Decentralisation and regionalisation in Bosnia-Herzegovina: issues and challenges

Decentralisation and regionalisation in Bosnia-Herzegovina have been primarily approached as a way to redefine the governing framework established under the Dayton Peace Agreement with the prime aim to facilitate ethnic conflict management in the aftermath of war. The paper loos at the impact this has had n the direction, profile and progress in the decentralisation process and its outcomes in terms of public service delivery at the local government level. It argues that strong political interests to preserve the status quo in terms of powers and resources vested in the intermediate levels government have made the separation of competencies and expenditures across different levels of government complex and complicated. This has resulted in a fragmented institutional and policy framework for the provision of public services and an overall poor quality of service delivery across the country.