Investing Together: Working Effectively across Levels of Government,Used

Why 'investing together'? Public investment is not only a major strategic responsibility for governments but also a shared one: almost twothirds of public investment is undertaken by subnational governments and major projects tend to involve more than one government level. In a tight fiscal landscape, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of investment, while maximising its impact on growth outcomes, is paramount. Identifying and addressing the governance bottlenecks that impede smooth coordination across levels of government can make a significant contribution towards reaching that end.This report dissects the relationships different government actors form vertically, across levels of government, and also horizontally, across both sectors and jurisdictions. It helps policy makers to understand more systematically how coordination works and why it so often doesnt, as well as shedding light on the mechanisms countries have developed to govern these interactions. In doing so, it addresses another key requisite to organising coordination, namely government capacity. Subnational actors, especially, need to be equipped with the right skills and resources to carry out their responsibilities and to engage with stakeholders, across the public, private and civil society sectors. This report offers a toolkit to policy makers to assess their needs for capacity developmentTable of Content :Acknowledgements 5 Acronyms and abbreviations 11 Executive summary 13 Chapter 1. How to do better with less:Working across levels of government to invest more effectively 17 The importance of public investment19 The impact of the crisis on public investment across levels of government 25 Improving public investment through quality governance 31 Key bottlenecks exist in the governance of public investment 36 Methodology and structure of the report40 Bibliography 41 Chapter 2. Coordinating investments across levels of government 47 Introduction 48 Methodology 48 The need for coordination across levels of government 49 Vertical coordination mechanisms 52 Horizontal coordination mechanisms 69 Monitoring and evaluation: The need for information to make coordination work 77 Contracts as crosscutting coordination mechanisms 78 Assuring the effectiveness of coordination mechanisms 86 Conclusions Bibliography 90 Chapter 3. Subnational capacities for effective public investment 95 The importance of subnational capacities for public investment 96 Identifying key subnational capacities for public investment 96 The importance of regional characteristics and category of investment 119 Assessing subnational capacities: A diagnostic tool 121 Bibliography 126 Annex A. Case study summaries 131 Annex B. National and regional questionnaires 147