Front Cover -- Municipalities and Finance -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of Figures -- List of Boxes -- About the Authors -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Series Foreword by Janelle Plummer -- Preface -- Chapter 1. A Strategic Framework for Municipal Capacity Building in Finance -- Purpose of the Sourcebook -- Background to the Sourcebook -- Municipal Finance and the Poor -- Municipal Finance and Capacity Building -- Components of the Strategic Framework -- Limits to the Strategy and Framework -- Structure of the Sourcebook -- Part 1: Strategies for Capacity Building -- Chapter 2. Diagnosing Current Capacity -- Overview -- The Local Government Finance Community -- A Simple Pathology of Financial Capacity -- The Constituents of Financial Management Capacity -- Diagnosing External Constraints -- Staff Development for Sustainability -- Chapter 3. Focusing Financial Goals -- Overview -- Making Strategic Decisions -- Recognising Strategic Threats and Opportunities -- Making Things Happen -- Instruments of Change -- Part 2: Mobilising More Money -- Chapter 4. Enhancing Tax Revenues -- Overview -- The Revenue Cycle -- Local Taxation and Poverty Reduction -- Major Reform or Piecemeal Improvement? -- Improving Cash Flows -- Collecting What Is Due -- Improving the Valuation of Assessed Taxes -- Enhancing Coverage -- Adjusting the Tax Rate -- Building a Better Revenue Organisation -- Legal and Policy Context and Reform -- Chapter 5. Exploiting Charges -- Principles of Charging -- The Extent and Variety of Charging -- Equity and Charging the Poor -- The Charging Cycle -- Measurement and Collection of Charges -- Cost Information and Pricing -- New Charges for Old Services -- Organising To Charge -- Legal and Policy Context and Reform -- Part 3: Spending Money Better -- Chapter 6. Towards Better Budgeting -- Overview.

Improving Municipal Budgeting -- Participatory Budgeting -- Capacity Requirements for Budgetary Reform -- Chapter 7. Controlling Costs -- Overview -- Principles and Price Inflation -- Improved Cost Information -- Better Ways of Providing Services -- Downsizing and Staff Costs -- Building Capacity To Improve Cost Control -- Legal and Policy Context and Reform -- Part 4: Sustaining Improvements -- Chapter 8. Accounting Reform -- Overview -- Double-entry Accounting Reforms -- 'Modified' Accrual Accounting System -- Fund-based Accounting -- Computerisation -- Improving Allocation of Overhead Costs -- Accounting for Capital -- Capacity Building and Requirements -- Policy Context and Reform -- Chapter 9. Finance for Investment -- Overview -- Assessment of Borrowing Requirements -- New Funding Sources -- Municipal Development Funds -- User Contributions to Capital -- Municipal Bonds and Capital Markets -- Pool Financing -- Chapter 10. Framework for Action -- Annexe: Background to the Case Studies -- References -- Index.

Finance is a critical issue for municipal governments around the world, and a major constraint on the delivery of pro-poor services at the local level. In many countries, decentralisation has brought the issue of municipal finance to the fore. This sourcebook provides a framework for analysing municipal finance capacity and ways of addressing financial constraints. The ideas come from real-life innovative practice in four countries - India, Brazil, Kenya and Uganda - with additional examples from elsewhere. Emphasis is given to how those innovations and improvements were developed and sustained. The book identifies a strategic framework for diagnosing municipal finance capacity and focusing financial goals. It applies the analysis to a number of critical areas of municipal finance including local taxes, charges for services, budgeting, cost control, accounting reforms and investment finance. This is the third in a series of capacity-building sourcebooks that includes Focusing Partnerships: A Sourcebook for Municipal Capacity Building in Public-Private Partnerships and Municipalities and Community Participation: A Sourcebook for Capacity Building.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.