Innovative Thinking and Practice in Local Governance

The outline of research papers contained in this overview identifies knowledge gaps, proposes practical approaches, and scans new horizons that enhance development thinking and practice. The goal of these research summaries – and their corresponding papers – is to help inform and expand development initiatives of the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency (SDC) and their Decentralisation and Local Governance Network (DLGN) partners. Some of these papers have surveyed latest development thinking to challenge and propose fresh questions: "Why and when do citizens prefer local informal institutions to provide ways of service delivery?" or "How can social accountability be enhanced in a post conflict context?" Other papers like the 'Practice guide to political economy and power analysis' offer guidance to practitioners to maximise SDC's development impact. Our overall goal is to stimulate innovative thinking on how to produce improved, inclusive, transparent and sustainable development interventions at the local level.