Participation in Kenyas local decentralized funds: Reviewing the past to inform the future

Participation In Kenyas Local Decentralized Funds: Reviewing The Past To Inform The Future

Publisher	World Bank
Year of Publication
Category	Papers and Articles Policies and Guidelines
County	All/General
Description	Kenyas new Constitution mandates a new era of public participation in government, particularly within the devolved government structure. Kenya has a long history with decentralization and transfers from the central to local government. By the 2009/2010 fiscal year, at least Ksh 73 billion, or Ksh 350 million on average per constituency, went towards decentralized spending. The 47 new county governments are expected to share information on budgets and spending while enabling effective citizen participation in establishing service delivery priorities and monitoring performance and oversight. The new devolved structures can benefit from reviewing the countrys prior experience with participation in decentralized funds. Kenyan government and citizens gained extensive experience in local participatory development through decentralized programs and funds, in particular the Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF) and the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). This note summarizes options for strengthening participation under devolution, based on Kenyas experiences with citizen participation in previously devolved funds. This note summarizes findings from several sources including: (i) Social Accountability in Kenyas Decentralized FundsPerceptions from Civil Society a background report that reviews 19 civil society monitoring reports to understand the perspective of Kenya CSOs, (ii) Six Case Studies of Local Participation in Kenya, a published set of World Bank case studies reviewing citizen participation in devolved funds, (iii) Citizens Voices: Citizen Participation in Devolved Government" a World Bank-commissioned consultations in eight counties on how citizen voices can be enhanced within the devolved structure, and (iv) a literature review and focus group discussions.
Tags	Public Finance
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