AFRO-NETS> Decentralisation - A summary on the power thread

[Sylvia Vriesendorp <SVRIESENDORP@msh.org>]

Decentralisation - A summary on the power thread
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Source: DECENTR-L@MAIL.MSH.ORG

Hello everyone, here I am again. Am I the only woman sitting down at 
this decentralization feast? I am digesting the flurry of responses 
after my post. In front of me is a large white board on which I have 
tried to summarize your many responses. Here is an attempt to give 
you a glimpse of this whiteboard, albeit it through words.

I think there is general agreement that decentralization is 
essentially a political process, that it is also a manifestation of 
underlying democratization processes. Koen, through his UNICEF case 
study presented decentralization as wedged in between competing 
process, some favoring decentralization, some favoring 
centralization. This is all in the center of the whiteboard, it looks 
neat and orderly.

But then there is a lot of scribbling in the margins, and now it gets 
messy, but that's where the fun begins. I'd call this getting into 
the basement. On the stairs down we encounter some suggestions for 
skills training, not so much management skills (although these too, 
like planning, marketing, etc.), but rather political skills such as 
negotiation, consensus and partnership building. Further down in the 
basement we trip over culture (hyper-centralized even), long-
ingrained beliefs about the world, about hierarchy, about experts and 
competence, and even further down we run headfirst into FEAR, and 
there in the corner sits TRUST, and its shadows MISTRUST and 
CYNICISM.

I think I have covered most of the ideas presented by you all and I 
think we can find some gems in the basement, what we might do next... 
This is what I heard us saying...

1. Bring people together who usually do not get together and have
   thus formed all sorts of opinions and stereotypes about each
   other. In a structured process they can learn to listen and
   understand each other because, as someone said in a post, from
   there comes acceptances and then we might actually get motivation
   to change things around. It is also a way to focus away from the
   losses one might suffer (loss of power, loss of comfort, loss of
   benefits, loss of a job) to the gains.

2. Talk, talk and talk. Someone mentioned how important it is to
   inform people about changed priorities (the South African story
   about people still going to tertiary hospitals). I'd push a
   little further, not just tell tell tell, but talk talk talk. I
   don't think there is a shortcut to that.

3. Start with yourself...as someone else said, look at how you treat
   your support staff. This include us socalled experts...we too are
   concerned about lower quality if we don't do it ourselves, just
   like the concerns of technical staff mentioned in the UNICEF 
   report....I think COMPETENCE is probably OUR biggest issue...the
   fear of not being seen as competent...is that why I noticed most
   everyone introduces himself with how much experience he has, like
   the number of countries worked in, number of years in the field.
   Why not tell people you are happily married and treat your staff
   With the greates respect??? Ah but now I am drifting off a bit,
   although COMPETENCE is an interesting thread to follow...why don't
   top people often don't trust people lower down the foodchain? Does
   it have to do wth perceived (inc)competence????

Enough said..let's move on to the next course. All my best with the 
digestion. Maybe our French colleagues have a way to avoid une crise 
de foie!

Sylvia

Sylvia Vriesendorp
mailto:SVRIESENDORP@MSH.ORG
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