New devolution study links development to decentralisation

A new study on the progress of Pakistan's Devolution Plan (DP) has underlined the need for a reassessment of functions mandated to provincial and local governments under a scheme to give devolution greater momentum and impact than it has so far achieved. According to the report released last week, provincial government needs to demonstrate a commitment to strengthening the role of local government, currently some local functions are being retained at provincial level. Pakistan's government had asked three international donors - the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank (WB) and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID)- to review the plan announced in 1999 and offer advice on how the practice is contributing to improved service delivery throughout the country. The essence of the new system revolves around political, administrative and fiscal decentralisation leading to more efficient delivery of education, healthcare, sanitation and law enforcement. The donor study found several successes and challenges after examining the local government system working in all four provinces of the country. According to the report, there is positive evidence of change in the country under the local government system as citizens gained more opportunities "to voice their needs and concerns to elected representatives." However, "Effective citizen monitoring of service providers continues to remain a challenge," the study noted. The International Crisis Group (ICG), in a report released in March this year, strongly criticised Islamabad's efforts at political devolution. The report said that the devolution plan had served to strengthen the military rule of President Musharraf when compared to Ayub Khan's Basic Democracy Scheme in 1960s and Zia-ul-Haq's Local Bodies scheme in 1980s. Government policies had undermined established political parties and drained authority from the provinces, while doing little to devolve power, improve service delivery, reduce corruption or establish accountability at the local level, said the ICG review. "This study carries some of the same concerns, which were expressed in our study. However, it has touched on more points on the fiscal and administrative side," Samina Ahmed, the project director for South Asia at the ICG office in Islamabad, told IRIN. "Devolution is not working in its true sense, centralisation is there, it needs to devolve power so that people could get benefit at the grassroots level," Ahmed said. The new collective donor study is critical of various points of political, institutional and administrative devolution besides fiscal decentralisation for local governments. Other observers were more circumspect. "The report has touched on some important practical issues of governance, instead of jumping to conclusions like the ICG report," Dr Rasheed Ahmed Khan, senior research fellow at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), which analyses important national issues, told IRIN. The decentralisation and devolution of power to local bodies have been issues of contention in Pakistan since they were introduced in 1999 under the Musharraf's radical reform agenda to promote good governance in the country. Critics of devolution plans, however, have expressed concerns, saying decentralisation had not empowered people, rather it had helped to legitimise the power of unelected military governments. "The devolution programme, as a whole is good. But, it is not going to deliver unless local bodies have the decision making power to use funds and undertake development schemes," Mohsin Babbar, media coordinator at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), a policy advocacy group in Islamabad, told IRIN. "Parliamentarians whether at provincial or federal level, should not be authorised to decide for development schemes, let the local representatives work out these matters," Babbar said, adding that devolution should also ensure the active participation of women in decision making.