The following observations were made during the group discussions:
United Nations and FAO support to decentralization has generally focused on government line ministries. However, insufficient attention has been given so far to the need for decentralization of its functions/responsibilities by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives which is the core line ministry for sustainable agriculture and rural development and thus for poverty reduction and food security in rural areas.
Many UN/donor-funded projects promoting micro-enterprise development in rural areas are independent of FAO as technical agency for agriculture and rural development. As a result, many opportunities for enhanced impact on rural poor as farmers and users of natural resources are missed out. This should be a priority issue for UN coordination in poverty reduction policies and programes.
The two groups made the following recommendations.
Group 1
Political will
Considering that decentralization is a sine-qua-non for the eradication of poverty and hunger in this region, it is essential to have a strong political commitment for decentralized governance.
Legislation
Functional clarity and demarcation between line ministries, local bodies, civil society organizations as well as different layers of local bodies and other stakeholders including NGO's.
Demarcation between obligatory and optional functions.
Legislation for borrowing money from financial institutions.
Clear provisions for inter-governmental transfers like sharing of revenue and tax proceeds.
Clear legislation for common property resources.
Provision for social audit.
Criteria for grant, matching grant, incentive grant
Sustainability in the flow of funds.
Institutional
Good personnel system for local bodies - for assessment and collection of taxes.
Tax payers’ committee.
Good record system.
Collaborative issues
Collaboration with civil society and private sector in planning/programme formulation.
Incentive for tax payers, private sector and local bodies for service delivery.
Punitive measures
Defaulters/tax evaders.
Local bodies which do not maintain and make public records.
Publishing names of good tax payers and defaulters.
Capacity-building systems and procedures
Establishment of systems - manuals, guidelines, direction.
Networking and partnership.
Openness and transparency.
Timely dissemination of information.
Right to access information through the use of information technology.
Human resource development
Training need assessment.
Basic course on training and orientation.
Specialized courses for skills development.
Delivery of quality and participatory training.
Cascading of training.
Networking, partnership - coalition building.
Sustainable funding.
Exposure visits - local/national/international.
Monitoring evaluation and feedback.
Sustainability.
Community empowerment process - local government vs knowledge base through participatory approach.
1. Local government role in employment generation
2. Enhancement of local government capacity for sustainable resources management
3. Role of local government in empowering women, disabled and indigenous people (1, 2 and 3 are overlapping and interrelated)
Use and maintenance of common property resources (CPR).
Equity in the application of CPR.
Redistribution of resources earned by community forestry groups (Nepal).
Transfers of CPR to local governments ensuring that marginalized groups have equal access and control over CPR.
Management of agricultural resources by local governments by capacity-building of associations of user groups, cooperatives and marginalized people.
The poorest and marginalized must be involved in local government decision-making for creating local infrastructure.
Regularization and handing over encroached common land to local governments.
Promote competitive environment among local bodies for promotion of rural small-scale enterprises.
Group-2
These recommendations are complementary and efforts have been made not to repeat those already made during the presentation of country reports.
Financial resource mobilization
Increased share of national resources for local bodies.
Direct assignment of taxes.
Formula-based distribution of available resources among local body levels.
Reduction in regional disparities/provision of subsidy to poorer regions.
Reduction in administrative expenditure.
Community participation with matching contribution.
Capacity-building for efficient tax collection and account keeping.
Action - central/state governments.
Capacity-building for participatory local planning
Formulation of national action plan.
Financial/technical assistance from international/regional organizations and bilateral donors.
Identification of training needs.
Identification of local resource persons.
Utilization of existing institutional facilities/infrastructure.
Partnership with political parties and local NGOs.
Action - national/state governments.
Promotion of income/employment generation
Partnership with financial development institutions.
Planning/implementation of income/employment generation schemes.
Identification of key sectors/potential schemes and arranging backward-forward linkages.
Skills development.
Establishment of sales/service outlets.
Weekly/monthly bazaars/markets.
Revival and support to indigenous technologies.
Development of cooperative enterprises.
Access to marketing and related information.
Sustainable natural resources management
Assignment of public land to rural poor for productive use.
Enforcement of religious/legal propriety rights of women.
Watershed management.
Joint/community forest management.
Investment of local revenue for natural resource management.
Capacity building.
Empowering women and marginalized groups
Ensuring benefits from national health, education and employment facilities.
Political participation at all levels.
Social mobilization and shunning cultural/social prejudices.
Targeted schemes/projects.
Formation of self-help groups.
Recommendations for FAO
1. Comprehensive study of decentralization in the Asia-Pacific region in the context of sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD). Study should also focus on extent of decentralization as measured in terms of
a) direct elections to different layers of local administration;
b) representation of women and weaker sections in local bodies;
c) local government expenditure;
d) investment in rural infrastructural development.
2. Development of a resource centre and data bank on various aspects of decentralization/SARD in the region. Development of IT capacities within CIRDAP focal points in each country.
3. TCA field programme development in collaboration with RAPS Rural Development Section and facilitation of inputs in FAOR Country Framework formulation.
