Drawing on field-based data and experiences from the practice of democratic decentralization and local governance over the last three decades in Ghana, this book examines whether and how democratic decentralization and local governance reforms in developing countries have produced the anticipated development outcomes.
In seventeen related contributions, the authors present four relevant focal themes, including conceptual and historical trajectories of decentralization and local governance; institutional choice, democratic representation, and poverty reduction; local governance, resource capacity, and service delivery; and non-state actors, local governance and sustainable development.
The book blends perspectives of scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers to provide a holistic analysis of linkages between decentralization, local governance, and sustainable development efforts, presenting a novel and useful guide for science, policy,and practice of bottom-up governance and development. It provides relevant lessons and experiences for scholars, policy-makers, and development practitioners in Africa in particular and developing countries in general.

Offers a novel and holistic analysis of the topic Presents an extensive spatio-temporal assessment of decentralization and local governance reforms Discusses perspectives for other developing countries drawing from Ghana's experiences

Autorentext

Prince Osei-Wusu Adjei is a development geographer with expertise in decentralisation and local governance, poverty and livelihood studies and gender equality dynamics in Africa. He holds a PhD in Geography and Rural Development. He is currently an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Rural Development of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana, and formerly a Senior Fellow of the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), University of Ghana. He was the 2018 African Scholar to the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, as Senior Researcher. He serves as the coordinator for the sustainable transformation of rural Africa Programme (STRAP Research and Policy Initiative) under the Centre for Interdisciplinary Development Research in Africa, Ghana, and associate editor of the Journal of Science and Technology (JUST).

Samuel Adu-Gyam**fi** is an expert in historical and political studies. He holds a PhD in History and is currently an Associate Professor and former Head of Department of History and Political Studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. Samuel Adu-Gyamfi is the Senior Editor for Cogent Arts and Humanities Journal with over fifty publications in peer-reviewed journals. He is also a fellow of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Development Research in Africa and a member of Historical Society of Ghana. His research interests and expertise include history of health policies, decentralisation, local governance and history of Ghana.

Inhalt
Part I. Conceptual and Historical Perspectives of Decentralization and Local Governance.- Chapter 1. From Deconcentration to Devolution: Tracking the Historical Trajectory of Democratic Decentralization in Ghana.- Chapter 2. Historical Perspectives of Local Governance and Community Development in Ghana.- Chapter 3. Decoding the Paradox of Decentralization with Centralized Characteristics in Democratic Ghana.- Chapter 4. Legitimizing Local Governance and Development Reforms in Ghana.- Part II. Institutional Choice, Representation, Poverty Reduction and Local Development.- Chapter 5. Towards the Election of MMDCEs: A Case for Local Government Reforms in Ghana.- Chapter 6. Women and Social Development: Opportunities for Gender Mainstreaming in Local Governance in Ghana.- Chapter 7. Sub-district Structures and Local Governance in Ghana: Role of Unit Committees in Promoting Popular Participation.- Chapter 8. Sub-National Structures, Poverty Reduction and Rural Development under Ghana's Local Governance System.- Part III. Local Governance, Resource Capacity and Service Delivery.- Chapter 9. Domestic Revenue Mobilization: Institutional Challenges in Ghana's Decentralization System.- Chapter 10. Financial and Human Resource Capacities of Sub-National Governance Structures in Ghana.- Chapter 11. Decentralization and Resource Capacity for Sustainable Sanitation Service Delivery in Ghana.- Chapter 12. Health Sector Decentralisation and Delivery of Responsive Healthcare in Ghana.- Chapter 13. Fiscal Decentralization with Autonomy for Service Delivery and Poverty Reduction in Ghana.- Part IV. Non- State Actors, Local Governance and Sustainable Development.- Chapter 14. Changing Role of Traditional Authorities in Local Governance and Development in Ghana.- Chapter 15. Non-Governmental Organizations as Partners for Sustainable Local Development: Ghana's Experiences.- Chapter 16. Strengthening Citizens' Participation in Local Economic Development for Sustainability in Ghana.- Chapter 17. Decentralising for Democratic Polycentric Local Government System in Ghana: Challenges for Sustainable Development.