While the literature on the measurement, causes, and correlates of variations in sub-national institutional governance is prominent for Europe and other regions, it is less so for sub-Saharan Africa. Emerging literature on the latter region offers scope for improved understanding of the relationship between variations in the quality of sub-national governance and Africa’s development. As a preliminary step towards contributing to this literature, this Background Note reviews Ghana’s decentralization experience and efforts to assess its outcome. It surveys the literature, including government documents, reports, and technical notes, and attempts to answer the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of measuring sub-national institutional performance in one of Africa’s shining polities since its decentralization experiment began in 1988.
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