Overall approach 1.1 Purpose of this document

1.3 Model of change

In essence, the provincial government entities together produce plans and budgets, with budgets going up to national level to incorporate into the national budgeting cycle. Once resources come to the provincial level, line departments undertake development activities and service delivery within the scope of the functions that have been delegated to them. Throughout this process, Governors play a coordinating role, coordinating both planning and implementation of service delivery, while Provincial Councils play an accountability and oversight function. Municipalities raise their own revenues and implement their own service delivery programmes, and are thus semi-independent from the rest of the administrative system, although the Governor usually has some type of coordinating role with respect to Municipal affairs. (The diagram omits the fact that Governors Office are administrative sub-units of IDLG and provincial line departments are administrative sub-units of central ministries, as this is not relevant for understanding this basic system).

As things currently stand, the system of subnational governance does not exactly function in this way. This is due to a number of reasons, including: the parts of the system of subnational planning have not been fully linked and connected to the national budget; the coordination relationship between the Governors’ office and other provincial agencies has not been fully defined in practice, leading to variability in actual relationships; development and service delivery outside of the security and justice sector is monopolized by central ministries and the parallel structures that have been set up for them; the local agencies have limited access to and control over resources; Provincial Councils have neither the information nor perceived authority to call the provincial executive offices to account; Provincial Municipalities are generally weak throughout the entire cycle of raising revenue, planning how to use it and executing their plans.

The model of change used for this document is that IDLG and its partners (i) develop new systems, or clarify in detail how existing systems are expected to work (through formal policies, procedures and other forms of guidance), (ii) disseminate those systems so that all relevant stakeholders accept and understand them, (iii) support their implementation by providing workshops, training and technical support while the relevant agencies implement the new systems². This approach can be called the “Develop, disseminate and support” approach to change. This approach can lead to reform in processes and institutions such as local planning and accountability, but also lead to changes in how resources are allocated when it is applied to systems for budgeting, appointments and managing service delivery. The diagram below summarizes how this approach can be used to address the systemic weaknesses in the SNG system.

Interventions are needed at a number of points in the SNG system, some concerning internal structures and functions of SNG units and some concerning relationships and SNG institutions. The diagram below shows where interventions are needed and the type of intervention. One of the key points, of this diagram, however, is that all of these interventions can be delivered with the “develop, disseminate and support” approach.