Applied financial improvement planning in local governments: The case of Kitwe City Council, Zambia

The trend toward decentralisation continues, albeit unevenly, in most developing countries. Increasing decentralisation places considerable pressure on local government to manage a wider range of functions and services and to manage larger budgets, while continuing urbanisation increases both geographic and demographic service areas of local governments. In this context, sound financial management by local governments is becoming increasingly important. It is likely that the need to undertake financial improvement planning in local governments will grow both for those local governments wishing to generally improve or ‘fine-tune’ their financial performance, and especially for those local governments facing more serious financial difficulties. Several approaches have been developed for undertaking financial improvement planning in local governments.