Documents

This report of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) reviews the impact of the global economic downturn on local governments globally including 11 African countries. Salient foundings include:

1. Firstly: when local authorities are given the means and the possibility of managing their resources in keeping with local priorities, they are effective partners in combating the crisis by supporting economic activity and job growth
2. Secondly: the crisis also demonstrates failures in decentralisation processes. The weak level of control that local authorities have over their own resources and their strong degree of dependence on transfers from the State makes their situation even more fragile in times of crisis, since for budgetary reasons, national governments reduce, slow down or simply eliminate the amounts allocated for local authorities.
3. Thirdly: local authorities feel that the crisis will take time to overcome. This observation leads us to redouble our efforts to advocate in favour of decentralisation. In fact, local authorities are part of the solutions to the crisis and, if they have the means, offer an effective lever for promoting development.