Systemic View

Desgin matters: the need for a systemic view
While local authorities can have scope for autonomous decision-making, they are not isolated actors: They are part of a political and administrative system and they never act in a void. For example, in the case of primary health care, local services are normally provided by professionals trained according to national rules, and their quality mainly depends on the human resources, the infrastructure, the material and medicine, and the resources available. These factors are only partly within local control. If responsibilities are transferred to local units, national authorities have to ensure conducive framework conditions in which local authorities can comply with their tasks. Communication channels, structures and mechanisms of coordination and cooperation between the national and local level are important, so that national authorities are informed about the challenges faced by the local level, to be able to provide an enabling framework for effective service delivery and coordinate local responsibilities with central ones. There is also a need for dispute resolution mechanisms which can resolve conflicts of competence between the various levels and clarify responsibilities.

Moreover, local services must not be delivered to the detriment of neighboring municipalities who have the same responsibility to perform. If an up-stream municipality is taking all water from the river, a down-stream municipality will not be able to provide water to its citizens. Or putting a landfill at the border of municipalities may mean putting the neighbours at risk and make their own task of waste management impossible. Elements of intermunicipal cooperation and coordination processes are essential to make decentralization work.