Is the Human Resources Capacity Gap in Local Authorities Hindering Decentralization?

Decentralization—the transfer of resources, functions, and political power to subnational tiers of government—has long been identified as a priority of successive Zambian governments to mitigate the country’s high levels of spatial inequality. With the 1991 Local Government Act, 63 functions were transferred to the country’s city, municipal, and town councils. This was followed by a 2002 Decentralization Policy and a 2009 Decentralization Implementation Plan under the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). The 2013 Revised National Decentralization Policy under the Patriotic Front (PF) emphasized shifting Zambia from a system of deconcentration to a devolved form of governance through democratically elected mayors and chairpersons and matching financial resources through the Local Government Equalization Fund (LGEF). The 2016 Constitutional Amendment, article 147, further strengthened devolved governance and delineated the range of concurrent and exclusive functions for national and local governments. Under the administration of President Hakainde Hichilema, decentralization has received renewed momentum under the Eighth National Development Plan adopted in April 2022 (GRZ, 2022a)and the Decentralization Implementation Program (DIP, 2022-2026). The DIP emphasizes eight focus areas, including sectoral devolution, capacity building and human resource management reforms.1 The DIP will involve preparing sectoral devolution plans that will guide the transfer of power and responsibilities of devolved sectors to the local authorities, notably primary, early childhood education, and adult literacy, health, and agricultural extension services (World Bank, 2022)