Background |
Over
the last three decades, numerous countries of the Asia and Pacific region have
engaged in decentralization and local government reforms. The rationale and
motivation for such reform initiatives has been as diverse as the reform
context of each country, ranging from big bang decentralization as part of
regime transformation (Indonesia) to efforts to re-build the state and create
new social capital after 25 years of internal unrest and war (Cambodia) and to
many initiatives to strengthen sub-national governments in order to improve
their service delivery for citizens. The international community has supported
such reform initiatives by means of capacity development and advisory services,
and by facilitating national and cross-national learnings.
Development
partners have increasingly sought a common approach for their support to
decentralization reforms. In line with the global debate on aid effectiveness
they have made visible efforts to harmonize their support amongst themselves
and to align external support with the partner country’s strategies and
systems.
To
pursue ADB’s vision, the Governance Thematic Group has initiated a partnership with Decentralization
and Local Governance (DeLoG)—a network of 28 bilateral and multilateral development
partners who work together to improve aid and development effectiveness in
decentralization and local governance reforms. The partnership will provide a
platform for exchanging experiences and learning together about implementing
successful decentralization reforms. The joint learning event take
stock of past and existing reforms and their support by development partners in
order to generate joint learnings and contribute to a better understanding of
such reform processes. The learning program was the first joint activity under
the partnership.
The
event focused on reform processes and their results in DMCs of the ADB
(especially countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, People’s
Republic of China, and the Philippines). It reviewed both national reform
processes, as well as at the support strategies and instruments provided by
development partners.
The
overall objective of this three-day regional learning seminar was to enable a
structured exchange of information and experiences, lessons learned and good
practices. It provided a forum for joint learning of participants from
successes and failures in supporting decentralized governance.