Africa report – Study of Local Authorities Associations of EU partner countries (2015)

In the 1990s, the policy of decentralization emerged in most countries of Africa as the best approach to manage political change. Most African countries adopted the policy of decentralization as their reform policy. Constitutions were drawn and adopted. Local Authorities were created and responsibilities transferred to these entities. The provisions of legislations were that resources should also be transferred from national to local governments to enable the local authorities to function. In most of the countries, decentralization was a process to be implemented progressively. In some cases this implied that the transfer of responsibility and resources could not strictly respect prescription of the law. Also, those to transfer the responsibility especially at the level of the national government showed reluctance to do so under the pretext that it is progressive.

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