In recent years, decentralization and regional autonomy measures have figured prominently in negotiations designed to end some of the world's most important conflicts, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sudan. Reforms that shift powers to subnational units deserve the attention of those who are trying to promote security via institutional design, but the risks associated with these territorial reforms are considerable. When political and economic resources are transferred to subnational governments in the attempt to create meaningful access to the political system for former combatants, the great risk is that these same resources can be used to finance a continuation of the armed struggle instead. In response to the popularity of territorial reforms in many post-conflict settings, this paper sounds a cautionary note by evaluating the negative impact of decentralization on security in Colombia, site of Latin America's longest and deadliest armed conflict. After analyzing the design decisions of reformers who hoped that decentralization would help end the conflict, I argue that decentralization in fact financed the expansion of armed clientelism by illegal groups on both the left and right. Thanks to the weakness of the police in much of the national territory, guerrillas and paramilitaries have been able to use decentralized resources to destabilize the state, limiting even further its monopoly over the use of force and creating what are in effect parallel states on the left and right.
Open access
History and Politics in Latin America
Political Conflict and Governance
Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
O sistema de financiamento da educação no Brasil se caracteriza por uma estrutura complexa, com problemas de eficiência, eficácia e eqüidade, ao tempo em que se apresentam algumas iniciativas novas como possíveis soluções para as dificuldades enfrentadas. Estas características têm sido objeto de interesse crescente por parte de estudiosos e formuladores de políticas, tanto pela percepção das limitações do sistema vigente como pelas mudanças administrativas e fiscais promovidas pela Constituição de 1988 e, mais recentemente, por alguns governos estaduais e municipais. Este artigo analisa o referido sistema, examinando cada um dos aspectos acima mencionados. O texto inicia descrevendo a organização e estrutura do sistema, fornecendo, a seguir, um panorama das despesas em educação; identifica os problemas principais e descreve algumas experiências recentes que, de forma ainda parcial, tentam solucioná-los. Na sua conclusão, os autores argumentam que, para que se efetive as recentes mudanças, há necessidade de implementar-se procedimentos de avaliação e acompanhamento de forma a saber em que medida os remédios combatem as doenças ou os primeiros podem ser aperfeiçoados. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: educação; finanças públicas; sistema educacional; despesas em educação; municipalização; descentralização. Financing public education in Brazil: A political-economical perspective The system of financing education in Brazil is characterized by a complex structure, with efficiency, efficacy and equity problems, while presenting some new initiatives as possible solutions for the difficulties that are being faced. These characteristics have been the object of growing interest on the part scholars and policy makers, in terms of the perceived limitations of the system, as well as by the fiscal and administrative changes promoted by the 1988 Constitution, and more recently by some state and municipal governments. This article analyses the system, beginning with its organization and structure, and then provides an overview of education expenditures. It identifies the major problems and describes some recent experiences, trying to solve them in a partial way. In its conclusion the authors discuss that to put the recent changes into practice it is necessary to implement evaluation and assessment procedures that enable the identification and improvement of the most effective initiatives. KEY WORDS: education; public finances; educational system; expenses on education; municipality issues; decentralization. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br
Este é um trabalho sobre desenhos institucionais e seus resultados redistributivos, que toma como objeto de análise a política de saúde no Brasil. O modelo de descentralização do Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS –caracteriza-se por concentrar autoridade no governo federal, assim como financiar a política de saúde através de um sistema abrangente de transferências interregionais. Este sistema pretendeu, em período recente, acentuar seus objetivos redistributivos com a introdução do Piso da Atenção Básica – PAB, na Norma de Operação Básica – NOB98. Este trabalho pretende examinar a extensão em que um sistema descentralizado, cujo desenho institucional concentra autoridade no governo central para implementar políticas com finalidades redistributivas, logra reduzir as diferenças regionais no acesso aos serviços públicos. Para isto, testaremos inicialmente a extensão do processo de descentralização da política de saúde no Brasil, para em seguida analisarmos a extensão da equalização na provisão de serviços de saúde. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: política de saúde, descentralização, federalismo, desenhos institucionais, Brasil LOCAL CONDITIONANTS OF DECENTRALIZATION OF HEALTH POLICIES This paper is about institutional designs and ist redistributive results, and has as its object of analysis the Brazilian Health Policy. The decentralization model of the SUS – United Health System has as its characteristics to concentrate authority on the Federal governmet and financing the health policy through an ample system of interregional transferences. This system intended, in recent times, to increase its redistributive objectives with the intriduction of the PAB – Basic Attention Floor int the NOB98 – Basic Operation Procedure. This paper intends to examine the extension to which a decentralized system, which institutional design concentrates authority on the central government to enforce policies with redistributive intentions, achieves reduction of the regional differences in access to public services. To do this, we will initially test the extent of the decentralization process in Brazilian health policy, and after that we will analyse the extent of equalization on providing health services. KEY WORD: health policy; decentralization; federalism; institutional designs; Brazil. CONDITIONS LOCALES DE LA DECENTRALISATION DES POLITIQUES DE SANTE Cet article sur les schémas institutionnels et les résultas de leur redistribution a pour objet l’analyse de la politique de santé au Brésil. Le modèle de décentralisation du SUS est caractérisé par la concentration de l’autorité dans le gouvernement fédéral, ainsi que par le financement de la politique de santé par un vaste système de transferts interrégionaux. Ce système prétendait récemment souligner ses objectifs de redistribution grâce à l’introduction du PAB, à la NOB98. Cet article prétend examiner jusqu’à quel point un système décentralisé, dont le schéma institutionnel concentre l’autorité dans le gouvernement central pour mettre en oeuvre des politiques à finalité de redistribution, réussit à réduire les différences régionales pour l’accès aux services publics. Pour cela, on examinera d’abord l’étendue du processus de décentralisation de la politique de santé au Brésil, pour analyser ensuite à quel point il est équitable lors de la fourniture des services de santé. MOTS-CLES: politique de santé, décentralisation, fédéralisme, schémas institutionnels, Brésil. Publicação Online do Caderno CRH: http://www.cadernocrh.ufba.br
In the late 1990s the Indian state of Tamil Nadu experienced an unprecedented fiscal deterioration, which was part of the widespread fiscal deterioration in Indian states. This deterioration was troubling because current expenditure outgrew total revenue, leaving little fiscal space for infrastructure spending. The paper presents a framework for subnational fiscal sustainability analysis and applies it to Tamil Nadu where subsequent fiscal adjustment has been ambitious and politically challenging, but has promised to put state finance on a sustainable path and create fiscal space for infrastructure investment. The paper emphasizes the differences between fiscal sustainability analysis at the national and subnational levels, attempts to take into account uncertainty, and discusses the key components of the state's fiscal accounts and how they respond to reforms and shocks. Risks to Tamil Nadu's fiscal outlook include interest rate shocks, pressures on the primary balance, and contingent liabilities. Though the state's efforts to remove constraints to economic growth, minimize recurrent expenditures and maximize its revenue potential will be critical for fiscal sustainability, national policies feature prominently in subnational fiscal adjustment. Tamil Nadu's quest for fiscal sustainability is relevant for other countries. Decentralization has given subnational governments in developing countries significant spending and taxation responsibilities, and the capacity to incur debt. The fiscal stress of the Indian states echoed the fiscal crises of subnational governments in several other major emerging economies.
The 1971 ruling of the California Supreme Court in the case of Serrano v. Priest initiated a chain of events that abruptly ended local financing of public schools in California. In seven short years, California transformed its school finance system from a decentralized one in which local communities chose how much to spend on their schools to a centralized one in which the state legislature determines the expenditures of every school district. This paper begins by describing California's school finance system before Serrano and the transformation from local to state finance. It then delineates some consequences of that transformation and draws lessons from California's experience with school finance reform.
The Russian Federation has undergone a process of major constitutional change in the post-communist period, as a strong central government has ceded extensive powers to the regions. This has important implications for the organization of the health care system which, as with other elements of the Soviet system, had previously been highly centralized. Although it is now well-recognized that the powers of the Federal Health Ministry have weakened considerably, the precise scale and nature of the process of decentralization remain imperfectly understood. This paper provides new evidence on the nature of decentralization in the Russian Federation since the breakdown of the USSR, reporting the results of case studies undertaken in six regions of Russia (Samara, Tver, Tula, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Moscow oblasts) to describe the organization of health care financing, regulation and delivery. It shows that while there is a common model of health system (with the exception of Samara, where an innovative model was implemented), there are many minor variations. The study confirms the limited scope for action by Federal authorities, but also shows that the power vested in the regional governments is more limited than was previously thought. Instead, the municipalities (rayons) emerge as important bodies, as they own the facilities in which much of the routine health care is delivered and, both directly and indirectly, by virtue of their contributions of insurance premiums for the non-working, provide a substantial amount of health care financing. The study demonstrates the complexity of the Russian health care system and identifies the widespread absence of mechanisms that might be used to bring about much needed change.
