Resource information
Despite the remarkable progress achieved
since the end of the conflict, Burundi still faces
significant development challenges. Since 2005, the
Government of Burundi has embarked on a potentially
transformative process of decentralization, with the aim of
strengthening social cohesion, improving local governance,
and promoting access to basic infrastructure and service
delivery. The weakness of the communal tax system, coupled
with low mobilization of local revenue and nonexistent
(current) or negligible (capital) transfers from the
national budget threaten the financial viability of
communes, which struggle to support even basic operating
costs. Addressing a specific government request, the present
study aims to provide concrete policy recommendations to
help the Government of Burundi improve the financial and
institutional sustainability of the decentralization reform
process, while enabling communes to address popular demands
and deliver better services. The report will also look at
the implications of these macro-level challenges at the
sectoral level, through a case study of the recent
experiences of decentralized land administration services,
whose responsibilities were recently transferred to
communes. The report is based on results from interviews,
fieldwork research, and qualitative focus group discussion,
combined with existing administrative data and secondary
sources on decentralization in Burundi. The present study is
organized into four thematic chapters. Chapter one provides
a snapshot of Burundiapos;s political and macroeconomic
context, and reviews the evolution of the decentralization
process to better understand how institutional, political,
and bureaucratic dynamics have shaped the historical
trajectory of decentralization and generated the outcomes
observed today. Chapter two provides a systematic
investigation of the status of fiscal decentralization in
Burundi, and identifies key policy issues to be considered
to ensure the medium-term sustainability of the reform
process while at the same time addressing the short-term
financial needs of communes. Chapter three provides an
in-depth diagnostic of a key service delivery responsibility
recently devolved to communes - the provision of land
registration services and discusses the challenges and
opportunities related to ongoing efforts to scale up access
to these land services across 116 rural communes and
Bujumbura. Chapter four shifts the focus to the nature of
state citizen relations in an effort to better understand
how citizen engagement in the decision-making process may be
improved and local authorities held accountable for the
provision of basic services.
