From This Place Maaza Mengiste (bio) Geography. What does it mean to write from a place? Are we obligated, as writers, to constantly look back to those who came before us in order to validate what we are writing now? These questions felt like a persistent hum in the classrooms of the 2014 Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop in Barbados and the UK. They were both intriguing inquiries and subtle challenges. How far could we walk away from origin, from identity, from family, in our writing? What would we then be walking towards? In May in Barbados, then again in October in London, two separate groups of Callaloo students found themselves grappling with similar questions. Together, we asked each other what it meant to write from the place where we stood, and questioned the distances imagination could travel. It was difficult to ignore what it might mean to write while in the United Kingdom. The Brixton Cultural Archives in London, where the UK workshop met, houses the long and forgotten history of black people in Britain. It is the only institution of its kind in the country. Daily, the London workshop and I held class just above an exhibition on the first floor called âRe-imagine: Black Women in Britain.â Every day for a week, my students and I walked past a black-and-white image of a solemn, proud black woman caught in sepia tone. Each time I passed her, I couldnât help imagining the image we made: two kinds of women, two kinds of histories, two kinds of lives crossing paths in a building that was the culmination of a thirty-three-year-struggle for its existence. We build to stake permanent claim on a segment of land, to affix into dirt the physical evidence of who we are, and who we aim to become. I am of this place, and I will spring from this place. Look and acknowledge that I exist, this place is proof. On the way to the campus of the University of the West Indies, where the Barbados workshop was held, I passed a collection of quaint, brightly colored boutique shops called Chattel Village. It was easy to ignore the name, to pivot into the trap door of forgetfulness and marvel instead at the loveliness of the manicured grounds, the neatly painted verandas, the welcoming signs that beckoned customers to step inside, to sit down, to make themselves at home. But in the classroom, it became more difficult to look away. Chattel: an item of personal property that is not real estate; definition two: a slave. In both Barbados and London, I asked my students the same question: What is at stake in your writing? Passing that faded black-and-white photograph in London and walking past Chattel Village, the question echoed. What is at stake in what we write? How much does where we come from matter to the prose we construct? Are writers bound by a loyalty to the past and to the forgotten? Can we climb out of historyâs hold, move away from geography, and simply writeâuntethered? The stories I read, gathered around a table with those talented, diligent students, grappled with the implications of history, the weighted imaginative space that geography created, the freedom that sprang from knowing the past, [End Page 336] and the freedom that felt stunted from that same knowledge. No two responses were the same. The answers were bound up in so many other things: home, family, identity, sense of belonging, and personal interest. The following short stories were written by gifted fiction writers who not only heard my questions, but also asked their own. In the next pages, you will find writing that contends with both national history and personal truth. The writers, no matter the subject, have been unafraid to give their imagination free reign to roam across a vast territory of their own making. As you read, be aware of the community that gathered around these published writers and encouraged and suggested and questioned all in the name of strengthening the writing you read. In closing, I extend a âThank you!â to all the participants of...
Housing decentralization not only positions housing sector as regional obligatory, but also triggerspublic expectations upon the improvement of housing conditions. Various weaknesses of centralizedsystem that full of generalization in housing policy makes decentralized system is interpreted as aninnovative renewal process. However, the central government still does a lot of intervention towardhousing program. Limitation happens to local government such as limitation in housing finance,weakness in coordination ability, and less established of local bureaucracy makes intervention fromcentral government in housing program financed by APBN always dominates. The least contributionfrom local government on public housing sector in decentralization era creates paradox. It is caused bythe Ministry of Public Housing (Kemenpera) that cannot perform fully as substitutional institution rolein managing housing in local area. Kemenpera position as ministerial cluster 3 makes them does nothave representative office in local area. Thus, there will be potential of a repeat experience in the past, inform of generalization in housing policy, that complicates the housing problems itself.
