Since the 1980s, decentralization has improved local development adaption in a number of sub-Saharan African nations. However, in recent decades, this approach of autonomous local administration has encountered challenges, such as a decline in funding. However, Côte d'Ivoire's Law No. 2003-208 of July 7, 2003, on the transfer and distribution of state competencies to local authorities, permits local elected officials to mobilise funds locally by establishing revenue-generating ventures in a number of industries, including tourism. How can local tourism support local development in Côte d'Ivoire's decentralized villages given the country's diminishing financial resources? The goal is to demonstrate how local tourist marketing may serve as a lever for funding local development in the dynamic of enhancing living standards. 200 household heads in neighbourhoods chosen by reasoned choice participated in a questionnaire survey, field observation, direct and semi-direct interviews, and documentary research as part of an empirical method. The municipality of Seguela seems to be brimming with a variety of tourism opportunities. To highlight these potentialities, local officials have undertaken to boost local tourism through the opening of roads, the improvement of potable water supply and electrification, the creation of public spaces for tourist attraction, the cleaning of gutters and street sweeping, and especially the establishment of the "Worodougou Lôgôba" festival, etc. These municipal investments have resulted in: the commercialisation of agricultural products and local cultural craftworks, the emergence of various means of mobility, the attraction of customers to restaurants, maquis, and hotels; thus creating direct and indirect jobs. Due to the increased foreign cash earned by tourist taxes, this has made it easier to optimise local budgetary resources.
This article examines the interaction between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and territorial development in Akbou, Algeria, within the context of economic decentralization. Through a mixed-method approach, combining questionnaires, interviews, document analysis, and field observations, the study explores the role of SMEs in the local economy, as well as the challenges they face, such as access to financing and administrative complexity. Although rooted in local dynamics, Akbou's SMEs actively contribute to job creation, innovation, and strengthening social bonds. Cooperation between SMEs, local authorities, and support institutions is essential for overcoming obstacles and improving competitiveness. Recommendations include facilitating access to financing, promoting training, and modernizing infrastructure. These strategies could optimize the contribution of SMEs to territorial development, creating a resilient and inclusive economic ecosystem for the region.
The close but unclear relationship between the government and business undermines the honesty and fair competition in the government-business ecology. This research makes a field survey on the business environment of the representative private enterprises in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei by in-depth interview. The survey reveals some problems, for example the efficiency of government service has not been greatly improved after the "Decentralization-Control-Service" reform, the three-door phenomenon of private enterprises still exists, the financing difficulties are serious, the structure of talent policy is unreasonable, and some policies have not been well promoted and so on. These problems suppress the vitality of the private economy. It is suggested to carry out inventory assessment including positive list and negative list, to construct the probusiness, pro-people public organization culture, to strengthen the performance appraisal of civil servants, to improve the sharing of credit system and property rights pledge system, to play the financing guarantee of chambers of Commerce and associations, to establish the service policy for small and micro enterprises, and to implement special support policies for hightech talent in private enterprises.
Ghana’s industrial sector has evolved with the various stages of political and economic reforms since independence in 1957. Efforts to decentralize its key institutions to enhance economic growth has seen very little success especially in the area of linking industries to local institutions. Recently, the economy has been dampened by worsening macroeconomic environment, huge regional disparities and power crises. A number of policy and programme initiatives by the government have been undertaken especially in the area of revamping the local economies through the existing decentralized systems. This paper presents a critical review of the role of decentralized institutions in industrialisation in Ghana. The paper utilises annual data from the Ministry of Finance and Ghana Statistical Service from 1981 to date to show trends in growth patterns in the selected indicators.Despite key interventions, some regions in Ghana have failed to develop. The envisioned industrial geographical dispersion has not been realised as we find many Ghanaian industries concentrated in a few regions. The paper highlights the challenges facing Ghana’s decentralized institutions and identifies the opportunities that can catalyse the growth of Ghana’s industrial sector if key policy strategic reforms are undertaken. An industrial-led growth will ensure that the manufacturing sub-sector will be boosted to improve production and provide jobs. Industrialisation has been projected at the forefront of government’s development agenda. The paper provides a review that highlights the need to support decentralised institutions to enable them stimulate investment in industrial sector.
This note presents the methodology and \n findings of a field study on the financing needs of \n Madagascar's communes-the country's lowest but \n most institutionally advanced level of subnational \n government. Following a first round of municipal elections \n in 1995, more than 1,500 communes are now formally \n responsible for maintaining basic administrative services \n and social and economic infrastructure, including local \n waste disposal and sanitation. In addition, communes are \n responsible for identifying and coordinating local \n investments and for supporting implementation of the \n national Poverty Reduction Strategy at the local level. To \n finance these activities, communes receive population-based \n transfers and small conditional transfers, and can collect \n revenue from property, market, and consumption taxes as well \n as user charges. Yet little is known about how much these \n fiscal assignments satisfy local needs. As part of its \n policy dialogue with the government of Madagascar, the World \n Bank is engaged in extensive research that includes \n geographic mapping of social spending and a review of \n opportunities and obstacles to fiscal and sectoral \n decentralization. This research generated the following \n analysis of local and cross-sectoral service needs and \n available financing.
This paper explains the evolution of the metropolitan organizations that have been established to oversee the development of Metro Manila, provides a survey of their responsibilities, authorities, organizational structure, financing, institutional relationships as well as briefly assess their strengths and weaknesses. It then discusses the major management challenges in Metro Manila at present and how they are being addressed under the current set-up. Under the present decentralized framework, governance of Metro Manila becomes more challenging as cities and municipalities that compose it have political legitimacy and significant powers and authorities relative to the Metropolitan organization. However, the paper has emphasized that with proper allocation of powers, authorities and financing, the metropolitan body can take on a more important role in terms of actual delivery of metro-wide services. While the present metropolitan body appears to have taken on more responsibilities in the delivery of services transcending local boundaries, still a large part of these metro-wide services still remain with the national government agencies. This is primarily explained by the fact that while the national government has continuously provided subsidies to the metropolitan body, it still allocates a sizeable portion of the budget for metro-wide services to the national government agencies. These agencies, being line departments, are inherently concerned with their own sectoral priorites rather than serving the needs of the metropolis per se. Consequently, the metropolitan body is left with very difficult task of having to orchestrate the sectoral programs of various national government agencies, including metro-wide services. This situation not only makes government effort almost intractable but also increases costs in terms of both manpower and financial costs. The advantage of metropolitan governance under a decentralized framework is that it allows the local government units within the metropolis to respond directly to the priority needs of their respective constituents by seeking creative means to deliver urban services. This is attested to by the innovative programs and projects some cities in Metro Manila have implemented which have been included in this paper under the discussion of models of good city governance.