Devolution in Pakistan : preparing for service delivery improvements : a working paper prepared for the Forum on Intergovernmental Relations and Service Delivery in Pakistan 27-29 June 2003

Pakistan’s far-reaching devolution initiative has been designed with three broad and inter-related objectives in mind. Undoubtedly, service delivery improvements, particularly in the social sectors, are seen as crucial. However, the focus was broader and devolution also reflected a concern to improve the way laws about property, labor rights, and local economic management, were determined and enforced, and to increase ‘access to justice’ through local enforcement of the ‘separation of powers’, ending the executive magistracy, and improving local judicial administrations and oversight of the police. This paper presents a preliminary overview of the progress made to date in establishing the new structural arrangements, and provides an initial evaluation of the extent to which the new structure has succeeded in creating the necessary incentives for local governments to achieve at least some of these three objectives. This paper addresses three notional readers. First, the 'nazims of good intention' - the recently elected local politicians who are keen to make improvements in service delivery in the imperfect but improved local autonomy that they find within the district government. It invites them to comment on a set of new incentives and challenges/opportunities that appear to have been opened up by devolution. Second, donors - who while often sympathetic to devolution and occasionally strongly supportive, can nevertheless by their actions occasionally undermine the process. Third, government - inviting senior officials who have worked long and hard in introducing these radical reforms to agree, or not, with the suggestions that it offers for the next key steps in the journey. [authors abstract]