Search

In a quest to ensure sustainability of water services delivery, the provision and management of potable water in small towns has gone through reforms, resulting in the current practice of community-based water management. It is assumed that community level actors are closest to the water resources and are in a better position to devise strategies to manage them. This paper assesses the financial self-sufficiency of community-managed water systems in Ghana. The study was based on content analysis of the water systems finances and separate focus group discussions with water management bodies. The main source of revenue for operation and maintenance is through water user-charges. While the expenditure pattern remains relatively stable, there is a highly undulating revenue pattern. The presence of unregulated alternative sources of water, especially in the rainy season, and weak oversight responsibility on water management are detrimental to the financial self-sufficiency of the water systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unfinished agenda in the theory and practice of fiscal decentralization is how fiscal decentralization affects the universal plague of poverty reduction in developing economies. Focusing on developing economies especially Ghana, and also employing secondary sources of information, this paper made an attempt to provide a holistic review of the concept of fiscal decentralization and its effects on poverty reduction from the optimist and pessimist views. The paper affirmed that fiscal decentralization has the potential for poverty reduction when it is characterized by greater financial autonomy of the local units with proper budgetary allocation, prioritization, accountability and responsiveness. Accountability and proper regulation may reduce some institutional setbacks such as corruption from the system. We, therefore, recommended for a more effective, efficient, and transparent institutional and legal framework to ensure effective fiscal transfer between the central and local governments in order to eliminate various lapses associated with fiscal decentralization as highlighted by the pessimists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]