top ideas for decentralization

DecentralizationResearch Ideas

Port-au-PrinceApril 2016

Working with 30-50 economists including Nobel Laureates, 100+ sector experts, government, donor organizations, civil society, development agencies, businesses, youth, across rural and urban areas to identify, analyze and prioritize interventions that will deliver greater benefit per gourde spent, helping move Haiti towards a more prosperous long term future.

Copenhagen Consensus Center organized roundtable discussions

with an aim to figure out smarter solutions to the most problematic

issues facing Haiti.

These roundtables are one of several sources

for research ideas.

Research Ideas

Top Ideas;(1 of 6)

• Increase the management and administrative capacity of municipalities.

• Put-in-place a proper training system.• Develop standard organizational charts for municipalities.• Develop operating rules and regulations to promote the

stability of public institutions.• Improve the remuneration of municipal officials and

employees.• Assess the potential tax base for each municipality and

broaden the tax base of municipalities according to the fiscal potential of each municipality.

Top Ideas; (2 of 6)

• Put mechanisms in place to increase the social capital of elected officials to promote transparency, outreach and communication.

• Form local committees.• Create institutional mechanisms (personnel, equipment and

materials) to facilitate communication between citizens and the state and take steps to identify priorities through a participatory planning exercise.

• Improve the tax mobilization in communities through three mechanisms: (1) census of citizens, properties and businesses; (2) participatory development of the municipal budget; (3) raising awareness about the services offered by the municipality.

Top Ideas; (3 of 6)

• Budget transparency: Creating mechanisms digitized and non-digitized (gazette, magazine, website, etc.) to disclose the municipal budget, view reports, orders and other relevant information for the population in communities.

• Implement decentralization laws.• Advocacy: awareness campaigns, conferences, mediated

interventions, seminars and workshops.• Council interdepartmental training to implement the CEP and

manage the Fund Management and Development of Local Communities.

• The preparation of textbooks on decentralization in communities: one for local officials and another for citizens.

• Repatriate the budget for communities.

Top Ideas; (4 of 6)

• Create community dialogue spaces that hold meetings regularly.

• Create formal structures to strengthen the capacity of local civil society.

• Extend the definition of territory:• Define the contours of decentralization.• Promote community dialogue around local democracy.• Develop a teaching manual on decentralization and promote

its massive distribution across the country.• Add a civics course in the national curriculum to

educate and sensitize the citizens about their rights and duties.

Top Ideas; (5 of 6)

• Redistribute power by creating an institution for tax mobilization in municipalities (outside the DGI to avoid concentration of the resources at the central government level).

• Create a mechanism for debate and dialogue through workshops, seminars and forums in communities on bills and public policies to make the relationship between civil society and lawmakers more harmonious.

• Establish a specialized course of study on the management of decentralization at the public university.

• Implement inter-communal public service sharing programs for schools, hospitals, waste management, etc.

• Put-in-place structures for the coordination of central and local actors.

Top Ideas; (6 of 6)

• Create a centralized digital library of training modules for municipal administration and operating regulations available in Creole and French.

• Reduce the cost of elections.• Put-in-place contest "Chic Neighborhoods" for waste

management.• Put-In-Place neighborhood committees systematized

• Share resources for basic infrastructure: water, sanitation, energy, etc.

• A partnership with the Haitian National Police to take appropriate measures to manage security area (e.g. an alarm whistle system).

For more information www.HaitiPriorise.com