At present, the DSF work program consists primarily, first, of project financing, procurement and management; and second, a limited form of knowledge management. Project support, which is at various stages of implementation and procurement, falls into four categories: Public Service Delivery, Intergovernmental and Sub-National Finance, Legislative and Executive Capacity Building, and Development Planning and Local Economic Development.


Public Service Delivery

Public service delivery, encompassing support to: assessing reform options for functional assignments; the establishment of minimum service delivery standards; improved definition of service functions; costing and piloting of minimum service standards; identification of alternative service delivery mechanisms; strengthening local regulations governing service delivery and central government review thereof; establishing a data base of local regulations for service delivery; identification and replication of best practices in service delivery; business licensing one-stop shops; and improved service delivery in border regions.

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Intergovernmental and Sub-National Finance

Intergovernmental and sub-national finance, including support to: intergovernmental transfers and intercepts; debt restructuring; regulatory aspects of bond issuance; fiscal insolvency; regional financial information systems; transfers to sub-national governments; and the development of an overall policy and implementation framework (‘grand design’) for fiscal decentralization.

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Legislative and Executive Capacity Building

Legislative and executive capacity building, among others, this involves support to: local government education and training centres; the provision of specialised training on decentralization to local government officials; and training and development for provincial legislative council representatives.

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Development Planning and Local Economic Development

Development planning and local economic development, here support is (or has been) provided to: district level planning and budgeting; the development of laws and regulations on sub-national statistics; intergovernmental and spatial planning; natural resource management; regional development planning; border area development planning; and local government performance evaluation.

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