Local Government Systems and Decentralization: Evidence from Pakistan’s Devolution Plan

The discourse of governance and development practitioners continues to embrace community participation and community empowerment as an elementary means of building local capacity for poverty reduction, development and change at the local level. This article is a review of the decentralization initiatives of local government systems after the announcement of the devolution plan in Pakistan. It evaluates the initiatives’ participatory methods to ascertain the extent to which they have improved the process of community development at the local level. This article also measures the impact of community empowerment on the sustainability of community-driven projects implemented under the decentralization initiative through community-based organizations known as Citizen Community Boards (CCBs). Document analysis and literature review methodologies were employed to gain further insight into the decentralization phenomenon in Pakistan. The results describe human development, improvements in community empowerment and the sustainability of local projects; however, the sense of community has yet to be translated into shared benefits for rural communities. The fundamental goal of decentralization seems to be elusive because only power was transferred to the local level, whereas there is little support for community capacity building and community access to resources and the elites still control the electoral process. It is argued that community development initiatives in Pakistan require continuous support from local governments to boost local rural economies. Likewise, community-local government participatory development strategies can lead to strong local ownership and empowerment in rural communities

Decentralization and Participatory Rural Development: A Literature Review

Most of the developing nations are still struggling for efficient use of their resources. In order to overcome physical and administrative constraints of the development, it is necessary to transfer the power from the central government to local authorities. Distribution of power from improves the management of resources and community participation which is considered key to sustainable development. Advocates of decentralization argue that decentralized government is source to improve community participation in rural development. Decentralized government is considered more responsive towards local needs and development of poor peoples. There are many obstacles to expand the citizen participation in rural areas. There are many approaches for participatory development but all have to face the same challenges. Current paper highlights the literature about Decentralization and participatory rural development. Concept and modalities of Decentralization, dimensions of participation, types of rural participation and obstacles to participation are also the part of this paper

The Role of Intrapreneurship for Sustainable Innovation through Process Innovation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises: A Conceptual Framework

A focus on innovation alone is not sufficient for sustainability in the current hostile business environment. Environment awareness and social impact as well as economic place demands on firms to contribute to sustainable development. As such, there is increased interest in sustainable innovation. On the other sides, intrapreneurship spirit of internal initiative of a firm as firm-specific capabilities is proposed to facilitate this. In the manufacturing firms, process is considered as critical and source to be innovative. Hence, process innovation is utilized to translate intrapreneurship capability for sustainable innovation. To face new circumstances in the business environment for the sustainability of SMEs, the role of intrapreneurship in transforming process innovation under existing technology for sustainable innovation achievement is another interesting view to be explored. This paper discusses the role of intrapreneurship in attaining sustainable innovation through process innovation in SMEs and develop it into an integrated framework. The framework shows that the elements of proactiveness, risk taking and autonomy in intrapreneurship provides a leverage for sustainable economic, environmental and social innovation. The study further suggests empirical investigation in the firms for future research. Keywords: Sustainable innovation; Intrapreneurship; Process innovation JEL Classification: Q5