Willingness to pay of the notability for local leadership empowerment in the ngweshe chiefdom

ABSTRACT

Pooling for local leadership empowerment in Ngweshe chiefdomremains a useful action for local leadership survival. Local development of the region appealed for different resources to thrive as many as challenges have risen over the recent years. Accordingly, decentralization has not covered the living conditions of the rural citizens living in the corner. The current inverstigation assessed notables' WTP on the one hand and its determinants on the other hand.Results indicate that notables have remained strongly tied to their nativeland. It resorted to a snowball technique to collect data on 180 native notables. With the use of Contingent valuation and applying the interval regression method through Stata 14.0, the research has revealed that the mean expressed WTP is $ 443.6262 to be yearly given. To this is tied a caution to the chieftaincy to be transparent and accountable in scheme accomplishment. Educational level, the number of persons of notoriety in the notables' organization, notable monthly income, trust in local leaders, assets index were found significant variables.

Key words: Willingness to pay, Contingent valuation, Chiefdom, Local leadership, Notable, Development, Ngweshe, Bukavu, DR Congo

RESUME

Contribuer pour la chefferie de Ngweshe est une action importante pour la survie du leadership local. Le développement local de la région a besoin de diverses ressources pour prospérer faces aux multiples défis qui se sont levés au cours de récentes années. A ce sujet, la décentralisation n'a pas couvert les conditions de viedes populations rurales dans ledit coin.La présente recherche a évalué d'une part le CAP des notables vivant à Bukavu et d'autre part ses déterminants. Les résultats montrent que les notables sont restés très attachés à leur région natale. Elle a recouru à la technique de boule de neige pour collecter les données sur 180 notables natifs de Ngweshe. En utilisant l'évaluation contingente et en appliquant la régression par intervalle à l'aide du logiciel Stata 14.0, la recherche révèle que le Consentement à payer moyen exprimé par les notables est de 443.6262 dollars américains par an. A ces résultats sont liés une attention adressée aux chefs locaux d'être transparents et redevables dans l'accomplissement des projets. Les variables niveau d'éducation, le nombre de personnes de notoriété dans l'association de notables, le revenu mensuel du notable, la confiance dans le leadership local et l'indice des actifs se sont révélées significatives.

Mots clés: Consentement à payer, évaluation contingente, chefferie, leadership local, notable, développement, Ngweshe, Bukavu, RD Congo.

INTRODUCTION

Notability has been quite a long time tied to local leadership in seek of impeccable performance of local governance (Genieys et al., 2000). Currently, local leadership is still internationally deemed as an irrefutable means to promote development in remote and disadvantaged regions (Rodriguez-Pose and Tijmstra, 2007; OECD, 2015;Uddin, 2019). Power transfer from central to municipalities' elites is since reputed to nurture notable locally engaged socioeconomic progress (OECD, 2015; Islam et al., 2019;Uddin, 2019).

Nevertheless, local leaders have been undermined by considerable challenges to attain their target (Jha and Bhalla, 2018; Uddin, 2019). Mostly the situation is largely common to lower income countries (LIC's) (Marysse, 2005; Gaynor, 2014). In fact, the most of these countries have largely shown their incapacity to efficiently assure development in municipalities (Romeo, 2013; Islam et al., 2019; Uddin, 2019). Some of them maintain their control on municipalities, which in return sets back local entities (Huque, 2014). Although lots of agreements have been internationally signed regarding sustainable development, many governments are far from the direct line leading to this target (Strange and Bayley, 2008). Despite engagements and verbal determination from long date; their strategies to strengthen local leadership usually fade to failure (Khan, 2012).

This problem is largely observable in numerous countries worldwide. In Africa, in fact, the 1990s passed as decisively reformative throughout decentralization (Erk, 2018). Local leaders in collaboration with folks and their own attached notability were considered as hard hyphen elements to boost local development (OECD, 2015; UNDP, 2015; Paarlberg and Yoshioka, 2016). This expectation was deemed successful regarding numerous monumental work accomplished under several notables across other countries. For instance, the development of movements of cooperatives in Germany or the construction of the «Statue de Liberté» (Balemba and al., 2018). Such reforms aimed at bettering democracy and policy performance through creating strong local governments dealing with local folks (Chigwata, 2015). While a few decades have faded, essays undertaken around the continent didn't work in many countries (Romeo, 2013). According to him, rather than working as autonomous localities, local governments are politized and remain under states leaders' commend who immerse them into an extremist dependence. Such a contrast in legal texts and empirical application of decentralization announces unproductive issues of the policy (Romeo, 2013, Islam et al., 2019, Zongwe, 2019).