China's transition into a market economy has exerted some influence on the health sector in terms of a significant growth of facilities, but it has also produced a range of destabilizing social costs. \n \n \n \nThis thesis analyzes the relations between healthcare pricing and payment reforms and the different delivery aspects such as the exemption program for the poor, public health programs for tuberculosis control and the provision of hospital services. A health economics and systems conceptual framework is used for analyzing aspects of the health systems in terms of market failures and the institutional response from governments and regulators. \n \n \n \nIn study I, the exemption programs for hospitals where the poor are relieved of paying the price or user charges are analyzed. The study is a case study where patient records from nine hospitals were reviewed, together with interviews with key informants and community representatives. The study showed that the discount offered was limited, where only a minority of indigents received discounts and the hospitals lacked incentives for efficiently carrying out the programs. \n \n \n \nStudy II investigates the effect of the new urban health insurance system on hospital charges. The study uses two tracers, acute appendicitis and normal childbirth, at six hospitals from two cities with different insurance systems. The result showed a lower rate of increase in hospitals charges in the city implementing the urban health insurance reform. Regression analysis showed contracting mechanisms and length of stay to be the main determinants for hospital charges. \n \n \n \nStudy III analyzes the operation of TB control programs in a decentralized financial system. A case study was conducted in four counties with different economic developments in the Shandong province. Data was collected from a review of documents and interviews with patients and key informants. The study showed weak government support to the TB control program and less developed DOT (directly observed therapy) programs in the poorer counties. TB patients suffered heavy financial burdens. The decentralized financing system had negatively affected the provision of public health programs such as TB control programs. \n \n \n \nIn study IV, the impact of retail price control of drugs on hospital drug expenditures was examined. The study is a case study at two hospitals. Total drug expenditures were analyzed based on financial records and a tracer, cerebral infarction, was used for an in-depth examination of prices, volume, expenditures and rationality of drug use. Findings showed that after the implementation of the drug pricing policy, total drug expenditures increased as rapidly as before. Drug expenditure per patient for cerebral infarction showed indistinct results, indicating that the regulation was not effective. Utilization rather than price was more determinative for drug expenditures. \n \n \n \nStudy V investigates the development of revenues, costs and performance in the hospital sector. In a sample of 41 hospitals in two cities, the use of inputs, investments and productivity was estimated. The findings showed that hospitals had expanded their staff and invested in new medical equipment. The corresponding change of outputs in terms of outpatient and inpatient performance showed a slower increasing rate, resulting in a diminishing productivity rate over time. \n \n \n \nThe market-oriented health care system in China is faced with different 'market failures' problems such as limited access to health services for the poor and the inaccuracy in relying on market mechanisms for services characterized by positive externalities, such as the public health programs. Financial autonomy has given health providers the incentives to maximize revenues. Government interventions to contain costs and improve efficiency show that a sole reliance on the price mechanism is insufficient and must be combined with other tools set by regulators and insurers.
We are now in the era of the G8, although the G7 still exists as a grouping for Finance Ministers. Why do G7 finance ministries and central banks co-operate? What are the implications of this co-operation for US power and the abilities of the other six states to exercise leadership? What role do the G7 play in global financial governance? How much authority do they possess and how is that authority exercised? This is the first major monograph on the political economy of G7 finance ministry and central bank co-operation. It argues that to understand the contribution of the G7 to global financial governance it is necessary to locate the process in the context of a wider world financial order comprised of decentralized globalization. It also provides original case study material on the G7's contribution to macroeconomic governance and to debates on the global financial architecture over the last decade. It assesses the G7's role in producing a system of global financial governance based on market supremacy and technocratic transgovernmental consensus and articulates normative criticisms of the G7's exclusivity. For researchers in the fields of IR/IPE generally, postgraduate students in the field of international organization and global governance, policy makers and financial journalists this is the most extensive analysis of the G7 and the political economy of global financial governance to date.
