An assessment of the implementation of the national decentralisation policy by Lusaka city council of Zambia.

study assessed the extent to which the National Decentralisation Policy (NDP) had been
implemented by Lusaka City Council (LCC) of Zambia, as of July, 2019. The objectives of
the study were to ascertain the status of the implementation of the NDP by LCC, to examine
the strategies of implementing the NDP by LCC, and to investigate the challenges which have
been experienced during the process of implementing the NDP by LCC. The study took a
qualitative research approach with LCC as a case study. The sample size was thirteen.
Interview, and a Focus Group Discussion Guides were used as instruments for collecting data.
Interview guides aided in the collection of in-depth data from the twelve purposively sampled
key informants who were LCC, Ministry of Local Government Headquarters, Local
Government Service Commission, Decentralisation Secretariat, District Administration
Office, Transferred Members of staff, and Foundation for Democratic Processes. The Focus
Group Discussion Guide was used to collect data from male and female executive members
of an operational Ward Development Committee (WDC). The data were thematically
analysed. The study established that implementation of the Decentralisation Policy by LCC
has not been fully actualised. The findings have also shown that in an effort to implement the
NDP, the strategies which LCC has been using include the establishment of the Interim
Committees in the absence of WDC’s and these have been found not to be ideal for NDP
implementation. It has also been established that the failure to fully implement the NDP by
LCC resulted mainly from, unactualised fiscal decentralization, temporary suspension of the
process of establishing WDC’s, and reluctance by some officers to devolve to local authorities.
In conclusion, LCC has not yet attained full implementation of decentralisation by devolution
a type of decentralisation which Zambia has gone for, and in order to ensure that
decentralisation by devolution is fully implemented, there is need for harmonisation of
inconsistencies in the law, enhance the process of establishing platforms for community
participation, and to ensure the matching resources follow functions among others.
Key Terms: Decentralisation, Devolution, Fiscal Decentralisation, Intergovernmental
Fiscal Architecture, Finance Follow Functions.