Devolution Policy Research Articles

Investing in the community: English local authorities and the ‘patient investment’ of economic regeneration

ABSTRACT This paper explores increasing emphasis on long-term investment in English devolution policy, as part of attempts to revitalise struggling communities through investment in infrastructure and public space. English councils seek to offset the financial difficulties they faced due to austerity cuts by establishing their own corporations, joint ventures, and investment partnerships, in order to generate needed income by creating economic flows from capital markets to public services. They have, consequently, envisaged a form of ‘patient investment’ in their communities, taking a long-term view of economic regeneration that aims to balance the risk of investment with the reward of local growth. The rollout of the Levelling Up agenda in February 2022 entrenches the narrative of patient investment as a conduit to regional regeneration, although it emphasises investment in infrastructure projects primarily for the purpose of attracting business and industry to deprived areas. Through a narrative policy analysis of Parliamentary debates about Levelling Up in England, I examine the turn towards long-term investment as an ethical shift in conceptions of welfare provision which prioritises private sector expansion for its potential to drive economic improvement. In this understanding, quality of life in communities is tied to growth and profit, rather than social support.

Instrumental Role of the Technical Assistance Program on Human Settlements Planning (TAP-HSP) in Local Development Planning in the Philippines

Local development planning remains a challenge for municipalities and cities in the Philippines due to the lack of personnel with technical planning capacities and poor database management systems amplified by the recent devolution policy and the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to address these gaps has given birth to the Technical Assistance Program on Human Settlements Planning (TAP-HSP) as a public service and extension program of the College of Human Ecology, University of the Philippines Los Baños. TAP-HSP provides capacity building and technical assistance to various planning institutions in the country and aims to make cities and communities safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable. This paper explores the history, milestones, components and modalities of TAP-HSP, emphasizing its instrumental role in local development planning in the country. TAP-HSP offers different modalities and planning arrangements through its three components: Capacity Development for Planners, Practice of Profession, and Model Community/City for Sustainability and Resilience. Over the years, the demand for TAP-HSP services has remarkably grown that it has played instrumental roles in empowering local planners, molding future planners, bridging planning theories to practice, championing evidence-based, participatory, and inclusive planning, being a key partner for local development, and advocating for liveable cities and communities in local development planning. TAP-HSP’s relevance shall continue progressing with its sustained excellent program ratings and growing network of LGU partners, positioning it as a key player in local and national development and a promoter of inclusive and sustainable communities.

The Effects of Coordination in Multilevel Governance System on Water Services Management in Kenya

This article examined the effectiveness of the existing framework for intergovernmental coordination in Kenya's multilevel governance system and its effects on the management of water services delivery. Based on a thematic analysis of interviews with policy actors from both levels of government, the findings indicate that, despite agreement among policy actors from both levels that there is a significant functional interdependence in the delivery of water services, the scope and frequency of coordination were less than anticipated under the devolution policy. This has negatively impacted water service delivery in numerous ways. The study demonstrates that the underlying causes of the observed weak intergovernmental coordination are factors related to persistent contestation of functional assignment between the two levels of government, resource allocation, and perceptions of national government encroachment into county functions which erodes trust and undermines service delivery.

The Impact of Devolution Policy on Water Service Delivery in Kenya

The Impact of Devolution Policy on Water Service Delivery in Kenya

Policy ‘R&D’, capacity and advocacy in English Combined Authorities

City regions and Mayoral Combined Authorities are at the heart of the devolution policy agenda in England. This article assesses and compares the policy and research capabilities of Combined Authorities in England, drawing on elite interviews with officials in four diverse Combined Authorities and their wider sub-regional policy and research communities. There are significant inequalities between the policy and research capabilities of the Combined Authorities reflecting institutional histories, as well as differences in size and functional responsibilities. Those with already greater capabilities and infrastructure appear likely to continue to benefit from greater opportunities in the future, widening existing inequalities.

