Bringing the citizen back In: supporting decentralisation in fragile states - a view from Burundi
Gaynor, NiamhORCID: 0000-0001-5645-7032
(2014)
Bringing the citizen back In: supporting decentralisation in fragile states - a view from Burundi.
Development Policy Review, 32
(2).
pp. 203-218.
ISSN 0950-6764
While, in theory, decentralisation offers many benefits – increased efficiency and
effectiveness of public service provision, reduced horizontal inequalities, and an associated
consolidation of the social contract between states and their citizens, empirical evidence of
these benefits remains limited. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Burundi in 2011, this
paper argues that the current donor emphasis on institution building alone as a support to the
Burundian process proves insufficient. Evidence is presented to show that current support,
while consolidating the authority of local political elites, reinforces political and horizontal
inequalities thereby paving the way for further disaffection and conflict. Reflecting back to
the initial aims of the process, a re-orientation in support is proposed, moving the focus
beyond elite state actors and institutions and bringing citizens back into the process of state
building and transformation.