As noted at the beginning of this document, the main objective of this overview of decentralization and intergovernmental relations is to enable policy practitioners and policy analysts to systematically identify the strengths and weaknesses of a country’s approach(es) to decentralization and to leverage, whenever possible, a country’s intergovernmental systems in order to promote resilient, inclusive, sustainable, and efficient development in the context of the multi-level public sector.
In addition to the technical and political economy perspectives provided on the topic in the previous sections, it is useful to address two relevant issues related to the implementation of decentralization reforms in the real world. First, it is important to recognize that the global context within which decentralization and localization reforms are understood is changing quite rapidly. Second, it is important to give thought to the specific political economy dynamics and challenges faced by global development institutions, global foundations and other providers of external development assistance when operating and seeking to promote decentralized development outcomes in a multilevel public sector.
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