Effectiveness of Human Resource Capacity of Local Government Authority in Implementing Decentralization by Devolution Policy of 2012 in Zanzibar

Effectiveness of Human Resource Capacity of Local Government Authority in Implementing Decentralization by Devolution Policy of 2012 in Zanzibar

Forest dependence in Tanzania: Analysis of the determinants of perceived forest dependence

Great hopes have been placed on devolution policies as a means of attaining sustainable forest management in developing countries. However, heavy dependence on forests by many rural households has led to forest degradation and deforestation, which undermine the success of such policies. This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring factors affecting perceived forest dependence and by introducing private forest ownership, i.e., forests cultivated on private land, into the analysis. The analysis was based on household cross-sectional survey data collected in the subsample areas of Njombe and Shinyanga, Tanzania. Ordered logit models were run to estimate the factors associated with perceived forest dependence. Findings show that private forest owners are associated with higher forest income shares than the non-private forest owners. Region dummy variable suggest that households in Njombe where private forestry is more reported are associated with a higher probability of perceiving themselves as highly forest dependents than those in Shinyanga. Household socio-economic characteristics are also found to correlate with households’ perceptions of their dependence on forests. The findings, thus, point to more research on the link between perceived forest dependence and conservation of forest resources in order to establish consolidated approaches to sustainably conserve communal and state forests. Concurrently, further studies on households’ ownership of forests on private lands are recommended.

Challenges Affecting the Implementation of Decentralisation in Public Basic Schools in Ghana

Educational management is a major element that produces successful educational outcomes. Over the years decentralisation has become one major policy for effective and efficient educational management in public basic schools in Ghana. Decentralisation entails the transfer of administrative and fiscal authority to the grassroot where management decisions prickly taken for effective management. This study sought to investigate challenges mitigating the implementation of decentralisation in public basic schools in Ghana. Among some key challenges faced were inadequate logistics for key stakeholders to carry out their functions. Again, there are limited support for infrastructure from both local and governmental levels. There are inadequate and delay in supply of teaching and learning materials. Delay in decision on appointments, promotions and sanction of errant staff. Political interference by government appointees also affects implementation of effective decentralisation. Difficulty in monitoring and supervise some schools due to bad roads in deprived communities also have adverse effect on the implementation of decentralisation. It was recommended devolution policy to replace the existing decentralisation policy in public basic schools for the full benefit of decentralisation. This will make it possible for major decisions like appointments, promotions and disciplinary actions taken at grassroot level instead of the centre. Logistics and TLM must get to schools on time for effective management of school.

Performing Welsh Government 1999–2016: how insider narratives illuminate the hidden wiring and emergent cultural practices

ABSTRACT Despite more than 20 years of Welsh democratic devolution, the Welsh Government, and Welsh Ministers particularly, have not generally been an object of academic study. There has been little systematic historical analysis of the new institution of the Welsh Government, its structures, operations and practices. In recent years, a variety of insider accounts by former Welsh Ministers and former First Ministers have started to appear in print, and 1997 Cabinet papers relating to the making of devolution policy have been released. This paper performs two functions. It will explore the learning so far, examining the limited ‘insider accounts’ which have appeared in the context of the documentary evidence, and the light that they shine on everyday life in Welsh Government, its hidden wiring and emergent cultural practices, addressing questions such as internal power structures, the governance innovations of the Welsh Government, and the continuities and contrasts with Westminster and Whitehall traditions. The paper also attempts a contextual, integrated and thematic overview of the making of Welsh Government over this period.

Inter-Governmental Relations Between Central Government And Local Government Authorities In Tanzania

Tanzania in embarking the decentralization by devolution policy (D by D) as a mechanism of facilitating quick development process through the involvement of people from grass root levels has been carried out through the inter-government relations between the central government and the local government authorities (LGAs). Throughout its implementation there had been a supportive structural set up, including a constitutional mandate for local governments. Also, there has been an increased recognition of LGAs by central and sector ministries as partners rather than subordinate structures. However, the lack of a clear and effective institutional framework to govern the implementation of D by D and the lack of a shared understanding of D by D across ministries and other governmental institutions has made led to structural confusion between the Central government and the Local Government Authorities. Thus, this paper explores the undertakings of the inter-government relations between the central government and the local government authorities (LGAs) in order to forge a way forward for a inclusive and responsive governance in the country.

