Experience in developing countries suggests that successful decentralization
always requires the right ingredients, appropriate timing, and some degree of
experimentation. The ingredients are now well known. Decentralization cannot
easily be enacted or sustained without strong and committed political leadership
at both national and local government levels. Government officials must be
willing and able to share power, authority, and financial resources. Political
leaders must accept participation in planning and management by groups that
are outside of the direct control of the central government or the dominant
political party.36 Support for and commitment to decentralization must also
come from line agencies of the central bureaucracy. Ministry officials must be
willing to transfer some of those functions that they traditionally performed to
local organizations and to assist local officials in developing the capacity to perform
them effectively. Experience suggests that decentralization can be implemented
effectively only when policies are appropriately designed and when local
public officials are honest and competent and national political leaders view
local empowerment as a benefit rather than a threat