Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery
Decentralization, or devolution of authority to lower levels of government, is often motivated by its potential to make service delivery more responsive to citizens’ preferences. However, women’s ability to influence policy outcomes may vary across levels of government. This paper considers how dece...
| Autores principales: | , , |
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| Formato: | Artículo preliminar |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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International Food Policy Research Institute
2020
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143577 |
| _version_ | 1855525104648192000 |
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| author | Kosec, Katrina Song, Jie Zhao, Hongdi |
| author_browse | Kosec, Katrina Song, Jie Zhao, Hongdi |
| author_facet | Kosec, Katrina Song, Jie Zhao, Hongdi |
| author_sort | Kosec, Katrina |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Decentralization, or devolution of authority to lower levels of government, is often motivated by its potential to make service delivery more responsive to citizens’ preferences. However, women’s ability to influence policy outcomes may vary across levels of government. This paper considers how decentralization affects both women’s and men’s access to government-provided services and their level of political engagement. We exploit the partial roll-out of decentralization in Ethiopia during 2000–01 and use a spatial regression discontinuity design to identify its impacts. Decentralization improves access to public services for both women and men, but the benefits for men are greater, widening the gender gap in access. We find no evidence that this is due to women’s lower likelihood of participating in local elections; indeed, decentralization increases women’s but not men’s participation. However, decentralization disproportionately increases men’s interactions with local government officials and influential civil society leaders—who wield more power under decentralization. The results are consistent with non-electoral channels of political influence at the local level, dominated by men, contributing to policy outcomes favoring men. They shed light on potential pitfalls of decentralized service delivery from a gender equality perspective, and provide policy recommendations for ensuring women’s equitable access to services. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace143577 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1435772025-12-02T21:03:03Z Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery Kosec, Katrina Song, Jie Zhao, Hongdi expenditure gender public goods local government policies government decentralization men federalism public services women Decentralization, or devolution of authority to lower levels of government, is often motivated by its potential to make service delivery more responsive to citizens’ preferences. However, women’s ability to influence policy outcomes may vary across levels of government. This paper considers how decentralization affects both women’s and men’s access to government-provided services and their level of political engagement. We exploit the partial roll-out of decentralization in Ethiopia during 2000–01 and use a spatial regression discontinuity design to identify its impacts. Decentralization improves access to public services for both women and men, but the benefits for men are greater, widening the gender gap in access. We find no evidence that this is due to women’s lower likelihood of participating in local elections; indeed, decentralization increases women’s but not men’s participation. However, decentralization disproportionately increases men’s interactions with local government officials and influential civil society leaders—who wield more power under decentralization. The results are consistent with non-electoral channels of political influence at the local level, dominated by men, contributing to policy outcomes favoring men. They shed light on potential pitfalls of decentralized service delivery from a gender equality perspective, and provide policy recommendations for ensuring women’s equitable access to services. 2020-12-01 2024-05-22T12:15:18Z 2024-05-22T12:15:18Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143577 en https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887120000027 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150336 https://doi.org/10.2499/1037800849 https://www.ifpri.org/blog/should-low-income-countries-decentralize-their-covid-19-responses Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Kosec, Katrina; Song, Jie; and Zhao, Hongdi. 2020. Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1992. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134228. |
| spellingShingle | expenditure gender public goods local government policies government decentralization men federalism public services women Kosec, Katrina Song, Jie Zhao, Hongdi Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery |
| title | Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery |
| title_full | Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery |
| title_fullStr | Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery |
| title_short | Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery |
| title_sort | bringing power to the people or the well connected evidence from ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery |
| topic | expenditure gender public goods local government policies government decentralization men federalism public services women |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143577 |
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