Benefits of Decentralization
A democratic government has an obligation to educate its people the basic elements of democracy. Sadly, our political parties are not up to the task at hand and hence citizens are setting up a democratic campaign with the aim of abolishing this retrogressive philosophy to facilitate the adoption of a new system that will help build our skills, ability and knowledge to hold members of parliament accountable for their actions.
1. Promotes local development
Decentralization and fiscal decentralization create a structure which stimulates local development in different parts of the country. Since fiscal decentralization aims to reverse current methods which extract sizeable amount of resources directly from the marginal center, the resources can be diverted to help stimulate development at the local level.
2. Transparency
Decentralization exemplifies the need of limiting excessive use of resources on a particular development project, which is quite common in the present governance. The existing government model is considered unwelcoming to basic values of good leadership e.g. probity, fairness and openness. Deliberating power and resources to local authorities can prevent any group, be it private or government, to control the pace of national development.
3. Better governance
Decentralization also encourages greater participation in decision making. It helps bring the people closer to parliamentarians so that they are informed and understand the order of parliament business. Since the people can identify with their members of government, alienation will become a thing of the past.
4. Increases efficiency
Decentralization has an active role in increasing the efficiency of service provision. Citizens have the opportunity to influence decisions through mechanisms that allow them to point out the kind of services they want, as well as the costs involved for such amenities.
Decentralization also has its share of limitations as well, especially for routine based services. Weak technical or administrative capacity can prevent meaningful development at the local level.
