Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations: Questions of Accountability and Autonomy - Governing the Nexus: Water, Soil and Waste Resources Considering Global Change - page 61

and of stressing governments accountability for service delivery is analyzed in

Sects. 6 and 7 . Good governance practices and clear accountability, at all levels of
government, are key ingredients to enhance the ef

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ciency of local resource man-
agement. In the absence of an appropriate degree of accountability, greater dis-
cretion may actually lead to the misuse and abuse of the new powers, to the capture
of power by local elite groups, and to the continuity of poor service delivery.
Section 8 presents a literature review of the main factors in uencing decentral-

ization outcomes and discusses the impact of decentralization on governance.
Recent trends in service delivery involving higher participation of the private sector
and of local communities are covered in Sect. 9 , along with new

financial models

designed to reinforce providers accountability in a way that creates incentives for

better performance. Finally, the implications for the nexus approach to the man-
agement of environmental resources are presented in Sect. 10 .

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2 Decentralization Around the World and Over Time

There is great diversity around the world regarding the organization of govern-
mental activities. First, the number of administrative tiers of government varies
across countries. G ó mez-Reino and Martinez-Vazquez ( 2013 ) analyzed a sample of
197 countries and report that, although the majority of countries has two levels of
subnational governments, 50 countries have three tiers and 35 have only one.
Second, fragmentation within each tier of government also varies 2 leading to a

diversity of situations regarding subnational governments size in terms of popu-

lation and area. Third, the degree of power and functions transferred to subnational
governments also varies widely. Figure 1 provides a general view of decentral-
ization across the world according to a decentralization index developed by Ivanyna
and Shah ( 2014 ). As can be seen from the picture, developed countries are the most
decentralized, while African economies tend to be the least.
From a historical perspective,

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the importance of studying and researching

intergovernmental fiscal relation issues has been gradually increasing because

major decentralization reforms have been taking place worldwide, reshaping
national budgetary competencies across different layers of government. 3 In Latin
America, reforms were implemented mainly during the 1980s and 1990s and were
part of the democratization process that resulted from the fall of autocratic regimes.
African countries also adopted decentralization measures, particularly in recent
years, due to pressures arising from political changes resulting from the end of long
civil wars, the increase in the number of multi-party political systems, and requests
of regional and ethnic groups for more autonomy. However, Africa remains the

2 The two extreme cases are Kiribati with no local government and India with more than 240,000.
3 For recent reports on decentralization, see United Cities and Local Government ( 2010 ) and
European Commission ( 2013 ).