Africa
It’s time for Africa
The famous song performed by Shakira at the opening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was just translating the new appetite for Africa that is rising up in the mindset of many […]
Month: November 2015
Asia
The Rocky Road to Federation in the Philippines
Federalism is a buzzword in the Philippines these days. A former chief justice of the Supreme Court, Reynato Puno, recently launched a highly publicised national renewal movement, Bagong Sistema, Bagong Pag-asa (New System, New Hope), […]
Political decentralization
Local Governments and Public Goods: Assessing Decentralization in the Arab World
Countries across the Arab world have been engaging in a range of decentralization efforts. This book, edited by Mona Harb and Sami Atallah, documents and assesses past and current decentralization policies and initiatives in five Arab […]
Asia
Ethnic Armed Conflict and Territorial Administration in Myanmar
Rural and mountainous areas across many of Myanmar’s non-Bamar regions are contested by multiple governance actors with overlapping claims to territory, including: the Myanmar government and armed forces, countless state-backed ethnic militia, and dozens of […]
Latin America & Caribbean
Decentralization of Water and Sanitation Services in Honduras
Honduras has one of the highest incidences of poverty and inequality in the western hemisphere. It is the third poorest country in Latin America with a population of roughly 8.3 million inhabitants of which more […]
Asia
Forest and Land-use Governance in a Decentralized Indonesia: A Legal and Policy Review
Indonesia’s forest and peat land fire in 2015 is recorded as the worst forest fire incident since 1997 with 127,000 fires across the country. These fires, mostly resulted from slash and burn method used to […]
Fiscal Decentralization
Municipal Finances, A Handbook for Local Governments
Municipal Finances, A Handbook for Local Governments (2014), edited by Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovic and Mihaly Kopanyi, is designed to help local government practitioners to improve strategic management of municipal finances. It provides practitioners, particularly staff of medium […]
Africa
Breaking Up is Hard to Do: The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Risky Decentralization Drive
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in the midst of implementing a big decentralization project. The so-called “découpage”—literally, “cutting up”—has been a long time coming: the decision to subdivide is enshrined […]
Climate action
Lessons Learned from the Local Climate Adaptive Living (LoCAL) Facility
Over 100 participants from over 17 countries gathered at the Sokhalay hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia — 2-4 November 2015 — to share lessons learned from the LoCAL experience and to coordinate the development of […]
Africa
Elections in Tanzania reflect greater political competition
Elections were held on October 25, 1015, in the United Republic of Tanzania, with more than 12,000 candidates from Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar—including 1,039 women—running for the Presidency, Parliament,the Zanzibar House of Representatives, and local District […]