tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63082028250854768952024-03-12T16:19:18.993-07:00Jonathan Rosegovernance, labor, and international developmentJonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-74081692412168225832018-10-29T12:03:00.001-07:002018-10-30T08:50:51.575-07:00State Legislatures: The Real Champions for Workers?<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>For decades, US states
have advanced more pro-worker legislation </i></div>
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<i>than the federal government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
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<i>It’s time to pay attention.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqLZzFsJipcD46WkYLEhcmzxEeoBTgDTgwXgPsq_Mx_-Sf2wBDGUu6OUHzjcfzMtO5j8Ec5yEzoWhWZcTSbtt0v5zXVHYNZHwAPSkK7Hc58iNYQFsP5yHggWE-QJdR2fQ8lRe05EeWzA/s1600/Fight_for_%252415_on_4-15_%252816954296607%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqLZzFsJipcD46WkYLEhcmzxEeoBTgDTgwXgPsq_Mx_-Sf2wBDGUu6OUHzjcfzMtO5j8Ec5yEzoWhWZcTSbtt0v5zXVHYNZHwAPSkK7Hc58iNYQFsP5yHggWE-QJdR2fQ8lRe05EeWzA/s320/Fight_for_%252415_on_4-15_%252816954296607%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source: The All-Nite Images</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fight_for_$15_on_4-15_(16954296607).jpg</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Labor and employment laws are very popular with the American
public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/03/23/americans-widely-support-paid-family-and-medical-leave-but-differ-over-specific-policies/">2017
Pew polling</a> shows that 85 percent of adults support paid sick leave in the
US, 82 percent support paid maternity leave, and 69 percent support paid
paternity leave. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An increase in the
minimum wage has <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Minimum_wage_increases_in_2018#Increases_through_ballot_measures">been
passed via ballot initiative</a> 28 times in states in the last 15 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Despite their popularity, the Federal Government has been relatively
inactive in passing labor and employment legislation in recent decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Arguably, the last major piece of legislation
was the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which already celebrated its 25<sup>th</sup>
anniversary in 2018.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More recently, targeted
changes include the right to pump under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 and the
Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009, which expanded equal pay provisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last piece of legislation to increase the
federal minimum wage was passed in 2007.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is a stark difference in the legislative activity of the
federal government and state governments, both overall and especially in labor
and employment laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In terms of the quantity,
the total number of laws passed in states highlights the overall trend towards
productivity in state legislatures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
example, according to <a href="https://info.cq.com/resources/states-six-times-more-productive-than-congress/">one
estimate</a>, in the 113<sup>th</sup> Congress that ran from 2013-2014, the
federal government passed 352 bills and resolutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contrast, states and Washington, DC passed
45,504 bills and resolutions; 38 state legislatures and the Washington, DC <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>city council individually passed more bills
and resolutions than Congress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The total
number of labor and employment laws mirrors this trend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1980, state governments passed <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1981/01/art4full.pdf">81 labor and
employment laws</a>; this number increased to <a href="https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/laborlegislation2014.htm">204 in 2014</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As of late 2018, 28 states and Washington, DC
have a minimum wage above the federal level, with Washington State leading at
$11.50 per hour. In contrast, <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/subjects/labor_and_employment/6235#congress=113&current_status[]=28&enacted_ex=on">Congress
passed two</a> labor and employment bills in 2014, while the minimum wage last
increased in 2009.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The activity at the state level inspired us at Oxfam to complete the <a href="https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/static/media/files/Best_States_to_Work_Index.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery">Best
States to Work Index</a>, which has generated interest from legislators and advocates
from around the country (see #beststatestowork and <a href="https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/work/poverty-in-the-us/best-states-to-work/">this
link</a> for interactive maps).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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One might think that this movement is happening only in
states with a democratic trifecta (control of both the executive and the
legislature), meaning that there is little that advocates can accomplish unless
the political winds change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even if
they do, according to this reasoning, nothing can be done in states that do not
flip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, this is not the
case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>South Carolina recently passed
pregnancy protections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Massachusetts
passed a $15 minimum wage with a Republican Governor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there are a number of states that have
used ballot initiatives to support labor policies, such as minimum wages and
more recently, striking down a ‘right-to-work’ law in Missouri.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Unfortunately, there is much more focus from citizens and
the media on the federal government than on state governments, or local
governments for that matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My personal
impression is that the same goes for labor and employment law advocates,
academics and think tanks, though they often have strong state programs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
shine of Washington, DC, with its political drama and vast policy
infrastructure, grabs too much of our public attention.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The imbalance in focus is dangerous, and misses the vast
opportunities at the state level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead,
it is time for the media, the public, advocates, think tanks, and legislators
to build on these remarkable trends in state policy-making, and get critical
pro-worker laws passed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-75125428094921807672018-09-08T15:06:00.001-07:002018-09-08T15:14:39.253-07:00The Best States to Work Index: A new tool to rank US states in labor policies<div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1.4em;">
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This is a blog first posted on Oxfam <a href="https://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2018/08/the-best-states-to-work-index-oxfams-new-tool-to-rank-us-states-in-labor-policies/">here</a>.<br />
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Workers in the United States are facing wage stagnation and poor employment conditions that are holding their families back. This index measures which states are taking action.<br />
