The provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are divided into 26 districts. These in turn are divided into territories or communes.
The 2006 constitution planned to convert many of the districts into provinces under a decentralization program. However, progress was slow. In October 2007 the Minister for Decentralization, Denis Kalume Numbi, presented a bill for Decentralization in the National Assembly. The subsequent debate turned up a variety of issues that first had to be addressed with changes to related laws. In an October 2010 conclave of the ruling AMP coalition, it was proposed to revise Article 226, which calls for the creation of 26 provinces out of the current 11, in order to allow more time for the transition. In September 2011 the position of "Minister of Decentralization" was abolished.
The provinces of Maniema, Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu are not divided into districts. These three provinces and all districts are divided into territories. Most provinces also include cities, divided into communes, independent of the districts. Districts and cities, other than the capital city of Kinshasa, and their territories or communes are:
The city of Kinshasa is divided into four districts and 24 communes: