CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.0 Introduction Chapter one introduces the study by giving the background to the research under study. The statement of the problem is also classified in this chapter, research questions, the scope of the study, the hypothesis to be tested, the significance of the study. 1.1 Background to the study 1.1.1 Historical Perspective In the last half century, over 95 countries have attempted to transfer responsibilities of the state to lower tiers of government. Most of these lower governments have been elected so that they decentralization is not just administrative or fiscal but also political. The motivation for their decentralization has varied. In Eastern Europe and former Soviet union, it was part of the political and economic transformation, in Latin America, it was to reinforce the transition to democracy, in South Africa, Sin Lanka and Indonesia, It was a response to regional conflict and in Chile, Uganda and Cote Divoire, it was to improve the delivery of basic services (Shah and Thompson, 2004). Even when it’s not explicit, improving service delivery is an implicitly motivation behind most of the decentralization efforts. A major argument supporting decentralization reform is that it can improve public service provision by matching finances with local needs. This study evaluated the effects of decentralization on access to and intermediate outputs of two essential services that are typically transferred to the sub-national governments as a part of the decentralization process health and education provision to do this, the study provided an analytical framework to examine the relationships between decentralization and performance.