Link to Atlas Project

Documents

Overview

The SIG National Development Strategy 2016-2030 (NDS) acknowledges that good governance and credible and stable policies are essential for economic growth and public service delivery, especially education and health services. NDS calls for decentralization of decision-making and continued support to Provincial Governments for effective service delivery at the local (provincial) level.

The first step towards decentralization was taken in 1997 with the passing of the Provincial Government Act of 1997. The PGA 1997 provides the legal framework for the establishment of provinces, the establishment of the provincial assembly, provincial executive, devolution of functions, as well as establishment and management of provincial funds.

The ethnic conflict (1999-2004) also brought to the fore the issue of power-sharing. The Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) report identified the lack of power-sharing between the national government and the provincial governments and the centralized nature of power and governance as the main cause of the tensions in the country. To promote peace, stability, and economic growth, the government is committed to further developing capacity at the provincial level and in assisting the provincial governments to effectively deliver services to citizens.

The MPGIS has been considering revising the PGA 1997 since 2010 and has taken several steps towards review and revision of PGA 1997. In 2017/18, MPGIS developed a memo to the Cabinet with drafting instructions for the Attorney General’s (AG) Chambers. Both the memo and the content of the instructions were widely consulted, but due to a change of Government, the memo was delayed. The first memo and drafting instruction was endorsed by the Cabinet in 2018 and a first draft of the Bill was then produced by the AG’s Chambers. Following the 2019 elections, the new government revisited the process, and currently, MPGIS wants to organize consultation/s with key stakeholders to review the already prepared draft bill to provide new drafting instructions for harmonized provincial government reforms (that takes into consideration issues of service delivery, especially in key sectors) to the AG chamber.

Towards this end, MPGIS – with support from UNDP – wants to hire consultant to facilitate the consultations and review the draft bill based on stakeholders’ inputs and prepare recommendations to incorporate further adjustments to the draft to enable reforms to the provincial government act.