Municipalities and Finance: A Sourcebook for Capacity Building

Finance is a critical issue for municipal governments around the world, and a major constraint on the delivery of pro-poor services at the local level. In many countries, decentralisation has brought the issue of municipal finance to the fore. This sourcebook provides a framework for analysing municipal finance capacity and ways of addressing financial constraints.

The ideas come from real-life innovative practice in four countries - India, Brazil, Kenya and Uganda - with additional examples from elsewhere. Emphasis is given to how those innovations and improvements were developed and sustained. The book identifies a strategic framework for diagnosing municipal finance capacity and focusing financial goals. It applies the analysis to a number of critical areas of municipal finance including local taxes, charges for services, budgeting, cost control, accounting reforms and investment finance.

This is the third in a series of capacity-building sourcebooks that includes Focusing Partnerships: A Sourcebook for Municipal Capacity Building in Public-Private Partnerships and Municipalities and Community Participation: A Sourcebook for Capacity Building.

Ian Blore is a development economist with 25 years' experience in urban development and municipal management research. Nick Devas is Director of the International Development Department of the School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham. Richard Slater is Senior Governance and Institutional Development Consultant at GHK International.