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City Management & Governance |
Introduction
As many countries in the developing world decentralize fiscal and administrative responsibilities to the local level, cities are playing an increasingly important role in the provision of public services. Service delivery is the cornerstone of city governance and includes access to water, trash collection, solid waste disposal, wastewater collection and treatment, and electricity connection. The reliability, quality and cost efficiency of equitable services to all areas of the city -- wealthy and poor -- is the primary responsibility of local government, and is the most tangible result for which the community will hold their elected officials accountable. With decentralization, the responsibility of closing the gap in service provision among the poor and the wealthy falls to city governments, and this gap is large. Over 1.1 billion people lack adequate access to safe water, and nearly 2.5 billion people lack access to sanitation services.
The public sector alone does not have the financial resources needed to bridge this gap in basic service provision to all un-serviced areas. City governments will need to reach out to the local private sector and to citizens, particularly the poor to explore how public-private partnerships can improve and expand service delivery. Accessing the capital markets for financing or partnering with the private sector to deliver services, requires that city governments improve their financial management practices and demonstrate good governance practices. Improved creditworthiness for municipalities and achieving full cost recovery for local utilities is critical to efforts aimed at improving and expanding urban services, including to the poor.
Improved municipal and corporate governance is a basic pre-requisite for achieving better services. Beyond sound financial management, municipal governments and local utilities must also improve their strategic planning to ensure that limited local resources contribute to the city's vision of a better future for its citizens.
While municipal entities may carry the largest burden in the provision of services, national governments continue to play a key role particularly in establishing an appropriate legal and regulatory framework to encourage good governance practices. The policy framework should create incentives for improved performance as well as disincentives for corruption and mismanagement. Regulatory bodies need the resources and capacity to enforce policies aimed at increasing transparency and accountability at the local level thereby ensuring that the national government carries out its role in providing oversight.
For more information, contact Jessica Tulodo at
jtulodo@usaid.gov.
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