The Governance Brief: Managing Decentralization: Interministerial Bodies, Policy Coordination, and the Role of Development Aid Agencies (Issue 15-2006)

Abstract

More in-depth research regarding the specific policy coordination settings of decentralization reforms is required for modeling successful coordination strategies. In general, the policy process should provide sufficient entry points for external assistance supporting policy coordination. However, to succeed beyond providing technical infrastructure and financial resources, such support requires a thorough understanding of the dependencies and relationship in the decentralization policy network, and how it is intertwined with other networks. For development aid agencies, one lesson from existing policy coordination support would be to switch more resources from policy content issues (such as fiscal decentralization, planning, financial management, and functional assignment) to issues of policy coordination and policy network management.