African local governments and the MDGS: Constraints and policy alternatives

Abstract

The year 2000 saw governments adopting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, their
implementation in the initial years failed to realise the role of the local government, being at the cutting
edge of service delivery to the citizens. With time local government has been taken aboard in many
regions as the first port of call for accountability and programmes and projects implementation.
Focussing on Africa, the majority of local governments are largely too incapacitated to effectively and
efficiently play the emerging roles towards attaining MDGs, a fact attributable to the failure of
decentralized governance. The primary objective of this paper is to examine the challenges faced local
government in Africa in achieving MDGs. Specifically it intends to broaden and deepen on the
understanding of the situation on the ground (baseline conditions) for successful implementation of
MDGs by local authorities in Africa, to appraise and reflect on the capacity of African local authorities to
spearhead development and management of project activities in consultation of other players towards
achieving MDGs by 2015, and to show the minimum conditions necessary for local government in
Africa to play a meaningful role in the attainment of MDGs. The paper makes use of case studies drawn
from across the region.