A sustainable development process depends particularly on a country’s conditions that are favourable to economic growth and entrepreneurial initiative as well as opportunities for people to voice their interests and have a say in the political process. That is why the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung views decentralisation as an important instrument to furthering democracy. Because political participation begins at the local level. And this requires an institutional infrastructure to ensure that responsibility for local policies lies at the very levels where they are intended to have an impact.