PublicationsThe U4 Blog

U4 Helpdesk Answer

Best practices in devolution and decentralisation programmes that may reduce corruption

It is difficult to identify universally applicable best practices in decentralisation or devolution programmes that address corruption. Evidence suggests that interventions in different programmes have ambiguous and mixed effects, and that success often depends on contextual factors such as depth of democracy and political will. Moreover, anti-corruption tends to be a secondary objective in most donor-driven decentralisation and devolution programmes, making it difficult to determine effective best practices. Nevertheless, this paper seeks to explore potential ways in which corruption can be reduced as a result of decentralisation or devolution programmes. It analyses various common interventions by donors to support devolution and decentralisation, such as improving democratic processes, institutional and legal capacity for local governments, supporting local-level public financial management, as well as a number of social accountability mechanisms.

30 August 2021
Download PDF
Best practices in devolution and decentralisation programmes that may reduce corruption

Main points

  • There is no clear-cut evidence between the relationship between corruption and decentralisation or devolution.
  • Evidence for what works to limit corruption in decentralisation and devolution processes appear equally ambiguous and context-specific.
  • That said, there are a number of tools that can be applied to support anti-corruption in decentralisation and devolution processes.
  • These include mechanisms that seek to create institutional change from above as well as interventions that contribute to accountable governance from below.

Cite this publication


Bak, M. (2021) Best practices in devolution and decentralisation programmes that may reduce corruption. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, Chr. Michelsen Institute (U4 Helpdesk Answer 2021:21)

Download PDF
Mathias Bak

Disclaimer


All views in this text are the author(s)’, and may differ from the U4 partner agencies’ policies.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Photo