In many Indian cities, problem of water scarcity is acute and most of the challenges of water supply and environmental sustainability are still unanswered. The condition is even worse for the informal settlements and slums in these urban areas where basic water and sanitation infrastructure are altogether missing. In order to meet these growing challenges, the present scenario of the public water supply system needs overall reforms, targeted towards improving the institutional, administrative, managerial and financial aspects related to urban water management. The main purpose of this research article is to highlight the institutional change needs for sustainable urban water management in India. The institutional change will involve: ( i) one or combination of organizational change measures comprising decentralization, creation of autonomous utilities, private sector participation and community-based management; ( ii) directive reforms; and ( iii) human resource development. The finer aspects will depend upon the physical and socio-economic environment, political situation and administrative set-up that exist in the urban area. The institutional changes will be more important for small urban towns where public utilities are given little attention. All these together can equip Indian cities better for averting risk in the face of rapid urbanization, climate change and water scarcity.
African countries confront vast economic, social, and environmental challenges. Although urban issues bear upon many of these challenges, they have remained a secondary priority for governments and the international community. The growing gap between infrastructure and services already built and those needed demands a drastic change in the scale of urban financing. This book aims to begin that reexamination. It offers a broad methodological perspective and several operational avenues to bolster and modernize the financing that cities urgently require. The financing of urban investments involves several aspects of local government fiscal matters: public finance, administrative law, taxation, monitoring and controlling of subsovereign debt, urban administration and governance, and so on. It also involves other sectors, such as land management, land development, and housing. This book defines its geographic scope as two concentric circles within Africa, as described below. It also draws on other regions: the most developed or emerging countries outside the African continent that can furnish examples illuminating or adaptable to, the African context. This volume is organized into five chapters and an appendix containing eight case studies. Chapter one addresses the fundamentals. Chapter two analyzes urbanization and sectoral policies across the African continent. Chapter three is dedicated to Africa's decentralization, basic services provision, and local governance issues. Chapter four examines local governments' investment financing frameworks currently in use in Africa and new, recently emerged sources of financing. Chapter five addresses strategic and operational ideas for infrastructure and local investment financing, anticipating Africa's exceptional urban growth in the coming decades.
Failure is the norm for urban sanitation infrastructure in Ghana: of the rather substantial number of wastewater and faecal sludge treatment plants, with about 70 mostly decentralized systems throughout the country, less than 10 are operating effectively. This research presents an overview of the related sanitation situation in Ghana, and compares the few successful facilities with their failed counterparts in order to decipher the factors that enable the former to prevail. The research reveals important differences in the operation and maintenance (O&M) strategies, financing schemes and incentive structures in the successful versus unsuccessful facilities, which are probably not unique to Ghana. Based on the findings, we suggest a set of guiding questions for incorporation into the existing planning, funding or general decision-making framework in order to avoid commonly observed traps, which not only undermine progress in the delivery of sanitation services but also harshly affect environmental and public health.
Various trends, including an increasing emphasis on fiscal decentralization; political democratization in many areas; globalization and the financial liberalization that often accompanies it; growing demands for urban services as urbanization continues in major cities around the world; all argue compellingly for finding ways to help municipalities finance large scale infrastructure. Improved urban infrastructure, for water supply, sanitation, urban transportation and solid waste management is widely believed essential in encouraging and facilitating economic growth. Evidence indicates that those countries most successful in sustaining high growth supported their cities with transformative investments to improve urban infrastructure that could accommodate rapid population growth in major economic centers. This evidence suggests that infrastructure has a strong ĂąâŹĆsupplysideù⏠orientation and in practice, it is the effects of infrastructure on ĂąâŹĆsupplyù⏠that are most often emphasized. There is also a strong ĂąâŹĆdemand-sideù⏠aspect: individuals and businesses value the services that flow from the stock of infrastructure facilities and these demands should be (but are often not) considered in determining the appropriate level of infrastructure investment. In addition to the potential supply-and-demand-side impacts on economic growth, the services of infrastructure also play a significant role in the distribution of income.[Working paper No. 19]
In the last three decades, the supply of housing in Argentina has not kept pace with demand. This study analyzes the main drivers of Argentina's housing market and relates them to the macroeconomic environment in order to advance a policy agenda for housing policy reform. The demand for housing was calculated and tenure choice was analyzed. Structural characteristics affecting Argentina's housing market include the high concentration of the urban population in a few large metropolitan areas, te association of urban poverty with the housing deficit, and overcrowding. The mortgage market lost its appeal following the 2001-02 crisis due to widespread breaches of contract legitimized through protective legislation (still in place), insufficient long-term financing, and high inflation. The housing deficit could be eliminated in five to eight years if well-coordinated policy initiatives to develop the mortgage market and provide low-income housing were adopted under a decentralized, demand-driven, subsidized program.
