Effectiveness of Area Development Committees in Decentralization

Most African countries and beyond have adopted decentralization which has generated enthusiasm and great expectation among the local people to take part in decision making particularly in proposing solutions to their own developmental needs.The expectation is that decentralization would lead to greater economic efficiency and improve their living standards. However, there is little evidence about this claim. For example, almost over a decade down the ladder in democratic decentralization era, Malawi¿s record of accomplishment with regard to the Human Development Index is quite damning. Malawi has dropped from position 138 in 1990 and now 174 out of 187 countries in 2014. This underlies a steady decline in health care delivery, education, economic growth and general living standards. Are the decentralization structures like ADCs performing accordingly? This book therefore assesses the performance of Decentralization structures especially the ADCs on their ability to perform according to the guidelines. It also analyses the available policies, act and guidelines on decentralization and summaries their gaps that contributes to poor ADCs¿ performance.