Financing Cities

Abstract

Focuses on current trends in municipal finance and the concerted efforts needed with accelerating urbanization in Côte d’Ivoire, where infrastructure requires expansion and upgrading, as well as improved financing and stable mechanisms for revenue generation. Systemic obstacles affect municipal budgets and impede public services under a decentralized model, and the devolution of responsibilities has produced contradictions, overlaps, and confusion. Municipalities have little capacity to finance infrastructure investments because of the limited level of internal resources, fiscal revenue, and government assistance, along with problems in the legal, institutional, and intergovernmental fiscal framework. Policy options must address the inconsistencies between devolution and decentralization alignment; strengthen municipal finance and revise the fiscal transfer systems in key areas; and leverage collaboration between regions, municipalities, and utilities to generate economies of scale in infrastructure services delivery. One promising area, intermunicipal collaboration, has produced groups that have launched development projects, provided towns with computerized systems, and established associations with regional and thematic groups.