Institutional choices between private management and user group management during forest devolution: A case study of forest allocation in China

China has endeavored to devolve collective forests to individual households or user groups in the past decades. However, few studies have explored the community-level institutional selection process in the forest devolution reforms. Based on a longitudinal case study in Fujian province, this study focuses on China's forest devolution reform in the early 2000s and explores in the reform why the community allocated forests to groups of households rather than to individual households, which was the method preferred by the central government. The study also investigates the factors and mechanisms that influenced these institutional choices. The analysis indicates that, when a community is empowered to play a decisive role in institutional choices, the preferences of households may differ from the decisions made by -state-level actors. Three factors are found critical to the selection of user group management in the devolution reform: the difficulty of allocating physical forests equally to individual households, the decreasing dependence of livelihoods on forests, and the development of a forest rights market. We argue that forest devolution policies should recognize the multi-functionality of rural forests, their changing roles in local economic dynamics, the complexities of existing tenure systems, and the local demand for the autonomy of defining forest rights arrangements.

Does the devolution of forest management help conserve mangrove in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam?

In the decentralization of forest management, the state devolves forestland use right to communities. What if the state devolves the right directly to individual households, not to communities? Does this policy work and within this policy what devolution mechanism works better in terms of forest conservation? This paper addresses these questions using the context of mangrove forest in Viet Nam. Mangrove forest areas in Viet Nam have experienced a substantial decline during the last century. Since 1994, a devolution policy has allowed mangrove forests to be assigned to households for protection and management. Households were allowed to convert part of the mangrove forest areas into other uses that bring private benefits. It is not clear whether the devolution policy provided sufficient incentives to households for not over-converting mangrove forest.We collect and analyse commune-level data and household-level data. At commune level analysis, we used fixed effects instrumental variable (IV) regression to examine whether the devolution of forestland right to households helps conserving mangrove forest areas of communes. At household level analysis, we apply Tobit IV regression to evaluate the performance of two devolution mechanisms with regard to farms’ mangrove coverage as well as household violations of the regulatory level of mangrove coverage. Our analyses indicate that the devolving forestland right from state to households increases forest coverage. We find that comparing to the land use certificate, the contract-based allocation of forestland from the state to households results in higher level of forest cover and less violation of coverage regulation. Interestingly, increasing coverage regulation result in higher actual mangrove coverage and higher violation. Higher payment that households received from the devolved forestland right would improve forest coverage. Market conditions, such as market prices and alternative livelihood, do not affect mangrove coverage and household’s violation of regulation. The findings indicate that the current devolution policy should be redesigned to more effectively conserve mangrove forest.

A macrohistorical geography of rural drinking water institutions in India

India has a long history of policies that aim to improve rural drinking water services, through various combinations of state support and decentralization that face deeply rooted institutional challenges. These include debates about: the duty of the state to provide rural drinking water supply; tension over the role of central, state, and local governments; and frequent changes in policy and senior public officials that disrupt long-term implementation. Some water governance theorists have described policy-making in this context as a pragmatic process of bricolage, that is, of piecing together practical opportunities for improvement where possible. This paper takes a macrohistorical geographic approach to these institutional problems, with an emphasis on northern India. It shows that ancient sources dating back to the Arthashastra have underscored the role of the state in developing water supplies for the people. Subsequent regimes have advocated various combinations of centralized and local responsibility to fulfill drinking water needs. We show that frequent rotation of senior public officials was actually systematized in the sixteenth century Mughal empire. Changing roles of India’s five levels of center, state, district, block, and village government have a half-millennium-long history, evolving through the dramatically different Mughal, Maratha, colonial, and post-colonial contexts. Devolution policies were frequently changed in the colonial period. Independence in 1947 and a constitutional amendment in 1993 increased emphasis on devolution to Panchayati Raj Institutions at district, block, and village levels, but without resolving the functional and structural relations among them. This macrohistorical geographic perspective on water institutions offers insights into current issues and prospects for drinking water reform in India.

