Development assistance Archives – Decentralization Net

Policy lending as a tool to help local governments deliver better services

July 25, 2026 LPS Alliance

Decentralization can expand access to schools, clinics, and clean water—but only if local governments have clear rules, funding, and skills. Well‑designed policy‑based lending can help close these gaps. Across Asia and the Pacific, development is […]

A new frontier for development cooperation: From localizing development to leveraging multilevel governance

July 2, 2026 LPS Alliance

Over the past two decades, the international development community has undergone an important shift in its thinking about development. Increasingly, policy makers, development partners, and international organizations recognize that achieving sustainable development requires more than […]

Decentralization under pressure: lessons from Germany’s long-term support in Africa

April 7, 2026 LPS Alliance

Decentralization has been a central pillar of governance reform across Africa for more than three decades. It has been pursued as a means to improve service delivery, to strengthen accountability, and to bring government closer […]

Who trusts the Government of the United States?

February 14, 2025 LPS Alliance

Less than two weeks ago, people acting on the authority of the President of the United States announced that they would “shut down” the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with the United States Digital […]

The Role of Local and Regional Governments In Development Cooperation

May 10, 2023 LPS Alliance

The context in which international development cooperation is taking place has changed over the last decade. Global poverty rates have declined, but economic and social inequalities remain widespread challenges —notably gender-based inequalities. Some of the […]

Aiding Afghan Local Governance: What Went Wrong?

November 13, 2021 LPS Alliance

After twenty years of an ambitious, costly international state-building effort, the government of Afghanistan collapsed in the summer of 2021 in a matter of weeks. The Afghan security forces’ remarkably rapid defeat earned significant attention, […]

Operationalizing women’s empowerment in development

January 23, 2021 LPS Alliance

One criticism of how women’s empowerment is operationalized in development interventions is the lack of consideration of its context specificity. A recent quantitative study investigates how women participants in development projects in Laos, Myanmar and […]

USAID: Placing decentralization at the service of the people in Peru

December 27, 2020 LPS Alliance

Despite having one of the world’s fastest growing economies in terms of gross domestic product growth rate, Peru historically has been unable to improve its public services at the same rate. This disparity was particularly […]