OBJECTIVE: To identify the effects of decentralization on health financing and governance policies in Mexico from the perspective of users and providers. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in four states that were selected according to geopolitical and administrative criteria. Four indicators were assessed: changes and effects on governance, financing sources and funds, the final destination of resources, and fund allocation mechanisms. Data collection was performed using in-depth interviews with health system key personnel and community leaders, consensus techniques and document analyses. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed by thematic segmentation. RESULTS: The results show different effectiveness levels for the four states regarding changes in financing policies and community participation. Effects on health financing after decentralization were identified in each state, including: greater participation of municipal and state governments in health expenditure, increased financial participation of households, greater community participation in low-income states, duality and confusion in the new mechanisms for coordination among the three government levels, absence of an accountability system, lack of human resources and technical skills to implement, monitor and evaluate changes in financing. CONCLUSIONS: In general, positive and negative effects of decentralization on health financing and governance were identified. The effects mentioned by health service providers and users were related to a diversification of financing sources, a greater margin for decisions around the use and final destination of financial resources and normative development for the use of resources. At the community level, direct financial contributions were mentioned, as well as in-kind contributions, particularly in the form of community work.
In this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Petti and colleagues [1] highlight the need for increased investment in laboratory services to avoid compromising patient care. Health care professionals are waking up to the realization that the development of new drugs and treatment strategies has far outstripped the ability of health care systems to deliver them to individuals who need them. The decision has been made by leading global health care funders that cost should not be a deterrent to providing effective treatment, even in the poorest countries. As a result, there are major drives to rapidly increase availability of antiretroviral drugs and antimalarial combination therapies. A similar and potentially stronger argument for prioritizing effectiveness over cost pertains to the provision of accurate frontline diagnostic services. Yet, as Petti and colleagues [1] illustrate, there is widespread use of “empiricism without laboratory support for diagnosing disease” in sub-Saharan Africa, which would not be tolerated in resource-plenty countries. What can be done to redress the imbalance and bring investments in diagnostics to a level that will support cost-effective deployment of available treatment regimens in sub-Saharan Africa? Let us consider how this might be achieved by exploring opportunities within the major areas of concern discussed by Petti et al. [1]: clinical misdiagnosis, inadequate health care infrastructure, and laboratory capability and diagnostic accuracy. Almost none of these opportunities can be realized by laboratory services in isolation; they depend on close partnerships between technical and clinical professionals and local and national health care managers. For many common infections in sub-Saharan Africa, including severe and nonsevere malaria and septicemia, clinical diagnosis is not adequately sensitive or specific. Because malarial and bacterial infections share similar presenting features, syndromic management [2] results in overtreatment of both conditions, increasing the expense and threatening the longevity of the limited repertoire of inexpensive antimicrobials. Often, frontline medical personnel have to make immediate clinical decisions on the basis of a limited number of diagnostic tests. Equally important are the refinement of this initial diagnosis and the targeting of therapies over the ensuing hours and days, which is greatly facilitated by good diagnostic facilities; thus, the laboratory is the most important determinant in this process. Ideally, rapid and accurate diagnostic testing would be available at the first consultation, to enable personnel to make the correct diagnosis and to avoid the waste of resources and increased ill health associated with incorrect initial diagnoses. In some cases, such diagnostic tools are available but are not in routine use, because they are considered to be too expensive or because they have not been adequately evaluated in real-life situations. Such tools include rapid dipstick malaria tests, anemia and HIV tests, and fingerprick hemoglobinometric tests. Much more investment is needed to evaluate and adapt existing tools and to develop new diagnostic approaches for common conditions. This is likely to be most effectively achieved through partnerships between researchers, policy makers, and commercial companies that are similar to the programs that have been used for drug development (e.g., Medicines for Malaria Venture). The availability of such diagnostic tools is not likely to greatly impact clinical care unless their use is underpinned by evidence-based guidelines