Capacities of LG: South Asian

Countries
Features: Similarities
Difference

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The rationale behind strengthening capacity of
the Local Government Institutions (LGI) is that

it would help in deepening

Capacity  local democracy,
of LGI  upholding socio-economic equity and
 ensuring provisions of public services to citizens.

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• Capacity in the context of democratic decentralization refers
to
The totality of inputs required by the local
government institutions to fulfil their purposes.
• Capacity development of LGIs aims to ensure
Institution’s ability of functioning as institutions
of self-governance.

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Capacity development of LGIs aims to ensure that such institutions are able to
function as institutions of self-governance. For this, the intervention can
be at
 individual,
 institutional and
• Societal levels.
Individual capacity development focuses on: enhancing inherent human
potential
aims at developing conditions>individuals to build and enhance existing
knowledge and skills, improves learning
> helps them to adapt to change.
Institutional capacity in LGIs refers to
>the ability of the institutions to develop and manage its systems and
procedures by aiding and modernizing the pre-existing institutions;
>promoting mechanisms of transparency, accountability and
participation;
> improving LGIs ability to relate to the external environment to find
innovative mechanisms to promote ‘smart privatization’ and hold
private service providers accountable to the poor.
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• Societal capacities development aims to be inclusive of all the
actors and stakeholders of LGIs,
(particularly including the citizens, the poor and marginalized, as
the primary stakeholders of LGIs.)
Hence, at the societal level capacity development initiatives
need to establish more interactive public administration that
considers
 people’s feedback,
 removes societal and institutional constraints to allow people’s
involvement in affairs of LGIs.

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In terms of land and topography, South Asia is made up
of three topographic regions:
(i) the Himalaya, Karakorum, and Hindu Kush mountain ranges and
their southern slopes,
(ii) the Indo-Gangetic plain, and
(iii) the Deccan plateau.
South Asia is a single geographical unit, but it is a region
of complex and pluralistic characteristics having ethnic
and linguistic differences and religious diversity.
 difference and diversity clearly determine the fact that
local governments, their roles, structures and problems
have some common features, but also very many critical
differences.
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Human Development Index Report :In 2019 Sri Lanka and Maldives had a high human
development index, while India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan had a medium human development index
, while Afghanistan had a low human development index.

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 World Bank estimates, 70% of the South Asian
population and about 75% of South Asia's poor live in
rural areas and most rely on agriculture for their
livelihood.
• The 2013 Global Hunger Index (GHI) states that
hunger in South Asia prevails, with its 20.7 hunger
index making the region's situation "alarming".
• Corruption and lack of initiative on the part of the
government has been one of the major reasons for
building up to this situation

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• Democracy and Governance
Most countries in the region experienced colonization before
becoming independent sovereign states. After attaining independence,
political systems in the region have produced many forms of
government:
• democratic,
• socialist,
• military and
• monarchical.
Military rule, monarchy and centralized autocratic political systems
are accepted within the framework of democracy in the region.
However, the systems lack visions and directives for the development
of minorities and the marginalized.
Thus, the fate of South Asian minorities and the marginalized in
general and women in particular has been ignored – despite various
political experiments in governance. Further, South Asia is
characterized by its large population, growing poverty, weak 10
• governance structures and fragile democratic institutions,
increasing militarization and sectarianism.
• democracy has been weakened,
• corruption has increased and
• the rights of citizens are denied.
• Economic liberalization and globalization have contributed to a
further increase in income inequalities, whereby more privileged
groups have enjoyed the fruits of development by controlling the
limited resources.
• The rule of law in South Asia is largely disregarded and
undermined in terms of economic rights and equality for all,
despite the fact that South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) member states are signatories of
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international instruments.
• Lawlessness plays a dominant role in promoting bad governance in
most South Asian countries. As a result, ordinary people have been
deprived of civil liberties, security and socio-economic rights. 11
Despite its cultural diversity,
• strong feudal and traditional values and patriarchal cultural
practices, which are common characteristics across the
region, have hindered capacity building and the
improvement and take-up of opportunities for women, and
tribal, ethnic and minority communities in South Asia. This
has prevented marginalized communities, including women,
from participating in political decision-making processes.
• The stage of crisis has been manifested by pervasive
nepotism and corruption, misappropriation of state funds, an
absence of transparency and accountability in public
administration, a lack of respect for the rule of law and
ethical behaviour in public life and reluctance to delegate
administrative or financial powers to grassroots
organizations.
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Evolution of Decentralization in South Asia
• South Asia also had too long depended on external inspiration and
hegemonies. In retrospect these strategies ended up with ‘soft’ societies,
where the majority of people including the poor, women, and young
people became alienated. The welfare societies became unsustainable.
The creativity, innovativeness and holistic problem-solving approach to
life, which has always been a characteristic of South Asian societies was
ignored.
• De-alienation of people had to be an important dimension in the process
of building self-reliance and human security.
• There were sharpening contradictions and polarization between the
rich and poor in South Asia and the link between poverty and
violence. Multifaceted crisis was increasingly visible—demographic
pressures, extensive erosion of the natural resource base, large scale
unemployment of educated youth and youth alienation, low growth,
increasing lack of credibility of the state and ethnic and gender conflicts.
The inadequacy and disarray in conventional development thinking and
action was understood. It
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• Decentralization Process:
• Political decentralization usually requires changes in constitutions and legal
frameworks. Several South Asian countries in one way or another have
moved ahead with political decentralization. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,
Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have adopted changes in their
constitutions and legal framework to re-define the roles, functions and
functionaries of local governments.
• There are different driving forces as to why these countries have pursued
(or are pursing) decentralization. The primary reason for this initiative,
however, lies in the economic rationale that local governments, being
closer to their constituencies, may be more responsive to local needs, and
consequently, provide public services more efficiently.
• Bangladesh, has had a long history of rural local governments (the Union
Parishads), although with limited powers and a long history of community
based systems of service delivery and Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGOs). Bangladesh has been a parliamentary democracy since a
constitutional amendment in 1991.The Constitution of Bangladesh, in
Articles 59 and 60

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• In Bhutan, the 9th Five-year Plan (2002/03–2006/07) and 10th Five-year Plan (2008/09-2012/13)
focused on the needs of
• the Gewogs (rural communities) and
• Dzongkhags (districts).
Devolution of resources and decision-making powers to the local
level is a key aim of the Plans.

• India, issued in 1992, enshrined

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in
devolution in the Constitution of India and mandated that
• states hold regular elections and
• transfer funds and functions to the third tier of government—urban
(i.e. municipalities) and rural (i.e. panchayats) local governments.
• The constitutional sanction to local government has raised
expectations and aspirations. Local Body elections have disproved
the myth that women are uninterested in public life.

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DzongkhagTshogdu （ DistrictCouncil ）
GewogTshogde （ Block/ Sub-district Council and
ThromdeTshogde （ MunicipalCouncil ） .
TheDzongkhagTshogdu is comprised by Gup （ Electedhead of a Gewogor sub
district/blockleader ） and Mangmi （ Elected headofaChiwog ） from each
GeogTshogde,Thrompon （ representativeofaThromde/MunicipalMayor ） .

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• Maldives provided for by the Decentralization Act 2010 and the Local Council
Election Act 2010, and it is enshrined in the Constitution (Chapter VIII). LG

comprises
• 20 atoll councils,
• 66 island councils and
• two city councils (Malé and Addu).
Local government is in two tiers with
• the atoll councils in the first tier and
• the island and city councils in the second

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• In Nepal, the Local Self Government Act (LSGA) of 1999
defined three types of local bodies and endowed them with
• some revenue powers and expenditure responsibilities.
• Recently, Nepal has undergone a delicate transition from
monarchy to the model of a federal state. In this context,
the roles of the different tiers of government, the number
of tiers, and the nature of fiscal flows are still under way to
define the future of the decentralization strategy.
• Local bodies are becoming increasingly involved in local
service provision and
• users’ groups in the management of local resources and
services

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• Pakistan embarked upon a far-reaching devolution plan in
2000-2001 to transfer central powers to new local
governments. Devolution was aimed at injecting new blood
into the political system,
• including marginalized citizens in formal politics, and
• contributing to strong accountability between new
politicians and local electorates.
• A three-tier federated local government system was set
up in every district of the country as an integral part of
provincial governments.
• The local government system integrates rural with urban
local governments and the bureaucracy with the local
governments so that the district administration and police
are answerable to the elected head of the district
government.
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 Capacity development Components
• Trend: People centric_participatory
• Inclusive
• Top_down+Bottom Up: Inclusiveness
• Holistic process
• Individual -Societal-Institutional level

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• Some examples on CD in South Asian Countries
• Srilanka:
to adopt a bottom-up approach to support public engagement and strengthen local government service delivery and
infrastructure through the project titled 'Capacity Development for Local Government (CDLG)'

• To improve local planning and service delivery,

• To enable local governance systems to be innovative and inclusive to address multidimensional challenges
• To strengthen the ability of Central and Provincial institutions to support local government authorities to deliver
better

Bhutan:
1.The central (Mainstram reference Group)MRG was made responsible for training the local MRG, and accordingly, the
local MRG to roll out the capacity building for the other tiers in the local governance structure.To date,numerous
trainings have been conducted for the local MRGs and their roll-out plan and activities were also drawn
2 . Awareness and Sensitization Programs on Women ・ s Participation: Inturn, these interventions enable the voters to
contribute to governance, especially at the local levels, through meaningful participations

Maldiv:

Strengthening local democracy and the decentralisation system in the Maldives.

The project, implemented by Transparency International together with Transparency Maldives, aims to:

strengthen accountability and transparency by building the capacity of public officials and local communities;
educate and empower youth groups for social accountability of leaders and public institutions; and
strengthen local governance systems and processes through building dialogue, partnership,, and networks among local
authorities.The project is fully funded by the European Union 21
• SCHEMES FOR CAPACITY BUILDING OF PANCHAYATS
BACKWARD REGIONS GRANT FUND (BRGF):INDIA
To address the issue of regional imbalances in the
developmental process, a new programme called
Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) was launched in
2007 after subsuming an earlier programme of
Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY). It covers 272
districts in 27 States of which 251 districts have
Panchayats and Municipalities. The BRGF entrusts the
central role to Panchayats in rural areas and
Municipalities in urban areas in the planning and
implementation of the programme.

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• Knowledge management is another concern in the capacity development of LGIs.
The ‘Panchayat Resource Centre’ initiative in India is an example of addressing
this concern in which four different approaches of partnership approach,
communication approach, leadership approach and knowledge management
approach were utilized.
• A good example to address a capacity development need that requires building
partnerships and networks is the ‘Pre-Election Voters Awareness Campaign’
(PEVAC) in India. In this the approaches of partnership and networks, and
communication were utilized.
• Use of technology is evident in the ‘satellite communication model’ (SATCOM) of
Gujarat, India, where the e-learning approach to capacity development, has had an
extensive reach.
• Leadership development is a very crucial part of capacity development in LGIs.
‘Panchayati Raj Jagrukta Abhiyan’ (PRJA) in India - a campaign on awareness
building for the elected representatives of LGIs is an example of this where
communication and leadership development approaches were made use of in this
project.
• The Village Development Program (VDP) in Nepal works for poverty reduction by
forming community organizations (COs). The program aims to support local
communities and local governments in institutionalizing community organizations
as self-governing and self-sustaining institutions to facilitate participatory 23
development
• Sri Lanka’s

• Managing Solid Waste project is an example of intervention

at individual and societal levels where both elected
representatives and Pradeshiya Sabha officers were provided
training and programs were also conducted to involve the
community at large to bring about a system change in solid
waste management.

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• Bangladesh: Establishing vertical and horizontal
linkages and enabling interface between the people
and the governance institutions is an important
component for the success of local governance
units. Power to the grassroots will come only if this
link is made strong, and capacity development has
a crucial role to play in this. Such linkages were
developed in Bangladesh’s Strengthening Local
Governance project and proved to be an effective
tool in bringing the desired level of change.
• Hence, capacity development cannot be viewed
through a narrow prism of training of individuals

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• MAJOR CHALLENGES:The general core weaknesses
are connected with the following constraints in South
Asia:
• Decentralization is generally seen as a threat by
politicians;
• Local government institutions lack the necessary
financial and human resources;
• Local-level management capacities are inadequate;
• Gaps exist between resource needs and availability;
• There is a need for public-private partnership projects
and activities, however a legal framework for public-
private partnership is not available;
• Lack of resources and management skills makes the
local institutions ineffective.
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• Other partial issues can also be mentioned, like –
• old mind-set of the central line agencies continues to regard local bodies as
subordinate agents of local development rather than autonomous units of
local self-governance;
• despite authorization of local bodies to impose and collect taxes, service
charges and fees, revenue generation by local government bodies is
inadequate and they continue to depend largely on grant from central and/or
provincial government;
• very few local bodies have been able to satisfactorily carry out the given
tasks especially on account of limited institutional capability and limited
financial resources;
• in almost all the local government bodies represent more than one party and
partisan political interests influence the functioning of the local bodies.
• In some cases, conflicting interests have stalled the functioning of local
bodies. Partisan political affiliations also affect the relation of local bodies
with the central government if the latter is formed by a rival political party;
usually local bodies have not been effective in terms of inclusion and
participation at local level in governance due to lack of financial resources,
poor institutional capabilities, partisan politics and absence of real 27
autonomy.
The core threats are as follows –
• The centralized political culture impedes the process
of decentralization;
• Non-implementation of legislative provisions in spirit
by many provincial governments, including the
bureaucracy, poses a high degree of uncertainty for
proper functioning of local governments;
• With transparency and accountability practices and
supervision, monitoring and evaluation weak at central
and provincial levels, narrow partisan and political
biases thrives at the local level;
• Fiscal decentralization remains neglected.
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