The Government’s decision to formulate the Decentralisation Policy is underpinned and motivated by the persistent desire to address the challenges in Botswana’s quest for participatory democratic governance as well as inclusive diversified and equitable economic development. It has always been the priority of the Government to empower citizens, not only to elect their local leaders but also to hold them accountable for the quality of services delivered. Despite the long experience with local government and several initiatives at decentralising decision-making responsibilities and resources to councils and other sub-national structures, there remain challenges in local governance and service delivery. Hence the National Decentralisation Policy seeks to address these challenges, key of which are highlighted hereunder:

• Piecemeal decentralisation reforms
• Unempowered local government
• Weak coordination framework at local level
• Large country with sparse population
• Ineffective local planning frameworks
• Ineffective and inefficient fiscal and public financial management regime
• Positioning of Bogosi (or chieftainship) (the oldest Local Government institution, and a symbol of social and cultural identity of Batswana): There are concerns that Bogosi is not well placed to effectively function in a democratising and culturally  modernising Botswana.         

The main purpose of the assignment is to review the legal and regulatory framework for implementation of the Decentralisation Policy and provide detailed recommendations of possible reforms