ABSTRACT
Good governance has been identified as one of the main factors that enhance the economic development of localities. Since the 1980s, governments in Eastern and Southern Africa have been attempting to implement policies aimed at promoting good governance in order to foster economic development. Post-independence governments in the region have been advocating for decentralization not only as a means for the expansion of democratic space and the active involvement of the masses in the development endeavour, but also for good governance and the economic development of localities. The implementation of Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes and trade liberalization during the 1980s and 1990s also reduced the role of the central governments in the management of national and local economies. It was generally believed that power sharing in the decision-making process between the centre and the sub-national units of governance will lead to good governance and consequently to local economic development. However, decentralization efforts have in most cases kept substantive power in the hands of the central government elite and their local allies. As a result, local level development has not been realized in Eastern and Southern Africa, in spite of the many decentralization schemes which have been put in place by many governments since independence.