Influence of property rights on performance of community-based forest devolution policies in Honduras

Devolution refers to shifting responsibility of forest management to community organizations, in contrast to public decentralization to local state institutions. Research on community forestry policies can aid in determining how property rights affect local governance structures. The objective of this paper is to analyze the influence of property rights on the application of devolution policies related to community-based forestry. The study included four sites in non-indigenous Honduras where forestry cooperatives were operating. Common property theory was used to interpret data gathered via value chain and sustainable livelihoods approaches. Results show that historical policy changes regarding land tenure recognition have affected community-based forestry initiatives. Recent policies have focused on the promotion of community-based forestry, which has resulted in an expansion in the area of devolved land. Nonetheless, de facto land tenure arrangements continue despite formal assignment of land. It was also found that these initiatives have been developed in areas where agricultural activities are less important. Strategies for inclusion of communities in forest management should not be based solely on the recognition of formal property rights. De facto ownership should also be considered when it is respected among local residents, as part of a local governance approach to forest management.

Collective Action Dilemma after China’s Forest Tenure Reform: Operationalizing Forest Devolution in a Rapidly Changing Society

Devolution is a promising tool to enhance forest management. The literature has discussed many factors that affect the outcomes of forest devolution policies; however, insufficient attention has been paid to the role of exogenous socio-economic changes. Using the longitudinal case study method, we focus on how socio-economic changes affect the effectiveness of forest devolution policies using a case from Southeast China. We find that in this case, although forest devolution succeeded in granting farmers sufficient forest rights, it failed to incentivize farmers to contribute to managing forests because of the dramatic changes in socio-economic contexts. Economic development and outmigration reduced farmers’ dependence on forest income, elevated the costs of silvicultural operations, and posed market risks, thereby reducing farmers’ enthusiasm about managing forests; outmigration also weakened community leadership and impeded the collective action of making forest investments. Eventually, socio-economic changes compromised the positive stimulus caused by forest devolution and contributed to the collective action dilemma of managing forests after the reform. We argue that operationalizing forest devolution in developing countries needs to consider the exogenous socio-economic changes that may enhance or counteract the effects of devolution policies, and that more autonomy should be granted to communities to make policies adaptative to their local socio-economic dynamics.

The Final Act: Deportation by ICE Air

Immigration enforcement has long served as an indicator of the prevailing visceral fears and loathing toward the Other. The foreign is always suspect. Foreigners in great numbers are especially suspicious. These developments are historically tied to the conventions of colonialism, expanded as a function of foreign policy, and to be sure, ideology. By the mid-2010s, the Global South was characterized as “shithole countries,” populated by people who were terrorists, rapists, murderers, and corrupt drug dealers. These representations have shaped a retributive agenda and served to create a structure with roots in federal policies and branches in localities throughout the country through which to expel noncitizens. Deportation is a legal concept about which much has been written. But it is more complicated. For noncitizens, forced expulsion is a lived experience occurring in time and space—an act against the body, mostly black and brown bodies. In this Article we part ways with the well-established narratives of deportation and the punishment/non-punishment paradigm to conceive of deportation not only as a legal concept, but as a physical act—the final act—that is, the culmination of the immigration enforcement dragnet. The physical removal of persons from the United States requires a complex system comprised of aviation networks and their various components, airports and airplanes, hangars and flight crews, and an array of physical restraints to intimidate, punish, or subdue deportees. We examine this infrastructure to illuminate the circumstances of expulsion and the egregious rights violations often suffered by deportees—violations that are almost always hidden from public view. The Article considers the “legal” trajectories of forced expulsion to demonstrate how hostility toward immigrants has given rise to an ever-expanding deportation apparatus by which growing numbers of immigrants are stripped of legal protections, subjected to a subverted legal processes that result in a heightened risk of wrongful deportation and thus by which immigrants reach the point of the final act of removal. It takes up concerns largely unaddressed in legal scholarship: the detailing of human rights abuses on airplanes and airports—sites that function as the terminal instrumentalities of banishment. It then examines airports and airplanes as sites of resistance in the context of immigration federalism debates. We build on the literature that has called attention to the importance of political geography and immigration devolution policies to underscore the importance of new forms of local activism as a means to assert immigrant rights. The efforts to accelerate the removal of non-citizens from the United States has reconfigured the historic narrative about nation’s relationship to immigration and immigrants. Concerns for the humanity of immigrants requires attention to all facets of the injustices of deportation, including the sites of the final act of removal. This Article demonstrates that this may be accomplished through a variety of political and legal strategies designed to call attention to the ways that deportation violates rights protection that exist at the very local to the very global levels of law. What this article offers is a way of understanding and modeling new forms of resistance at sites previously overlooked-- resistance that must stand in for rights protection until the structures of immigration laws and processes can be humanely reset.

