Decentralization and Local Service Delivery: the Case of Water-Supply Services in Assosa City, BGNRS

Abstract

This study examines whether decentralized local capacity matches the service delivery functions of local government. In particular, it looks at local government water-supply service delivery, identifying factors that constrain it in the case of the city of Assosa, BGNRS. The findings are that Assosa lacks legal security and has remained dependent on regional political relations and dynamics. The insecure legal status of institutions of urban governance is seen as a means by which indigenous elites can control urban centers by using their regional autonomy to adjust the autonomy of these institutions as they deem fit. In Assosa, this has left local governance fraught with uncertainty and rendered municipal decentralization ineffective. The study also finds that decentralization has not empowered Assosa to address water-supply service demands adequately and that the city has been unable to cope with changes in urban settlement, demography and demand for water-supply services. The implication is that, for local government to be in a position to deliver water-supply services, decentralization has to ensure adequate local capacity and effective multilevel institutional and stakeholder coordination