NALAS Regional Decentralisation Observatory
Objectives and results
Development of the RDO - Regional Decentralization Observatory - a set of indicators as a tool to measure the process of decentralization in the Western Balkans. The RDO aims to support intergovernmental dialogue and the development of evidence based policies at national and regional level. It will be implemented by NALAS member associations of local authorities, spread across 12 countries of the SEE (Southeast Europe) region.
Implemented activities
- Workshop with CEMR in Vienna, 19 May 2017
- Workshop in Jahorina, Sarajevo, 12-13 September 2017
- Workshop in Vienna, 5-6 December 2017
- Workshop in Belgrade, 6-7 Juni 2018
- Workshop in Skopje, 14-15 November 2018
Over the course of five workshops between 2017 and 2018, the instrument was developed by NALAS, with support of the KDZ, the OSCE and partners from the Western Balkans region. A draft final version of the Regional Decentralization Observatory (RDO), a set of indicators to measure the process of decentralization in the Western Balkans, was presented to project partners in Skopje in November 2018. The RDO and a user guide to the index methodology were finalized by NALAS in June 2019.
In a piloting phase, the indicator set was applied by a few NALAS members. Preliminary findings (RDO preliminary results presentation (PDF)) show, that the framework for automony for LGs (local governments) in SEE is good in general (scoring 7.5 our of 10 points), the quality of local services, however, is not satisfactory (5.4 of 10 points). The first findings suggest that this is mainly due to a lack of control over sufficient resources to manage the provision of local public services according to local needs and priorities. The results as well as the methodology need to be further validated based upon the feedback of the country representatives, in order to strenghten the relevance and reliability of the RDO.
Available materials
- short videos from the December 2017 Workshop:
https://youtu.be/IbyOHpLUoD8
https://youtu.be/34uSBhU0TEo
The RDO comprises a set of almost 100 indicators within the four dimensions „Autonomy of Local Governments“, „Quality of Local Services“, „Participation and Responsiveness“ and „Local Government Association´s Involvement in Policy Dialogue“. A link to the full RDO indicators will soon be posted.
Further information and contact
The complete RDO was presented to and has been tested by project partners from the region in November 2018, based on the results, final alterations are currently being made.
