A Survey on the Role of Local Government Organizations in Managing The COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis

Abstract

This survey research aims to explore the role of local governments in managing the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. This study relied on 2 conceptual frameworks: the concept of decentralization and the concept of public administration in the crisis period by conducting the quantitative research through collecting questionnaires from 2,138 local government organizations from January to July 2020, the period of the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. The overall survey results confirmed that (1) the local governments were affected by the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, with an average of 69.30% of the total samples. The City Municipality was the most affected with an average of 86.70%, followed by the Town Municipality (72.30%), Provincial Administrative Organization (64.30%), Sub-District Municipality (63.60%) and Sub-District Administrative Organization (59.50%), respectively; (2) The majority of local government organizations (99.60%) played a significant role in managing the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic crisis; and (3) Most local governments have played a significant role in preventing the spread of the disease at the community level, with an average of 71.27 % of the total samples, followed by the role in helping people and socially vulnerable groups (59.30 %) and preparing for other crises that may occur in the future (53.34 %), respectively. On the other hand, it is found that the local government still has a very little role in adjustment to the work of the organization and preparation for local rehabilitation in the post-COVID era as seen in the average scores of 39.59% and 37.10%, respectively.