Intergovernmental Profile: Ecuador

The Constitution and the Organic Code envision Autonomous Decentralized Governments with elected councils at four territorial levels: regional; provincial; municipal (cantons and metropolitan districts) and parishes. The regional level–envisioned to allow for inter-provincial cooperation–was never effectively operationalized. Ecuador’s 24 provincias (provinces) include the special autonomous province of Galápagos. Although provinces were previously mostly a deconcentrated level, provincial governments are now led by an elected Prefect and Provincial Council. At the local level, the Constitution distinguishes between two types of local jurisdictions: Cantons (219) and Metropolitan Districts (2), the latter being the designation for the governance institutions of Quito and Guayaquil. In practice, their institutional nature and functions are indistinguishable. Canton-level local governments are referred to as municipios, or municipalities. At the lowest level of public organization, there are 1,042 parish jurisdictions (gobiernos parroquiales). Although there is a formal distinction between rural and urban parishes, in practice, their institutional nature and functions are indistinguishable.

Building on reforms contained in the country’s previous (1998) constitution, Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution–as further defined in the COOTAD–continued a push for greater democratization and decentralization of public sector authorities and functions. As a result, provinces, municipalities, and parishes are all (de jure and de facto) devolved subnational government institutions with their own (extensive) political, administrative and fiscal authority and autonomy. However, the ability of different subnational governments to contribute to public services and development is driven to a large extent by their access to financial resources. The transfer system favors cantons and metropolitan districts, as they receive 67% of total central government transfers, whereas provinces receive 27%, and parishes receive the remaining 6%. In addition, whereas provinces lack access to own tax revenues. municipalities rely considerably on own-source revenues, representing around 1.5% of GDP.

The Constitution provides for the assignment of functional responsibilities to different levels of government, although multiple governments levels are often involved in the delivery of public services within the same function. To summarize a complex division of responsibilities, it can be said that the central government mostly provides the recurrent part of public services like education and health (i.e., staff), while municipalities are responsible for spatial development, exclusively local functions (e.g., local roads, parks, solid waste management) and provide the investment part of concurrent public services (including for functions such as health and education). Provincial are governments are largely responsible for regional-level infrastructure.