implications for decentralised service/infrastructure delivery
• the implications for political accountability
• the tension between local planning and local politics
• program implementation
• institutional capacity
• reforms of institutions and the role of the State
• fiscal decentralisation, regional equity, rural growth
• design of inter-governmental fiscal transfers (IGFT)
• decentralisation and provision of rurtal infrastructure and services
• decentralisation and natural resources management

Concludes that the jury is still out on the impact these new decentralisation programmes and policies can have on poverty, rural development, and governance. Future areas for research should include:

performance based allocation systems-moving beyond simple grant financing to deliver services to looking at how transfers from the outside can improve mobilisation and use of local resources
• how and under what conditions local governments should be assisted to move beyond provision of social infrastructure only into other important areas such as natural resource development, promotion of local economic development