Decentralization is now taking place in the public administrations of most countries of the world. A critical determinant of the effective performance of local governments is finance their ability to both mobilize financial resources and to use those resources effectively and efficiently. This book explores the variety of methods used to ensure that fiscal decentralization takes place alongside administrative decentralization. It considers the range of revenue sources available, the design systems of intergovernmental transfers between central and local government, and the kinds of rules and...

Finance is a critical issue for municipal governments around the world, and a major constraint on the delivery of pro-poor services at the local level. In many countries, decentralisation has brought the issue of municipal finance to the fore. This sourcebook provides a framework for analysing municipal finance capacity and ways of addressing financial constraints.

The ideas come from real-life innovative practice in four countries - India, Brazil, Kenya and Uganda - with additional examples from elsewhere. Emphasis is given to how those innovations and improvements were developed and...