A case study of new approaches to address health inequalities: Due North five years on.

When local councils took on responsibility for public health in England in 2013, leaders from across the north of England met to consider the scale of the challenge. As a result, Public Health England commissioned the Due North Report which outlined new approaches in tackling health inequalities. This second paper outlines what has been learnt in five years as a case study. This includes influencing devolution deals and new elected city mayors, planning for economic growth in deprived areas and developing community asset-based approaches. The paper outlines a new framework for place-based planning to reduce health inequalities. Data was gathered from annual reports from north of England directors of public health, Office for National Statistics, Public Health England's fingertips database and regional and national publications and strategies such as the Northern Powerhouse. Devolution to English cities and councils as 'places' is a new opportunity to address local needs and inequalities. Due North has supported a new public health narrative which locates health action in the most fundamental determinants-how local economies are planned, jobs created and power is to be transferred to communities and connects reducing years of premature ill health to increased economic productivity. Community asset approaches to empower local leaders and entrepreneurs can be effective ways to achieve change. The north-south divide in health is not closing and may be worsening. Different ways of working between local government, health and business sectors can inhibit in working together and with communities. Place-based working with devolved powers can help move away from top down and silo working, empower local government and support communities. Linking policies on health inequalities to economic planning can address upstream determinants such as poverty, homelessness and unsafe environments. More research is needed on; (i) addressing inequalities at scale for interventions to influence community-led change and prosperity in deprived areas, and (ii) the impact of devolution policy on population health particularly for deprived areas and marginalised group. Commissioning high profile reports like Due North is influential in supporting new approaches in reducing inequality of health through local government, elected mayors; and working with deprived communities. This second paper describes progress and lessons.

الاحتلال الإیرانی لإمارة الأحواز العربیة 1925م – 1979م

ملخص: تتناول هذه الدراسة مرحلة بالغة الخطورة والأهمية من التاريخ الأحوازي بدأت بسقوط إمارة المحمرة و اسقاط الشيخ خزعل(*)في عام 1925م، وتلقي الضوء على جانب مهم من تاريخ الإقليم خلال هذه المدة التي تداعت فيها بفعل سقوط الإمارة تحولات خطيرة في البنية الاجتماعية في الأحواز ترجمت على أرض الواقع کسياسات حکومية ممنهجة تجاه عرب الأحواز کسياسة التفريس وتمزيق الهوية العربية في الأحواز وتغيير أسماء المدن العربية الأحوازية إلى فارسية وسياسة التجهيل وسياسة الاستيطان الفارسي وتهجير العرب ومحاولة التغيير الديمغرافي لأرض الأحواز العربي، کذلک اتبعت اجراءات اقتصادية مجحفة بحق عرب الأحواز وانتزاع أراضيهم واعطائها للفرس، وأيضا السياسات العنصرية الفارسية ضد اللغة والتعليم والمدارس العربية والتمييز العنصري في حياة العمال والموظفين والفلاحين العرب، إذ اتسمت حياتهم بالفاقة والحرمان وکانت سياسة الاحتلال الإيراني التعسفية هي سياسة اضطهاد ممنهج اسهمت في تعميق دائرة العوز والخذلان التي تهدف إلى إذابة هويتهم القومية وتغيير أو اضعاف الوجه العربي للإقليم من خلال إجراء تبدلات وسياسات عدة في النظام الإداري ومحاکم القضاء. Abstract: This research deals with a very dangerous and important phase of Ahwaz history that began with the fall of the Emirate of Muhammarah and the fall of Sheikh Khaza'al in 1925. It sheds light on an important aspect of the history of the region during this period. The policy of devolution and disruption of the Arab identity in Ahwaz and change the names of the Arab cities Ahwaz to Persian and the policy of ignorance and the policy of the Persian settlement and the displacement of the Arabs and the attempt to change the demographic land Ahwaz Arab, and economic measures Unfair right Arabs Ahwaz and Arab their land and give it to the Persians, And the racist policies of the Persian language, education, Arab schools and racial discrimination in the lives of Arab workers, employees and peasants, as their lives were characterized by hardship and deprivation. The policy of the Iranian occupation of arbitrary policy of systematic persecution contributed to deepen the cycle of want and abandonment, which aims to dissolve their national identity and change or weaken the Arab face of the region from In the course of several changes and policies in the administrative system and the courts of justice. (*) خزعل بن جابر بن مرداو بن علي بن کاسب ( 24 يونيو 1861م – 24 مايو 1936م)، أمير الأحواز الخامس ويلقب بأمير المحمرة، ولد في قرية کوت الزين في جنوب البصرة، أستلم الحکم بعد مقتل أخيه مزعل بن جابر الکعبي عام 1897م، يعتبر من أهم المؤثرين في منطقة الخليج العربي أثناء حکمه ولقب بشيخ مشايخ الخليج. للمزيد أنظر: مصطفى عبد القادر النجار: التاريخ القومي لإمارة المحمرة، بغداد، العراق، 1982م، ص 8.

Forestry devolution model for the resilience of smallholder livelihood system in the forest area of the eastern part of Indonesia

The policy centralization forest areas in Indonesia caused structural poverty and land conflict, and the result of about 14,62 million small farmers around the forest. In the forestry decentralization era, Indonesia is targeting 29,14 million ha of forest management rights schemes to establish several forestry management schemes such as Forest Management Unit (KPH), Community Forests (HKM), Village Forests (HD), and Community-based forest plantation (HTR). However, most of them are having stagnation and did not reach the target. This paper discussed the result of devolution policy and type on KPH, HKM, HD, and HTR that had a positive impact on accelerating the development of forest management rights and increasing the livelihood of small farmers. The result illustrates several findings. Firstly, the policy of politic decentralization (de-concentration) from provincial government to the rights stakeholders (KPH, HD, HKM, and HTR) has to ensure the implementation of administrative decentralization (delegation) and functional decentralization (devolution) as well as the implementation of democratic forest management that signed by the distribution and redistribution authority from central bureaucracy to the lowest level that causing high participation of small farmers. Secondly, the policy of administration decentralization (delegation) creates the spatial of forest area management by farmers and ensure the security of tenure rights between land-based social relations in various small farmers group. Thirdly, the policy of functional decentralization (devolution) provides management rights to small farmers to develop an agroforestry pattern that enhances livelihood resilience while maintaining the quality of forest ecosystems.

Decentralisation Versus Territorial Inequality: A Comparative Review of English City Region Policy Discourse

The most recent English attempts at decentralisation take the shape of the city region devolution policy agenda. Decentralisation claims to empower localities and address regional growth imbalances, while creating a variety of new temporary and selective fiscal and geographic arrangements in policy-making that have the potential to create the opposite effect. This paper focuses on the relationship between decentralisation and territorial inequalities through the analysis of strategic discourse of six ‘devolved authorities’. A quantitative, qualitative, and comparative approach to this question complements the traditional insights obtained from in-depth case study analysis using actors’ interviews. It focuses on city regions’ official discourse of self-conceptualisation and marketization, and thereby highlights the wider policy and regional theory context of their production to frame the structural factors impacting the rewriting of city regional space. By doing so, we find a number of issues with the current decentralisation approach in competing priorities between localities, an over-reliance on agglomeration economies and urban competition, potential mismatches in scales of policy decision-making and delivery, and challenges regarding inequalities in a post-Brexit England.