that are implemented, supervised, audited, and embedded within local practice. The process of producing guidelines is based on the synthesis of published evidence from diverse sources and then adaptation to suit local circumstances, and it needs to involve collaboration between clinicians and laboratory professionals. A proposal to simplify the complex process of guideline development has been proposed recently by Raine et al. [3]. Laboratory services are one of the most neglected areas of health care provision in sub-Saharan Africa and are disproportionately affected by the staff shortages, poor communications, inadequate equipment, low morale, and lack of training that impinge on all those involved in delivering health care in poorer African countries. The reforms currently underway in the health care sector in many sub-Saharan African countries and the consequent decentralization of planning and financing could be used as an opportunity for laboratory services to move up on the priority list of essential services. This will only happen if laboratories represent themselves on key decision-making bodies, rather than being represented by other sections of health care services, such as pharmacy. Within top-level management, the voice of clinicians is generally much more powerful than that of laboratory professionals. Clinicians therefore have a responsibility to support and advocate for their technical colleagues in the laboratory service, to ensure that they are involved in decisions affecting the laboratory at all levels, and to promote, facilitate, and demand high-quality and responsive laboratory support for effective patient care. The fact that a test was done by a senior technician or that it was performed on a sophisticated piece of equipment in no way guarantees the accuracy of the results. Establishing, maintaining, and demonstrating the accuracy of diagnostic tests is a major challenge for most laboratories in sub-Saharan Africa. To do this, they need to have the skills and resources to institute regular internal quality checks for each test, reliable documentation processes, and access to an external reference center that is itself linked to and accredited by international quality-assessment networks. Laboratories must be able to show that they perform well in such an external quality-assessment scheme before clinicians can be confident that the results of tests they request will be accurate. The complexity and cost of setting up and maintaining such a quality-assurance system means that only a very few laboratories, almost exclusively those that are tertiary or privately owned, can provide evidence that their results are accurate. There are a few examples of innovative local schemes for simple external quality checks on key laboratory tests—for instance, sending blood samples, malaria slides, or sputum smears for tuberculosis diagnosis to neighboring laboratories and then meeting regularly to compare results and to reflect on any discrepancies. In addition, there are particularly good examples of local quality-assurance systems designed to evaluate testing in tuberculosis control programs that could be expanded to include the malaria test (another microscopy-based test) and further extended to other essential laboratory investigations, such as hemoglobin and transfusion-related tests. Even these local schemes require a high degree of motivation and organization by the laboratory staff, as well as support from clinicians and regional or national health care managers. Qualityassurance networks are one of the areas in which nongovernmental organizations and the private sector could play a much greater role, particularly in places where governmental health care systems are ineffective or dysfunctional. Outsourcing external quality assessment to such agencies would bring many mutual benefits, especially because many of the public-sector laboratory staff also work in the private sector. The current international focus on rapidly widening the access to antiretrovirals can be perceived as either a threat to or an opportunity for laboratory services in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a potential threat because strong vertical programs concerned with HIV care and management focus on the HIV-related aspects of laboratory services, thereby fragmenting the service and diverting scarce resources, particularly human resources, away from important non-HIV tests, such as those for malaria, anemia, and tuberculosis. On the other hand, if laboratory aspects of HIV programs are able to integrate into and strengthen existing systems, they will provide a unique opportunity to build the capacity of long-neglected laboratory services in sub-Saharan Africa. It is very surprising that the article by Petti et al. [1], which is wholly concerned with the provision of laboratory services in sub-Saharan Africa, does not include an African author. Is this indicative of the dearth of indigenous laboratory advocates in sub-Saharan Africa? As treatment costs for common conditions increase in poorer countries, the balance must shift away from syndromic management toward achievement of specific diagnoses. Laboratory services will have an increasingly important role to play in improving the quality and effectiveness of patient care, but, to do this, laboratories and their advocates need to be given a much louder voice on the international health care stage. Potential conflicts of interest. I.B. and K.M.: no conflicts.
