1498. Decentralized Rural Development and Enhanced Community Participation: A Case Study from Northeast Brazil
Johan van Zyl, Tulio Barbosa , Andrew N. Parker, and Loretta Sonn
(August 1995)
The positive experience with the latest rural development intervention in
Northeast Brazil suggests that rapid progress can be made if community
participation is enhanced and decisionmaking authority is decentralized to lower
levels of government and other institutions.
In Northeast Brazil, despite sustained efforts to reduce rural poverty and
more than $3.2 billion in spending, the rural poor are little better off than
they were two decades ago.
Brazil's difficult macroeconomic environment has tended to restrict the amount
of funds available for rural development. In addition, project implementation has
often been seriously undermined by the excessive centralization of decisionmaking
in Brazil prior to the approval of a new constitution in 1988.
A preliminary evaluation of the latest rural development intervention in the
Northeast---the reformulated Northeast Rural Development Program---suggests that
rapid progress can be made if community participation is enhanced and
decisionmaking authority is decentralized to lower levels of government and other
institutions.
To support this new approach, van Zyl, Barbosa, Parker, and Sonn recommend
that the next generation of rural development projects in the Northeast
incorporate several features:
- Expansion of the existing commmunity-based approach into a "municipal fund"
program. This hands responsibility for the management of fiscal resources and
project implementation to municipalities and communities, further promoting
decentralization of decisionmaking and encouraging greater municipal cost-sharing
on projects.
- Implementation of a poverty-targeting methodology based on poverty-related
criteria, backed by a strong system of checks and balances to thwart mistargeting
and misappropriation of resources.
- Establishment of clear rules for the composition and operating procedures of
municipal councils, to improve participation and transparency.
- Establishment of a system of checks and balances to promote transparency.
This paper---a product of the Sector Policy and Water Resources Division,
Agriculture and Natural Resources Department---is part of a larger effort in the
department to develop a new strategy for rural development. Copies of the paper
are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433.
Please contact Melissa Williams, room N8-081, telephone 202-458-7297, fax
202-334-0568, Internet address mwilliams @worldbank.org. (50 pages)
The full report is available on our FTP server.