Decentralization%20is%20a%20gerund%20%20or%20Decentralizing,%20not%20decentralization

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Decentralization is a gerundorDecentralizing,
not decentralization
Luis Crouch Lead Education Economist, HDNED -
World Bank Lcrouch_at_worldbank.org
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Some of our initial questions cant really be
answered

• Every countrys decentralization is different
• It is almost always part of a bigger set of
  reforms
• It is never complete, changes at the margin
  (USA!)
• Service-delivery considerations not central in
  determining shape and timing
• Some centralized countries have efficient and
  equitable systems, some decentralizations are a
  total mess
• No system ever fully decentralized or
  centralized, even in theory, much less in practice

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Some of our initial questions cant really be
answered

• Do things right vs. do the right things?
• It is happening anyway, all over, so the premium
  is on doing it right the whether we should do
  it debate is pretty academic

(Anecdote.)
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What does decentralizing education mean?

• For a minute, forget the textbook definitions
• Focus on incentives (accountability) and
  information
• Incentives to get information
• Incentives to use information
• Making information cheaper
• Lowering costs of transactions and horse-trading
  in decision-making
• By lowering numbers that have to be involved in
  the trading (one way to do so is autocracy issue
  is how to do it in democracy?)
• With that in mind, what does it mean?

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What does decentralizing education mean?

• Communities have different needs, teachers have
  different capabilities, etc.
• Delivering good services therefore requires
  information about what pupils want and need,
  about which teachers are good and which are no
  good, about what fixes schools need
• Information is expensive and gets diluted and
  merged when it goes up the management chain
• So, push decision down to those who can easily
  get information on how to act
• Make them want to get the information
  (incentives, accountability)
• Make them want to use it (incentives,
  accountability)

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Why?
Issue Region A Region B Total
Open schools early 20 80 100
Open schools late 60 50 110
Unhappy people 20 80 100
Issue Region A Region B Total
Open schools early 20 80 NA
Open schools late 60 50 NA
Unhappy people 20 50 70
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But

• What if whatever one region does causes problems
  or benefits for another region?
• What if educated kids migrate?
• What if everyone decides to use their own weights
  and measures? Their own tests, their own
  diplomas?
• What if some areas are really poor?
• These are centralist needs
• Sometimes such needs over-ride the advantages of
  decentralization
• (Note they are also above incentives and
  information)
• So there is some need for central functions

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But thats enough of theory. Rest of this
presentation1. What are the usual mistakes or
issues that seem to recur?2. What are some
practical things we could know more about?
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Usual problems, recurrent mistakes

• Lack of clarity
• Management vs. governance
• Who does what
• Failure to recognize self-interested behavior
  (so, mistakes are not always true mistakes,
  just rational self-seeking behavior)
• Lack of capacity

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Lack of clarity in decentralizing management vs.
governance

• Decentralized management give goals, give block
  grants, let lower levels decide how to produce,
  make own decisions (hiring, firing, buying,
  norming) but accountability (for goals) still
  upward
• Decentralized governance accountability is
  horizontal
• Can do both, carefully
• Related debate reach the right depth school
  autonomy, or just district decentralization (USA
  vs. other cases, Chile vs. Nicaragua examples)

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Lack of clarity or poor decisions in who does
what

• Functions too broad education is decentralized
• Or even, teacher management is decentralized
• Instead analyze each function in detail
• Also, though decisions political, technical input
  valuable, yet often little or none
• Tech issues to balance
• Info incentives, loss, dilution
• Accountability pressure
• Economies of scale
• Capacity
• Spillovers
• Homogeneity of information (weights and measures)

Decentralize
Centralize
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Failure to watch out for self-interest

• Self-interest from decentralized units conspires
  with self-interest at center to create unfunded,
  re-centralizing mandates
• E.g., sports teaching interest in districts,
  together with sports interest in center create
  national norms for sports teaching as unfunded
  mandate
• Many other examples such as opportunities for
  corruption
• Self-interest also in decentralizing of course,
  more local capture by local elites

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Lack of capacity

• Serious problem but...
• Capacity can be created
• Local capacity does not emerge, to be further
  capacitated until there is something real to
  manage so you have to start with decentralization
• It takes time
• Yet, not taken seriously enough
• Key decentralizing countries have no systematic
  inventory of province or district capacity none

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This is all knownExpertise exists that can
be transmitted, and can help make better
decisions at the margin(Remember anecdote)What
are some things we dont know?
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Things we (or I?) dont know

• What are good examples of org structure for apex
  ministry in a decentralized system? Does it
  matter?
• What are reasonable staffing and spending
  proportions for apex ministry in a decentralized
  system? What should it depend on? (Depends on
  function, but)
• What are reasonable levels of output/input
  variability between districts, schools? When is
  too much variability a sign of insufficient
  accountability pressure from central location?
  Or insufficient capacity?

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Things we dont know

• How to keep management and governance lines from
  mucking with each other? (US case?)
• Or, how deep into school management does
  governance go? Do you need democratically-account
  able decision to decide when to clean the
  toilets?
• Are there good examples of successful and
  well-managed asymmetric autonomy? Where are the
  norms and checklists?
• When to do it by stealth (Nicaragua, Honduras)
  vs. law (South Africa)? Pros and cons?

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We dont know but we find out, even by trial and
error, because decentralization is a gerund we
are all decentralizing or recentralizing no
one has reached the right and final stage of
decentralization.