IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sos/sosjrn/180210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decentralization and Poverty Reduction: Opportunities and Challenges in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Erol BULUT
  • Bashir Ismail ABDOW

Abstract

Kenya is the newest to join a growing number of countries opting for decentralization over centralization. Aimed to promote democracy, national unity, self-governance, equitable sharing of resources and creating checks and balances and the separation of powers; devolution in Kenya comes with massive expectations in a country that have failed to achieve its potentials. There exist challenges such as persistence of the old system, growing recurrent expenditure, shortage of qualified manpower, reported cases of corruption and lack of active local participation. Despite these challenges, a supportive constitution, vibrant civil society, and the democratic political structure of the country provide opportunities for devolution to succeed in Kenya.

Suggested Citation

  • Erol BULUT & Bashir Ismail ABDOW, 2018. "Decentralization and Poverty Reduction: Opportunities and Challenges in Kenya," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 26(36).
    • Handle: RePEc:sos:sosjrn:180210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dergipark.gov.tr/download/article-file/456840
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Crook,Richard C. & Manor,James, 1998. "Democracy and Decentralisation in South Asia and West Africa," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521636476, October.
    2. Crook,Richard C. & Manor,James, 1998. "Democracy and Decentralisation in South Asia and West Africa," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521631570, October.
    3. Galasso, Emanuela & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Decentralized targeting of an antipoverty program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(4), pages 705-727, April.
    4. World Bank, 2008. "An Evaluation of Bank Support for Decentralization in Client Countries," World Bank Publications - Reports 10595, The World Bank Group.
    5. Kent Eaton & Kai Kaiser & Paul J. Smoke, 2011. "The Political Economy of Decentralization Reforms : Implications for Aid Effectiveness," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2336.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Herrera, Veronica, 2014. "Does Commercialization Undermine the Benefits of Decentralization for Local Services Provision? Evidence from Mexico’s Urban Water and Sanitation Sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 16-31.
    2. Chikako Yamauchi, 2010. "Community-Based Targeting and Initial Local Conditions: Evidence from Indonesia's IDT Program," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(1), pages 95-147, October.
    3. Costanza, Jennifer Noel, 2016. "Mining Conflict and the Politics of Obtaining a Social License: Insight from Guatemala," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 97-113.
    4. Herrera, Veronica & Post, Alison E., 2014. "Can Developing Countries Both Decentralize and Depoliticize Urban Water Services? Evaluating the Legacy of the 1990s Reform Wave," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 621-641.
    5. Berenschot, Ward & Mulder, Peter, 2019. "Explaining regional variation in local governance: Clientelism and state-dependency in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 233-244.
    6. Julia Brown, 2014. "Evaluating Participatory Initiatives in South Africa," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(2), pages 21582440145, April.
    7. Frimpong Boamah, Emmanuel, 2018. "Constitutional economics of Ghana’s decentralization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 256-267.
    8. Veron, Rene & Williams, Glyn & Corbridge, Stuart & Srivastava, Manoj, 2006. "Decentralized Corruption or Corrupt Decentralization? Community Monitoring of Poverty-Alleviation Schemes in Eastern India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1922-1941, November.
    9. Andrew Wardell, D. & Lund, Christian, 2006. "Governing Access to Forests in Northern Ghana: Micro-Politics and the Rents of Non-Enforcement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1887-1906, November.
    10. Mogues, Tewodaj & Benin, Samuel, 2012. "Do External Grants to District Governments Discourage Own Revenue Generation? A Look at Local Public Finance Dynamics in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 1054-1067.
    11. Bidhan Kanti Das, 2019. "Denial of Rights Continues: How Legislation for ‘Democratic Decentralisation’ of Forest Governance was Subverted in the Implementation Process of the Forest Rights Act in India," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(4), pages 957-983, September.
    12. Fischer, Harry W. & Ali, Syed Shoaib, 2019. "Reshaping the public domain: Decentralization, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and trajectories of local democracy in rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 147-158.
    13. Christa N. Brunnschweiler & Samuel Kwabena Obeng, 2020. "Rewarding Allegiance: Political Alignment and Fiscal Outcomes in Local Government," University of East Anglia School of Economics Working Paper Series 2020-05, School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    14. Narayana, D., 2005. "Institutional change and its impact on the poor and excluded : the Indian decentralisation experience," ILO Working Papers 993769263402676, International Labour Organization.
    15. Binswanger, Hans P., 2006. "Leonard K. Elmhirst Lecture: Empowering Rural People for Their Own Development," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25713, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Cook, Nathan J. & Wright, Glenn D. & Andersson, Krister P., 2017. "Local Politics of Forest Governance: Why NGO Support Can Reduce Local Government Responsiveness," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 203-214.
    17. Service Opare, 2011. "Sustaining water supply through a phased community management approach: lessons from Ghana’s “oats” water supply scheme," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 13(6), pages 1021-1042, December.
    18. Westphal, Nico, 2011. "Political Decentralisation and Local Economic Development: Findings on the pro-poor responsiveness in 5 Cambodian communes," IEE Working Papers 193, Ruhr University Bochum, Institute of Development Research and Development Policy (IEE).
    19. Holzner, B.M. & de Wit, J.W., 2003. "Supporting decentralised urban governance : training women municipal councillors in Mumbai, India," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19145, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    20. Alexander Stoecker, 2021. "Partisan Alignment and Political Corruption: Evidence from a New Democracy," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 192-21, Universität Siegen, Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • H76 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Other Expenditure Categories

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sos:sosjrn:180210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Aysen Sivrikaya (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sosyoekonomijournal.org/home.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.