The future of decentralization and multilevel governance in a rapidly changing context
New York City, February 26-27, 2026
The evolving role of the decentralization and multilevel governance community of practice
The need for global development actors to renew their focus on (local) public sector effectiveness comes after close to 25 years of declining attention to decentralization and local public sector governance. Given the expectation of a further reduction in official development assistance, the global Community of Practice that is focused on decentralization, localization and multilevel governance will be pushed to “do even more with less” and to innovate.
With the view that “public finance is development finance”, a larger share of development assistance will have to be set aside for public sector reforms that allow countries to be self-reliant, not only by strengthening domestic revenue mobilization, but equally importantly, making sure that public sector resources reach the grassroots with inclusive and efficient public services. The role of multilevel governance systems and the local public sector in this process cannot be ignored, especially in places where continued urbanization causes decentralization to emerge as an obvious and compelling strategy to boost public sector responsiveness and performance.
Regardless of the structure of a country’s public sector, ensuring responsive public services will typically require dedicating a larger share of public resources to frontline services; public sector resources will need to be allocated efficiently, equitably, and transparently across the national territory; and public sector resources will need to be efficiently transformed from public sector inputs (e.g., public finances and human resources) into public sector outcomes (e.g., public services and infrastructure) at the local level.
In practice, however, public sector resources flow to where they are directed by national and local decision-makers. As such, champions of inclusive multilevel governance and efficient public sector management will likely need to influence public decision-makers to allocate resources in ways that go against the political economy forces that—in many countries—have created challenges for effective local government finance, governance and performance.
Public sector responsiveness and efficiency will improve—and the value-for-money received by citizens will increase—when governments at all levels are more transparent, accountable and results-oriented, and when PFM systems track and improve the decentralized, spatial allocation of public resources. Public service delivery outcomes are hindered when resources get stuck at central government level (or on their way down the chain), rather than being spent and managed as part of an effective and transparent multilevel governance system.
The evolving view of development—and the role played by effective and responsive multilevel governance systems—also requires sectoral interventions. Recent events have highlighted the unsustainability of externally-funded, stove-piped sectoral interventions that fail to address the underlying capacity and governance issues that cause public sector institutions and frontline service providers to be unresponsive and ineffective. If the global development community is serious about a path to self-reliance for Global South countries, the balance in global development efforts between “laying pipes” and “fixing the country (multilevel governance) systems that lay the pipes” needs to shift towards greater emphasis on developing, empowering and capacitating the relevant systems.
Finally, the conversation on the future role of multilevel governance system is important for colleagues in adjacent practice communities working on issues related to conflict and fragility, inclusive economic growth, cities, climate change, gender equity, and other global challenges. Each of these policy challenges require collective action across different government levels, whereas their respective practice communities may not yet realize that ineffective multilevel governance forms a binding constraint to achieving their ambitions in a sustainable manner.
