In 1983, I wrote an article entitled ‘Decentralization: The Latest
Fashion in Development Administration?’. I argued that there was
‘a growing interest in decentralisation among the governments of a
number of Third World countries, especially – but not only – in Africa’
and ‘an even greater interest on the part of international development
agencies, bilateral aid donors and academic circles.’
This is the foreword for IDS Bulletin 48.2, ‘Interrogating Decentralisation in Africa’.