Poverty reduction has become a key international development priority in recent years. This publication examines some of the most important current conceptual frameworks and initiatives related to poverty reduction and identifies approaches taken by major international and bilateral organisations. It goes on to explore the conceptual dimensions of poverty and local governance, and the comparative advantages of decentralised governance in tackling poverty. It argues that greater involvement of local populations in decision-making processes may contribute to significant poverty reduction.

This topic guide provides practical guidance for designing, implementing and evaluating decentralisation reforms and local government practices to ensure they are as effective as possible. It includes summaries of key texts and provides links to cutting edge research and recent case studies.

African countries need to improve the performance of their public sectors if they are going to achieve their goals of growth, poverty reduction, and the provision of better services for their citizens. Between 1995 and 2004, the Bank provided some $9 billion in lending and close to $900 million in grants and administrative budget to support public sector capacity building in Africa. This evaluation assesses Bank support for public sector capacity building in Africa over these past 10 years. It is based on six country studies, assessments of country strategies and operations across the Region, and review of the work of the World Bank Institute, the Institutional Development Fund, and the Bank-supported African Capacity Building Foundation.

Drawing on field-based data and experiences from the practice of democratic decentralization and local governance over the last three decades in Ghana, this book examines whether and how democratic decentralization and local governance reforms in developing countries have produced the anticipated development outcomes. In seventeen related contributions, the authors present four relevant focal themes, including conceptual and historical trajectories of decentralization and local governance; institutional choice, democratic representation, and poverty reduction; local governance, resource capacity, and service delivery; and non-state actors, local governance and sustainable development. The book blends perspectives of scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers to provide a holistic analysis of linkages between decentralization, local governance, and sustainable development efforts, presenting a novel and useful guide for science, policy, and practice of bottom-up governance and development. It provides relevant lessons and experiences for scholars, policy-makers, and development practitioners in Africa in particular and developing countries in general.

Successful reforms need coherent approaches in which a range of stakeholders are willing to share responsibilities and resources in order to achieve the ultimate outcome of poverty reduction in developing countries. This book provides a framework to access intended outcomes generated by decentralization measures implemented in Asian and African countries. It is based on comparative analyses of different experiences of decentralization measures in six developing countries.

Despite the increasing occurrence of policies aimed at mobilising the financial and human resources of the private sector, most urban local governments responsible for urban basic services in the South do not have the capacity to initiate and sustain partnerships. Nor do they understand how they can create partnerships that target the poor. This sourcebook provides practical information and guidance to do so. With extensive illustrative material from Africa, Asia and Latin America, it sets out a strategic framework for building municipal capacity to create pro-poor partnerships. It focuses on implementation rather than policy. It locates private sector participation within the broader urban governance and poverty reduction agenda. And it is above all concerned to supply information on the issues and processes involved in making the public?private partnership (PPP) approach appropriate for service delivery in developing countries. The second in a series of capacity-building sourcebooks, it will be invaluable for those concerned with the capacity of local levels of government: policy-makers, municipal authorities, development agencies and practitioners, and all those involved in urban governance and poverty reduction.

A key part of any strategy for poverty reduction and for achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, lies in improved delivery of basic public infrastructure and related services. This Guide is intended as a modest contribution to addressing this challenge.