Structural reforms focusing on decentralization of power have allowed local governments to undertake a broader range of cultural activities than ever before. However, such activities are mainly financed with subsidies from the national government and donations from companies, because local governments do not have sufficient sources of revenue on their own. Meanwhile, the 21st century is being called the era of art and culture. Although local citizens are impacted mentally as well as economically by the deteriorating employment situation, they are mentally encouraged by artistic and cultural activities. Moreover, there have been a growing number of cases where local communities are revitalized by artistic and cultural activities.This research is designed to identify activities that local citizens can experience in daily life in an effort to see if the local communities have gained control over cultural activities that used to be shackled by subsidies, guidance and advice from the national government (in other words, to see if such local cultural activities meet the needs of this era of decentralization). The data reflect financial aspects of these activities quite accurately. Having said that, each local government takes different measures for the target activities, from improving local cultural standards (e.g., increasing the number of local citizens who appreciate such activities), preserving traditional performing arts, enhancing publicity, increasing the number of people engaged in exchange programs, to community development (e.g., measures against depopulation). It is worth noting that most of these activities are undertaken by municipalities and non-profit organizations.While the 21st century has been dubbed the era of decentralization with the 1999 passage of the Law Concerning Decentralization of Government Authority, local governments receive subsidies exceeding 50% of their budgets from the Japan Foundation for Regional Art Activities under the control of the Agency for Cultural Affairs.JEL classification: R51, R53, Z11
This book addresses a variety of issues \n relating to intergovernmental finance and the provision and \n financing of local services including budgeting and \n financial management, the institutional framework for the \n conduct of intergovernmental relations, appropriate methods \n of service delivery in metropolitan agglomerations and \n remote rural areas, local government enterprises, user \n charges, property taxes, income and value-added taxes, \n natural resource taxes, and local business taxes. \n Throughout, the authors draw on experience both in Canada \n and in other decentralized countries and consider to varying \n extents the special problems facing Russia and other large \n transitional economies.
The usual manner of describing inequality in a population, involves income distributions. China has experienced rapid income growth, led by reforms which have exacerbated income inequalities. Other components of well-being have been affected as well. Education and health care have become less accessible due to increased costs linked to the decentralization of the financing of such services. The changing face of inequality in China is therefore not confined to income. As such this paper applies new tools to the measure of multidimensional inequalities on wages, education and health. The multidimensional aspect is critical because there may be compensating effects of one form of inequality with respect to others which can change the evolution of overall inequality. Results are submitted to the values of parameters which are included in the formulation of new indices and which translate the Chinese population's aversion to inequalities and the weight it gives to the different dimensions considered. My results show that there has been a significant increase in inequality in China between 1997 and 2000, irrespective of the dimensions one focus on, and that this increase is robust to reasonable variations in the underlying parameters.
ACILITATING urban infrastructure development and promoting the growth of local capital markets are among the most important development objectives for Latin America.For the most part, however, multilateral development organizations such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have addressed these two development issues separately.Multilateral-sponsored infrastructure development initiatives have focused primarily on providing technical assistance, equity grants, and subsidized bank loans, while capital markets development initiatives have consisted largely of policy-based advising and advocacy of structural reforms.'This Note proposes the use of multilateral-sponsored, local-currency municipal bond insurance to the most credit-worthy Latin American municipalities as a more leveraged, holistic approach to promoting development.Of the few multilateral-sponsored credit guarantee programs that have been implemented, most are designed for private capital investments and, in limited circumstances, sovereign debt securities. 2 A multilateral-sponsored municipal bond insurance program could reduce municipalities' financing costs for specific projects and encourage decentralization within the region, while simultaneously promoting the growth of domestic capital markets by encouraging greater reliance on these markets by Latin *J.D.
Omar Khadeer Hussain, Elizabeth Chang, Farookh Khadeer Hussain, Tharam S. Dillon
Risk is present in almost every activity. Alternately speaking, almost every activity may have some undesired outcomes which the person doing the activity hopes that they do not occur when it undertakes that particular activity. The quantification of those undesired outcomes can be termed as Risk. Risk is associated with Trust, Security and Privacy. Risk is also associated with transactions, businesses, information systems, environments, networks, partnerships, etc. Generally speaking, Risk signifies the likelihood of financial loss, human casualties, business destruction and environmental damages. It is important to define Risk according to the context of the transaction in order to understand and analyse it better. In the literature Risk has been defined and discussed in areas such as security, health, finance, environment and social life, but there is no systematic study of Risk in decentralized communications, which involves e-business, computer networks and service oriented environments. Hence in this paper, a particular attention is given to define and analyse Risk in the area of Peer-to-Peer business communications, where Risk is every individual and organization?s concern. Also in this paper we develop a risk indicator scale and develop a methodology by which the Riskiness of the peer can be rated according to its behaviour in an interaction. Risk indicator gives an early warning to the party involved and helps avoid disasters.
