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The View from Le Château: USAID's Recent Decentralisation Programming in Uganda
Author(s) -
Gubser Michael
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
development policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.671
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1467-7679
pISSN - 0950-6764
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7679.2011.00512.x
Subject(s) - decentralization , portfolio , context (archaeology) , public administration , government (linguistics) , political science , economic growth , economics , geography , finance , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , law
This article makes three linked arguments. (i) USAID's decentralisation portfolio in Uganda was launched, ironically, at precisely the time when the government was reorienting itself toward recentralisation. (ii) Because of the prevalence of dehistoricised approaches to policy, design, practice and evaluation, USAID programmers could not fully assess the contextual situation of their decentralisation projects. (iii) Greater attention to historical context would have allowed USAID planners to design and assess their Uganda programmes more carefully – though it could not, of course, offer fixed prescriptions or guarantee project success.