Emmanuel Baisie - Financing Local Services with Own Source Resources in Politically Sensitive Subnational Contexts: Governance Dilemmas and Decisions in Ghana’s Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly (KoKMA)

Centralisation-decentralisation paradoxes are two governance approaches with peculiar dilemmas globally. Both cannot be fully implemented simultaneously, yet in Ghana, the national constitutional mandate of decentralisation by devolution in Ghana’s municipalities is being operationalised at the same time with deconcentration by the national government. Since 1988 devolution came on stream, it has generally failed to deliver promised theoretical benefits in areas of local services delivery, responsiveness, efficiency, and fiscal autonomy. The latter is central to success, but finance appears not to follow functions; the bane of decentralisation and its failure in many national jurisdictions across Africa. But, since Covid-19, KoKMA, (an urban municipality in Ghana) bucks the traditional “3F” (Funds, Functions and Functionaries) deficit in relation to own-source revenue and public services delivery within the politically charged urban environment of the country. This study therefore seeks to examine patterns and processes of the KoKMA’s financing model and the relationship with service delivery obligations, and accountability mechanisms.

Theoretically, a key blind spot in governance theory is the neglect of political economy factors that shape real world decentralisation. Political economy approach to decentralisation highlights critical issues such as power relations, political patronage, institutional configurations, and interest group dynamics for understanding decentralisation as fundamentally political processes rather than merely technical-administrative reforms. In here, the study intends to garner empirical evidence to shed light into the theoretical blind spot by delving into the complexities of adoption, sustainability, and probabilities of transferability to similar political battleground municipalities across Ghana. In summary, the study will critically examine to what extent the ways local governments in politically sensitive environments overcome fiscal constraints and partisan resistance to optimise own-source revenue for self-sufficiency, especially in decentralised tiers of government where finance is widely documented as not following functions.