Bernard Bashaasha, Margaret Najjingo Mangheni, Ephraim Nkonya
Uganda introduced the decentralization policy in 1997 under the Local Government Act of 1997 that has since undergone four amendments. The policy inherently decentralized service delivery institutions and their governance in order to improve access to services for the rural poor. Based on an analysis of available literature, the paper documents the state of knowledge regarding rural service provision in Uganda under decentralization and identifies knowledge gaps for further investigation. Its focus is on education, health, and agricultural advisory services, as well as the management of natural resources in Uganda. Although enlightening, a review of the broader decentralization literature is beyond the scope of this work. The analysis revealed that results in terms of attaining the objectives of decentralization are mixed. While as anticipated generally decentralization resulted in greater participation and control over service delivery and governance by local communities, local governments are still grappling with a range of challenges, namely, inadequate local financial resources and over-reliance on conditional central government grants; inability to attract and retain sufficient trained and experienced staff; corruption, nepotism, and elite capture. With regard to the specific services, while universal primary education (UPE) policy under the decentralization framework is credited with a dramatic increase in primary school enrollment, public primary education services are still dogged by concerns over financing, equity, quality, and the need for curriculum reform. Some studies show that there has been no improvement in health services with many health status indicators either stagnating or worsening. In general, decentralization of education and health services has not resulted in greater participation of the ordinary people and accountability of service providers to the community. Regarding agricultural extension and advisory services, except for areas serviced by NGOs, the majority of the country does not readily access extension services, because districts have been unable to prioritize the operational expenses. However, there is some evidence that the devolution of responsibility for natural resource management (NRM) has contributed to greater compliance with some NRM requirements in some areas while in other areas forest conditions have declined following decentralization. Generally, evidence on whether decentralization has improved service delivery in Uganda is still inconclusive, and more research is needed.
The fast process of urbanization in Brazil in recent decades has generated great discussions on urban reform, public policy and urban management. With 1988 Federal Constitution, these topics are in the spotlight, articulated by the city council as an equal federal entity and common jurisdiction in matters of urban policy. In this area, the question of housing policy becomes central and strategic for the city, as one of the main problems is the provision of adequate housing to the majority of the population. The Statute of the Cities (Estatuto das Cidades) in 2001, confirms this view. According to the National Housing Plan (Plano Nacional de Habitao) (Ministrio das Cidades, 2004), with the decentralization process, the management of social programs, among them the housing, either by themselves or by joining a federal program becomes responsibility of the state and city councils. It is in this context that new sources of financing are created sponsored by the federal government through Caixa Econmica Federal, benefiting both the state and local governments and also a share of the private sector. Therefore, this article will outline the path of housing policies in Brazil, through a survey of policies, plans and federal government programs, observing the neglect given to the planning of cities and the problems caused by unplanned urban expansion.
A hallmark of post-apartheid South Africa has been the introduction of bold and innovative policy in areas ranging from the national Constitution to resource management policy. In line with this approach, there has been a clear commitment to principles of decentralization and participatory development, with Local Economic Development (LED) featuring prominently in national, provincial and local government pronouncements and planning. Despite considerable policy and funding support for LED, results at best can be described as only modest. This paper critically reflects on the importance attached to LED in South Africa, what has been attempted over the last decade, and the various reasons that might explain the limitations experienced with applied LED, including those that are inherent in the nature of LED and those that can be attributed to local factors. The paper draws upon field-based research undertaken over more than a decade and the findings of a major study undertaken by an international development finance organization. The paper raises challenging questions about the nature, focus and potential of LED as an appropriate development intervention.