This paper examines the Annual Progress Report on the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. The broad thrust of the government’s strategy remains creating rural growth, accelerating private sector growth in the modern economy to create employment and incomes, and strengthening of public institutions to deliver services. The government has embarked on an aggressive program to accelerate progress as rapidly as possible, including a big push on education to create human capacity, expanding infrastructure as rapidly as financing and capacity will allow, opening the economy, building institutions, and decentralizing government.
What political factors influence the allocation of economic patronage in democracies? Answering this question is vital to improving our knowledge of how states and markets interact. In this paper, I argue that changing levels of party centralization can drive important changes in the allocation of state largess. When governing parties are centralized, national party leaders will control sources of patronage, targeting benefits to particularly influential regions and industries. By contrast, when governing parties are decentralized, influential sub-national party leaders will advocate for their constituents, allocating patronage evenly through a national logroll. I find evidence for these relationships by comparing India's distribution process for industrial licenses and government finance under a decentralized Congress Party (1954-61) to its distribution process under a centralized Congress Party (1969-75).
Contracting out is the practice of public sector or private firms of employing and financing an outside agent to perform some specific task rather than managing it themselves.The rationale for contracting is that public providers lack the incentive to use resources efficiently, and that private (or autonomous) providers are more efficient than public providers.Contracting out clearly separates the roles of purchaser and provider, and tightly links payment to performance of the provider.According to classical economic theory, contracting stimulates competition among providers in managed markets, induces cost awareness among providers and purchasers, and enhances transparency in negotiations.Providers are forced to minimize production cost and adjust the prices to meet the demand and requirements of purchasers.All these factors contribute to efficiency.In addition, contracting would promote decentralization managerial responsibility, a shift that would translate in efficiency gains in contrast to the old highly-centralized, bureaucratic structure, considered insensitive of the cost implications of allocative decisions.As is the case with any model, contracting out approach is not a panacea to all health problems.But in light of the limited absorptive capacity of the public sector, it is an alternative strategy worth considering for increasing the coverage and the quality of services in developing countries such as Indonesia.Monitoring and evaluation is an indispensible instrument for contracting out to exhibit its relative advantages.
The growth of Africa’s towns and cities has outpaced local authority capacity in terms of management, infrastructure, and financing. Many African towns and cities are now facing a governance crisis. Accordingly, the capability and capacity of urban local government to provide basic services to a growing population have entered the core of the development debate. In particular, fiscal decentralization – the devolution of revenue mobilization and spending powers to lower levels of government – has become a main theme of urban governance in recent years.\nThis paper explores the opportunities and constraints facing local revenue mobilization in urban settings in Africa. The study examines various revenue instruments available, including property taxes, business licences, and user fees, and their effect on economic efficiency and income distribution. Moreover, political and administrative constraints facing various revenue instruments and factors impacting on citizens’ compliance behaviour are discussed. The analysis is exemplified by cases from across Africa and other regions. Local governments need to be given access to adequate resources to do the job with which they are entrusted. However, a general conclusion emerging from this study is that local revenues mobilized in most urban authorities in Africa are necessary but not sufficient to develop and supply adequate services for the fast-growing urban population.
Only for the recipients of foreign aid is something akin to central planning seen as a way to achieve prosperity. The end of poverty is achieved with free markets and democracy—where decentralized “searchers” look for ways to meet individual needs—not Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The PRSPs and MDGs create lots of bureaucracy but hold no one specific agency in foreign aid accountable for any one specific task. Planners in foreign aid use the old failed models of the past—the “Financing Gap”, the “poverty trap”, the government-to-government aid model; and the “expenditures = outcomes” mentality. Searchers in foreign aid would imitate the feedback and accountability of markets and democracy to provide goods and services to individuals until homegrown markets and democracy end poverty in the society as a whole. An example of the more promising “searchers” approach in foreign aid is 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate Mohammad Yunus and Grameen Bank.
There is increasing interest in fiscal decentralization in Peru as a mechanism to generate more involved decision-making at the subnational level. This is tempered with a continuing emphasis on overall fiscal stability. However, considerable work needs to be undertaken to define more clearly expenditure responsibilities and financing mechanisms that increase local accountability. In addition, a more transparent fiscal transfer system is needed, together with clarity in expenditure management at all levels of government. The paper suggests that a substantial work agenda is needed to extend the decentralization process with greater transparency.