A/HRC/14/44 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ action plans of the Ministry of Justice and of the forces of law and order. The succession of speeches delivered by President Préval since 2007 seemed to have given a clear and reaffirmed signal of the political will to make the fight against corruption a strategic aim (albeit one whose attainment seemed to be taking a long time). 79. With the massive influx of humanitarian aid and reconstruction funds it is important to show that the aim of combating corruption remains a central focus of the Government. C. Devolution/ decentralization: a factor in the exercise of rights 80. During his past three visits the independent expert devoted considerable time to the question of devolution and decentralization in order to verify the theory that the realization of rights, especially economic and social rights, would be more successful if powers were transferred to the local authorities or if the links between the central Government and its departmental offices were more effective. He also met with a number of mayors and CASECs to question them about their prerogatives, budgets and achievements; he realized that several elected officials had succeeded perfectly well, after consulting the local people, civil society and peasants’ organizations, in establishing programmes and projects in various fields for the benefit of the local people and in involving these people both in decision-making and in implementation. He then met with civil society, peasants’ and religious organizations in the various departments visited in order to discuss with their members their success in bringing decision-making circles and local stakeholders closer together. All of them advocated a first stage of devolution of power to facilitate access to administrative procedures and speed up decision-making. 81. Experiments were carried out in some departments, with assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other bodies; the beneficiaries of the projects were provided with access to basic services, which they had long been denied, such as drinking water, health care (thanks to the construction of dispensaries) and an improved flow of local foodstuffs (as a result of the rebuilding of access roads in remote areas). One of the lessons drawn by the partners in these experiments is that the more the local people are involved from the outset in the process of participatory and strategic planning, the more likely they are to take it over and develop their independence. The successful involvement of local people in the determining the community’s priorities by consensus and in implementing the development activities is a clear indication of their capacity to take responsibility for themselves when given sufficient institutional support with the provision of additional technical and material resources. 82. President Préval himself and the Minister of the Interior, Local Communities and National Security spent a long time presenting the project to invest communities with a clear status and powers. This was the project, provided for in the 1987 Constitution, which President Préval had planned to initiate after the Senate elections. The decentralization proposals, constituting a genuine transfer of authority from the State to local communities, required the redefinition and clarification of the powers of mayors and CASECs, which had never before been actually spelled out. 83. Devolution, which is the redeployment of power from the central Government to the representatives of the State in the departments (departmental authorities), has not really worked, and the heads of departments interviewed during the various visits all argued that their managerial role, without human resources and with no capacity for budgetary action, was in practice an empty shell entirely dependent on the ministry to which they were attached. The appearance of power is there, but the actual power is concentrated in Port-auPrince. They all maintained that in some matters, solidarity, health and education in particular, devolution would make it easier for people to exercise their rights. GE.10-13204 (EXT) 17