Success, Challenges and Prospects of Decentralization in Africa: A Systematic Review

Decentralization remains a global development approach. African countries have been using decentralization to realize their development vision. Using a systematic review, this study assesses the success, challenges, and prospects of decentralization in Africa. The results reveal a meagre success of decentralization in African countries. Success relates to setting political structures at the local level. Decentralization faces many challenges related to policy, legislation, and the political will of the central government. Therefore, decentralization in Africa is seen more as a political approach than a development approach. Based on the reviewed literature, this study suggests decentralization policy and legislation changes, granting local authorities’ autonomy to administer development based on their own priorities and capacitating local authorities to be accountable, responsive, and implement inclusive development. This would ensure the internalization of decentralization as a developmental approach in Africa.分权（decentralization）仍是一种全球性发展路径。非洲各国长期以来依托分权实践推进自身发展愿景的实现。本研究采用系统综述方法，对非洲地区分权实践的成效、挑战与发展前景展开系统性评估。研究结果显示，非洲各国的分权实践收效甚微：仅在地方层级政治架构的搭建层面取得有限成功。分权实践面临诸多掣肘，涉及政策制定、立法保障及中央政府政治意愿等多个维度。因此，非洲的分权更多被视作一种政治手段，而非真正的发展路径。基于所综述的文献，本研究提出应优化分权相关政策与立法，赋予地方当局依据自身发展优先级推进治理的自主权，并赋能地方当局，使其能够做到问责透明、响应高效并推进包容性发展，从而推动分权作为发展路径在非洲的真正落地与践行。