This study examines the extent to which decentralization is being utilized as a vehicle for sustainable economic development outcomes at all levels of governance in Africa. Research shows that decentralization is missing the triple-bottom line of sustainability: economic, social and environmental prosperity that meets current needs and does not take away from future generations in regions settled by indigenous communities. In this study, selected peer-reviewed literature and reports from conservation organizations on decentralization are analyzed. This research explores ways decentralization can be integrated with sustainability to minimize the short-term and longrun consequences of human actions on the environment at local levels. Factors enabling local sustainability-the legal structures, mediating factors and the decision-making sphere-are used to identify sustainability processes and activities in the governance and decentralization outcomes. This study is guided by the argument made by the United Nations in Agenda 21 and the 2030 Agenda that local governments are best placed to implement sustainability through the development of programs that educate and engage with local communities. Under these circumstances, the best avenue to advance sustainable development initiatives is through the framework of decentralization in order to produce durable economic outcomes, minimize civil disputes and improve the living standards of local communities. The results demonstrate that there are no concrete national initiatives that have been developed to date to promote sustainability within the decentralization framework.

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This study seeks to understand the coordination of national and subnational governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan and Morocco. Utilizing a case study analysis strategy, this study provides a better understanding of the governmental response to the COVID-19 crisis in light of the relationship between the national and subnational levels of government. The examination of the two case studies, namely, Jordan and Morocco, was conducted through a document analysis strategy that implemented the READ approach. The results illustrate that pandemic management occurred through coordination between the central government, which is responsible for formulating response policies, and the subnational government, which is responsible for implementing these policies. Jordan formulated and institutionalized its response to the pandemic through the activation of Defense Law No. 13 of 1992. The governorates and municipalities worked together to implement the defense orders. Similarly, the government in Morocco established national response policies, and the local and territorial levels were responsible for executing these policies.

Decentralization is assumed to make national governments more accountable and enables local people to get involved in governance decisions. This study examines the relationships and whether decentralization activities, policies and regulations support indigenous concerns for the environment. Much of the pristine and local lands globally have already been degraded through overexploitation of natural resources leading to significant loss of environmental benefits to people, especially the marginalized and indigenous communities. Using citizen-over-state and state-over-citizen theory, the influence of national level policies on local policies and vice versa is examined. Two sets of data are analyzed: reports from conservation organizations and peer reviewed publications. The other data is obtained from the World Bank and the Food and Agricultural Organization data base. All African countries are analyzed. The findings show that many national policies and regulations do not support and have no relationship with indigenous peoples’ environmental values, thus undermining local sustainable lifestyles. The more focus on economic development as an outcome is turning out to be a dominant force in driving exploitation of resources and eroding indigenous peoples’ cultural and environment values. While a few policies and regulations have some correlation with indigenous values, they have no significant influence in terms of producing sustainable local level environmental outcomes.

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