack of career prospects are, among others, recurrent features of human resources at subnational level. As a result, human resources are often unevenly distributed across the territory. Inevitably, this impacts negatively on the quality of service delivery and equitable access to services.
Addressing this is challenging as it touches upon very sensitive areas linked to civil service reform. In addition, budgetary constraints prevent (local) governments from recruiting additional local staff and providing financial
incentives to attract and retain qualified staff at local level. Attracting and retaining qualified staff in remote areas where amenities and services are underdeveloped is also a major challenge.
Decentralization and state building
Decentralisation is a multifaceted process that can contribute to building state capacities, depending on the mix between devolution, delegation, de-concentration.
It has played an important role in ensuring stability at teh end of civil wars and ethnic conflicts (Northern region of Mali, Northern Ireland, Bosnia).
It can also be a tool to maintain state legitmacy over time. States must fulfil two functions that are at the basis of their legitimacy—economic development and social harmony.
Fiscal decentralisation can be used to:
- promote local or regional economies
- Redistribution of resources: redistribution plays an important role to ensure state legitimacy, as citizens need to perceive the system as fair and equitable. Fiscal decentralisation allows two types of
redistribution: (i) it allows residents to access comparable services without heavier financial burden; (ii) it can bring disparities between jurisdictions down to a politically acceptable level through transfers,
equitable sharing of revenues and other arrangements
Effective representation: decentralisation can enable the representation of local constituencies and identities, and can help valorise territorial diversity. In addition, the links with their constituencies through elections or taxes, for instance, provide local governments with additional incentives to be responsive.
Decentralization and public sector efficiency