The collapse or perilous crumbling of our infrastructures, the basic building blocks of the nation's economy, underscores the investment and fiscal policies that confront the nation's leaders as well as the nation's cities' leaders. In this article, the authors focus on one key dimension of the âinfrastructure crisis,â namely, the critical issues surrounding the financing of city infrastructure and a proposed set of sustainable options available to policy makers, particularly examining trends toward decentralization and fragmentation of governmental and financial institutions and toward market-based and consumer- or customer-oriented policies. Urban policy makers today find themselves in the position of negotiating with neighboring communities, competitive markets, and citizens in a fragmented governance system. What appears to be little more than organized chaos has evolved over decades into the complex, if not always rational, system of infrastructure finance and governance in which cities and other local governments find themselves today.
In response to the growing critique of decentralized and participatory approaches to development, the article develops a theoretical framework for analyzing the relationship between community-based planning and poverty. Building on contributions from research on collective action, social capital, and social movements, the framework identifies a series of variables that are theorized to affect a community's capacity to alleviate poverty. Using this framework, three community-level case studies in Oaxaca, Mexico are analyzed. All three communities are characterized by a decline in subsistence agriculture, increasing out-migration, and the use of remittances to finance community-based planning projects. The article documents each community's capacity to alleviate the material manifestations of poverty. It concludes that only the community with the strongest capacity for community-level collective action was capable of planning independent of the state, and thus in a position to take incipient steps toward addressing poverty's structural causes. The findings call into question the often assumed desirability of collaborative planning and support the need for a more nuanced understanding of the strengths and limitations of distinct forms of community-based planning interpreted within broader socio-political contexts.
Microfinance opportunities have been successfully expanding in Ethiopia during the past fifteen years, including in remote villages, where the majority of people are engaged in smallscale agriculture, which is little supported by modern technology. Some of the key strategies for the success include: innovative adaptation of the group guarantee lending model, successfully customized to local Ethiopian realities; decentralization of operation, including a focus on using indigenous knowledge and resources in client screening and follow-up; appropriate strategies to deal with financing small scale (rain-fed) agriculture, often subject to season changes. However, much remains to be done. The outreach in micro-credit is estimated to have satisfied only a small proportion of the potential demand, while the growth of individual enterprises and the impact on clients' income remain low. It is becoming more and more challenging to further expand the micro-credit outreach, introduce inclusive finance to reach remote villages and very poor people, as well as ensure an impact on the lifestyle of clients. This is due, among other things, to poor infrastructure, particularly the road network and other communication channels, low level business support, as well as the 'entrepreneurship challenge'. This calls for a collaborative effort of all stakeholders in rural development. The present paper examines the opportunities and challenges faced while expanding access to microfinance to poor people in remote areas.
In 1996 a local planning, financing and governance model was conceived in Nampula province, northern Mozambique. Within ten years it was being hailed as a success by Mozambiqueâs Prime Minister, by the donors who supported it and by academics who studied it (Galli, 2003; Roll, 2004; Weimer, Cabral, and Jackson, 2004). It had influenced national legislation, and attempts to replicate it under World Bank auspices had begun. Yet several of its features remained unclear. There was disagreement about what kind of experiment it was; it occurred amidst centralizing as well as decentralizing initiatives in central government; and the replication attempts have had patchy success. Thus the reports of success should not be taken at face value. We stress this obvious point because we approach the initiative from an insiderâs perspective â the author was involved in its implementation â with all the usual limitations that entails. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
The importance of assessing the impact of microfinance schemes on poverty reduction cannot be overestimated. Poverty reduction is the raison-dâĂȘtre of microfinance. It is because other forms of finance are not usually accessible to the poor (due to high transaction costs, the poorâs lack of collateral, etc) that microfinance has been explored as a possible solution to poverty reduction. But it is more than that. The assumption underlying this argument is that poverty is partly explained by lack of economic opportunities and that microfinance can provide a sustainable path towards viable surviving economic strategies. Therefore, microfinance can be important not only because it can lead to poverty reduction but mainly because it promotes, in a non-patronizing and decentralized way, economic alternatives to the poor that are in principle more sustainable (permanent) in the long-run. Microfinance can be compared with other poverty reduction initiatives based on paternalistic concessions (e.g., basic income programmes) that are a priori unsustainable in the long-run because they are dependent on a continuous inflow of resources. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Since South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994, it has given significant attention to building an effective system of decentralization including provincial and local government. While provincial governments are responsible mainly for the implementation of social services such as health and education, the provision of much of the urban infrastructure is the responsibility of local government. Although many challenges remain, the country has made significant progress over the past decade in addressing urban service backlogs in poor areas. At the same time, it has greatly improved macroeconomic fundamentals. The system of financing local government seeks to place accountability firmly at the local level, with most revenues in the larger urban centers raised locally through a combination of local taxes and fees for services, while poorer regions are predominantly grant funded. The objective has been to encourage the financing of capital infrastructure through local borrowing based on sustainable, transparent local finances rather than national repayment guarantees, which are outlawed. There is some indirect subsidization of loans through the state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa. But the emphasis is on achieving redistribution through transparent, formula-based grants paid directly from national to local governments. While further bedding down of the system is needed, the approach is proving largely successful. The paper concludes by recommending that the existing division between provinces as providers of social services and local governments as the key locus of responsibility for services related to the built environment should be strengthened, particularly through the devolution of more urban transport related functions. A number of key risks are also highlighted, including issues related to the reform of local business taxes.
This comparison is not restricted to Mumbai and Shanghai but also to Bangalore and Hangzhou, Delhi and Beijing and so on. The Chinese and Indian economies are expected to be the growth engines of the global economy. In this process cities are expected to play an important role, through their transformation into âWorld Classâ cities, a term now doing rounds in the policy circles in Mumbai, to be achieved through massive infrastructure investments made in them. In China, this has been possible because of the decentralized administrative and fiscal system in China. In contrast, in India, the system of urban infrastructure is currently evolving and making a transition from a centralized to a decentralized system. This paper: (i) compares the Chinese and Indian financial systems to explain differences in the quantum of funds available in cities in both countries; (ii) looks at urban responsibility allocations in terms of institutions; and (iii) compares capital investments made by one city each in the two countries, in Beijing (China) and in Mumbai (India). Edited by Xinyu Fan
The growth of Africaâs 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 â the devolution of revenue mobilization and spending powers to lower levels of government â 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 citizensâ 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.
Matthias Zana Naab, PhDUniversity of Pittsburgh, 2005This study examines decentralization and democratic local governance in Ghana by assessing the effectiveness of the performance of District Assemblies (DAs) in order to better understand how DAs plan, implement, and manage development activities in close partnership with communities. It applied the proposition that decentralization and democratic local governance are expected to result in more efficient, effective, sustainable, and equitable outcomes through the hypotheses that decentralization results in more effective local government; more responsive local government; local government that is democratic, more accountable, and more participatory; local people having more positive perceptions of government; and local governments providing high quality services that respond to local demands.Engaging in both exploratory and explanatory research, this study identifies important variables and relationships as well as plausible causal networks that shaped local government and governance in Ghana. Using an inductive and theory-building design, it explains a model of decentralized governance and highlights potential partnership arrangements for the effective engagement of Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in complementing the efforts of local governments.The results of decentralization, interpreted through questionnaires as well as stories and conversations with local people in two Ghanaian District Assemblies, was a combination of success and failure. In the two case study districts, the assemblies have resulted in a slight increase in development projects and services. However, the poor level of local revenue mobilization has limited the ability of the assemblies to finance significant development projects in their districts. Consequently, this has forced the assemblies to depend on the District Assemblies' Common Fund as well as on external donor funded projects and programs and on local people in self-help projects. The analysis of revenue and expenditure patterns in the two districts showed that per capita development spending was low, while recurrent expenditure and spending on local government infrastructure was high. District assemblies and CBOs often remain unwilling partners, and both are faced with serious capacity constraints which militate against structuring effective partnerships for service delivery. The successful implementation of decentralization depends on the degree to which national political leaders are committed to decentralization, and the ability and willingness of the national bureaucracy to facilitate and support decentralized development. Therefore, the ongoing process of decentralization in Ghana must be seen in the broader context of a deliberate redirection and change in the internal regulatory framework of the state.