Democratic local governance in the Southern African Development Community region: Some emerging issues and challenges

Abstract

Recent reforms have been transforming the structure of local governance in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region. Since the 1990s, a critical objective of governance reform has been the strengthening of local government by the decentralization of powers, resources and responsibilities to local authorities and other locally administered bodies. These reforms have been labelled ‘democratic decentralization’ by scholars (Ribot, 2004; Olowu & Wunsch, 2004). Democratic decentralization refers to initiatives which entail the transfer of significant authority, responsibility for services, fiscal and human resources to local governance. The objective of the reforms was to capacitate local governance structures, as well as to increase the capacity and productivity of the public sector in general (Hope & Chikulo, 2000). Efforts to improve institutional effectiveness, accountability and service delivery at the local level thus have been a major focus throughout the region.