Poverty Dimensions of Public Governance and Forest Management ...

Appendix to Annex 3: 8
c) Traditional district level revenues such as the basic rate (poll tax), property taxes, and others,
to be fixed by the Assembly itself, as well as licences (alcohol sales, hawkers, etc.) and fees
such as market tolls and crop levies (for exports across the district boundary).
d) External assistance from donor agencies, including NGOs; these are mostly for development
projects in areas such as health, education, water and sanitation, poverty reduction, and
agriculture and micro-projects.
e) Other locally-generated revenues, such as (where applicable) mining and timber royalties.
Expenditure of the DACF is controlled by the central government , currently being allocated as
follows:
Allocation:
Percentage
‘Development’ (education, health, agriculture) 50
Sanitation vehicle purchase 5
Capacity building 2
Rural electrification 3
Poverty alleviation 20
Self-help projects 10
Housing 5
Disaster management 5
[all after deduction of 10% reserve]
As this table indicates, education, health and agriculture are regarded as the ‘main stakeholders’
of decentralisation; these have generally been the most reluctant to decentralise. Locallygenerated
revenues can be dispensed as the district wishes, subject to operation of its democratic
procedures.
The DACF is the major fund available to most districts. The amounts allocated to the districts
vary considerably from year to year (with 2000 being a particularly difficult year), as the
following table indicates: