Democratic Decentralization Programming Handbook

This handbook discusses decentralization as a means of achieving democratization. It defines decentralization as the transfer of power and resources from national governments to subnational governments or to subnational administrative units of national governments. The handbook looks at the key concepts in decentralization, the different forms of decentralization, the primary goals countries are often pursuing through decentralization, and finally it looks at the circumstances USAID is likely to intervene and explains how USAID assesses the national, subnational, and civil society environment in each potential state. The handbook then looks at programming strategies within the national, subnational, and civil society sectors and describes how USAID evaluates the impacts of its decentralization programs and learns from its own experiences.