Predominantly in Sub-Saharan countries, local governments are affected by the same scourge (Englebert and Kasongo, 2016). Applied macroeconomic policies are no longer sufficient to lead to sustainable economic growth (Swinburn and Yatta, 2006). A situation which indirectly diminishes national effect at local leadership. Local leaders lack means to tackle their politics and consequently bear their citizens' living standard improvement (UN-HABITAT, 2010).

Democratic Republic of the Congo runs since the 1960's governance challenges, bribery, insecurity, inequality distortion and a widespread poverty (USIP, 2011; Maswana, 2018). To solve the matter, the country believed in decentralization to bring a wholesome wave but, hell of it, some worries have been noticed a few years after the 2006's democratic elections denoting imperfections in legal applications of the retrocession process (Englebert and Kasongo, 2016; Zongwe, 2019). Local leadership suffers from weak institutions and political accountability mostly nourished at high level of state decision makers (Gaynor, 2014).

Decentralization has been used as a means to collect funds from bottom to central authorities followed by a provincial reduced management capacity of revenues to be shared to substantial entities (BAD and FAD 2009; Englebert and Kasongo, 2016). Recently, provincial governors nationwide began claiming at the Congolese Central Government to pay back their arrears whereas local leaders in the Territorial Decentralized Entities have eyes turned at national reallocation for their empowerment but without success.^1(*) Since donors jeopardize decentralization fulfillment (Martinez-Vazquez and Vaillancourt, 2011), in default of consistent means, local governments fail to introduce policies and schemes sensitive to provoke local economic raise (Masango, 2002; Zongwe, 2019) in a context of an impoverished nation wanting a prompt development (UNDP, 2013).

Local leadership empowerment, as a key factor of development, has interested several researchers worldwide. Local government is an important center of service delivery as it is closer to the people (OECD, 2015; Islam et al., 2019; Uddin, 2019). A local leader at the present time plays various roles than in the past (UNDP, 2015; Wall and Luther, 2015). As well, Nahavandi (2000) insists on the fact that a leader's efficiency depends on his group's level of performance. Local development should hence be supported by all local forces like local folks, notability, religious authorities through human capital empowerment for productivity enhancement (UNDP, 2015). Moreover, a proficient local leader owes to assure residents' satisfaction and is required to be preparedness for all subsequent disasters that in all likelihood may affect them (Hall et al., 2015; OECD, 2015; Targa-AIDE and Collectif et Modernité, 2015). People should then objectively grant their local leadership to initiate various projects at the bottom. For instance, the World Bank has noticed a rising in local levy collection in Ibanda Commune and Kabare chiefdom from 7% to 12%^2(*), a success that led up to beginning generalizing of the process nationwide.^3(*)

Besides, there exists a flurry of work carried on local developmental leadership but very little match with notability. Republic of South Africa (1998), UN-HABITAT (2010), Myerson (2011), Nkwana (2012), OECD (2015), Huque (2014), Wall and Luther (2015), Targa-AIDE and Collectif et Modernité (2015). Myerson (2011), Nkwana (2012), Targa-AIDE and CollectifetModernité (2015) extol a net transfer of a few assignments of competence from central to local leaders. Huque (2014) highlights the absence of appropriated strategies and facilities for local leaders development in Bangladesh due to the state leaders oversees and lets a shadow on meaningful policies to putdown the challenge. Such OECD (2015) states four local leadership features: they are ambitious and give a new positive hope mostly after crisis, they vision the future to define a new development path and significant strategies to face dynamics, put down coordination failures and lastly recognize that they make positive progress in terms of valuable economic and employment opportunities. Accordingly, Carmen and Kristina (2009), Nkwana(2012), OECD (2015), local leaders should be accountable and transparent with people they lead for more faith renewability.

Also, Schlachter et al. (2013) finds some key challenges of local development directly or indirectly related to fiscal crisis in Pennsylvania, of which managing the budgetary demands of decreased revenues, increased service demands and the costs of unfunded state and federal mandates, and meeting the demands of infrastructure and its associated costs. In fact, Zhang (1996) and Lai (2010) explain how the Chinese Deng Xiaoping's 1979 reforms decentralized the economic pole and resulted in a popular participation and consecutively an impressive growth in the 1980s-1990s that undeniably set non-negotiable foundation of the current Chinese economic openings. Rather than seeing the community like a national policy abider, Carmen and Kristina (2009), Wall and Luther (2015) and OECD (2015) confirm the horizontal relationship between local leaders and residents with different role to play throughout positive insights to development. A local leader is hence undermined by central and communal requirement he should successfully link and fully respond to local developmental challenges (Wall and Luther, 2015; Islam et al., 2019).

But Crook (2003) whose research concerned Africa matches local leader's capacity to mitigate poverty with the degree of local-state leader's relationship. He concluded his research stating that decentralization did not empower challenges to local leaders in Africa because they remained indifferent or against pro-poor policies. For Trautman (2013), the key factors of state failure in DRC are outdated state infrastructure, lack of economic development, and external intervention . Marysse (2005) has asseverated that the motivational text related to the proposal of law on decentralization in DRC aims at realizingequilibrium between attributions and means in the decentralized units. Notwithstanding, and exactly, Martinez-Vazquez and Vaillancourt (2011) support the obstacle of decentralization reforms to have political and economic origins. In contrast with such research issues, UN-HABITAT (2010) finds that applied municipal policies in Gaborone diminished the rate of street beggars and street boys. UNDP (2013) as well shows positive results in local-based infrastructures within the Congolese Territorial Decentralized Entities. Not so far, Peemans (2015) support the existence of a huge potentiality of a «peasantry mode of development» in DR Congo whose effect shall rely on initiatives and fights of an organized peasantry world.

Though prior papers such as DFID (2008), Targa-AIDE and Collectif et Modernité (2015) have suggested a local leadership promotion assured by government or/ and NGOs on the one hand and UNDP (2015) Englebert and Kasongo (2016) and Uddin (2019) suggesting to empower folks under local government institutions on the other hand, this work supports local leadership partly born by native notables in search of development. Notables dwelling in Bukavu would help to finance local-based investment needed for their provenance countryside's development. Accounting for this issue requires mainly assessing Willingness to pay of the notability towards local leadership empowerment in the Chiefdom of Ngweshe. Also, the research specifically aims at denoting what are the determinants of their willingness to pay. Local leadership will here refer to local Chieftaincy, chiefs of groupings whereas notability will concern individuals with higher notoriety, or the nature of wealth. As well, confidence renewal resulting from this common acting-line is likely to accelerate the process with worth of positive economic outcomes.

The Contingent valuation method (CVM) shall be applied in data collection on the notability of Bukavu town issued from the Chiefdom of Ngweshe. An ample literature has recommended the use of The CVM since it aims at clarify the amount to be pooled in a policy-maker's perspective Hanemann (1989); Carson (2000); Duberstein and Steiguer (2003); Dror, Radermacher and Koren (2006); Vassilis and Kostas (2010).An interval regression shall help to assess the determinants of WTP and the amount consented as did Corso et al. (2013) and Labii (2015). Given the method, this paper will capture for how much major individuals will to pay to reinforce local leadership in their entity.

The paper dwells on three chapters after an introducing part and passes off with a conclusion. The literature review as first chapter is devoted to exposing an overview of the availed flow of knowledge on the matter whose study is the ineluctable goal of this paper. The second chapter concerns the research methodology. It gives exhaustive elicitations on how the research has evolved with tools and methods used for the purpose. At last, the third is the study and interpretation of findings that provides a response to our concern and works out the present research.

* ¹ http://vigilancerdc.afrikblog.com/archives/2008/03/15/8328226.html

https://scooprdc.net/2018/04/24/retrocession-aux-provinces-les-gouverneurs-a-kinshasa-pour-mendier-la-generosite-de-mova/

* ² http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/07/mobile-participatory-budgeting-helps-raise-tax-revenues-in-congo.html

* ³ http://www.banquemondiale.org/fr/news/feature/2012/09/10/participatory-budgeting-an-experience-in-good-governance