Abstract

This paper focuses on stakeholders’ participation, capacity of players, and fiscal decentralization in Uganda. The authors explore and describe the extent to which the three could be transposed to improve the quality of decentralization in a number of local governments in Uganda. Notable findings revealed high levels and opportunities for participation of stakeholders in local governance, participation still restricted in content and meaningfulness, and a minimal impact on the quality of decentralization. The findings in the authors’ opinion suggest that in Uganda’s local government system, decentralization is an unfinished business. Therefore, the authors recommend that central government should provide citizens with the required skill, knowledge and information to understand their local governance and then be able to whip their will. The authors also propose that Central and Local governments should revisit their mandates and revenue sharing to address the vertical fiscal imbalance therein. There is need to operationalize LED in local governments into a corroborative arrangement including NGOs, private sector and government. This will reduce decentralization from being a cost to public administration.

Key words: Improving, quality, decentralization, Uganda, unfinished business.