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The US economy fails many workers and their families in several ways. <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/">Wages are mostly stagnant</a> when adjusted for the cost of living, even though the US is experiencing record low unemployment rates. <a href="https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/few-rewards/">Over 40 percent of workers</a> earn a wage below $15 per hour. <a href="https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/wpallimport/files/iwpr-export/publications/B356.pdf">Over 51 million workers in the United States</a> do not have access to paid sick leave, including <a href="https://iwpr.org/wp-content/uploads/wpallimport/files/iwpr-export/publications/B356.pdf">over half of workers</a> of Hispanic descent. Even fewer workers have paid family leave benefits, at just <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/23/access-to-paid-family-leave-varies-widely-across-employers-industries/">14 percent</a> of the workforce.<br />
<br />
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One reason for these shortcomings is that federal labor and employment laws in the United States are less advanced than those of other countries. This point emerged strongly from <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/commitment-reducing-inequality-index">recent Oxfam research on policies to combat income inequality</a>, which showed that the United States is the only Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development country without national paid maternity leave, and has a comparatively low minimum wage compared to other OECD countries.<br />
<br />
<br />
Despite the lack of progress in federal legislation, many states are charging ahead with increases in the minimum wage, mandates for paid parental leave, and even laws to ensure the right to organize for public sector workers. The United States has a unique government system in which progress often happens at the state and city level, later followed by the federal government.<br />
<br />
<br />
To rank states on their progress, we at Oxfam created the Best States to Work Index, which is detailed in a <a href="https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/static/media/files/Best_States_to_Work_Index.pdf">report</a> and a <a href="https://policy-practice.oxfamamerica.org/work/poverty-in-the-us/best-states-to-work/">website</a>. It measures states (including Washington, DC) in 11 policy areas that fall in three dimensions: wage policies, worker protection policies, and the right to organize policies.<br />
<br />
<br />
Through the rankings on the Best States to Work Index, we show the following: <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Washington, DC ranks first in the nation and neighboring Virginia ranks last. Washington State, California, and Massachusetts appear at the top, while Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi are at the bottom.</li>
<li>No state provides a living wage, a critical determinant of the adequacy of the minimum wage.</li>
<li>States lag in worker protection policies. Although the majority of states have made progress on basic equal pay legislation and on a basic sexual harassment law, few have passed paid sick leave, paid family leave, or fair scheduling laws.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/blog.oxfamamerica.org/politicsofpoverty/2018/08/Best-States-to-work.jpg" /> <br />
<br />
We also looked more closely at the relationship between the Best States to Work Index and the well-being of people in a state, correlating the index with economic and social indicators. Overall, the data show a correlation between high scores on the Best States to Work Index and desirable economic and social indicators. Our analysis found a moderate correlation with lower rates of infant mortality and poverty, and with higher rates of life expectancy, median income, GDP per capita, and labor force participation rates. While correlation is not causality, this evidence suggests that these policies are not damaging to the economy or the health of the population, and that they may in fact support them. At the very least, the lack of any clear negative economic impact and the strong evidence of positive impacts on measures of well-being indicate that more states should pursue these policies.<br />
<br />
Over the next few months, we will further develop some critical insights from the Best States to Work Index through this blog series. Stay tuned for updates.Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-4655198256750979852018-03-26T19:21:00.002-07:002018-11-01T10:27:09.999-07:00We Should Understand Policy to Change Policy<div class="MsoNormal">
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John Lennon says, ‘We all want to change the world’. If we specify
what exactly we want to change, two very common targets are the private sector
and government. Many advocates devote their lives and careers to influencing
these two sectors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, commensurate
with this dedication, we need greater conceptual understanding regarding the
conditions under which government policy and corporate behavior change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, advocates need to grapple
with when that change happens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In this post, I focus on my favorite book on government
policy changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The single best resource
I have found to date for understanding the conditions under which government
policy changes is John Kingdon’s <u>Agendas, Public Policy and Streams</u> (though
a colleague coauthored another great article <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/31/suppl_1/i3/2404374">here</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This book, which is primarily based on
interviews with federal government politicians and officials in the late 1970s,
helps to organize the many aspects of policy change into a basic conceptual
framework.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Stage 1: Agenda ----------<span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">à</span></span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Stage 2: Alternatives ------<span style="font-family: "wingdings"; mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">à</span></span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Stage 3: Policy<o:p></o:p></div>
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Problem & Politics<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>Solutions
emerge<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The diagram roughly sketches the main elements of the
conceptual framework of Kingdon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
main idea is that there are three streams - problem, politics and policy
alternatives – that must align for a policy to change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, each is a necessary but not
sufficient condition.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In stage one, he first describes two principal ways that issues
move to the top of the government policy agenda, which involves the problem
stream and the politics stream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem
stream relates to the perception of the importance and urgency of a particular
issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When politicians consider an
issue as a national crisis, as follows a large terrorist attack or the spread
of a disease, then they are generally moved to action. On the other hand,
sudden political events can drastically shift agendas, most obviously swings in
political party control of the government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Either one of these events can bring about what Kingdon calls a ‘policy
window’, in which an issue may see movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However both of these streams must at least support the issue in order
for it to move forward. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In stage 2, Kingdon describes a process by which a few
solutions addressing the particular policy issue emerge from a policy community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The community includes academics, policy
wonks, civil servants, advocates, lobbyists and others, who jointly develop a
large variety of potential policy alternatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through debate, discussions,
advocacy and many other actions, a few solutions will rise to the top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a solution to be seriously considered, it
shouldn’t just be technically appropriate, but also politically acceptable,
especially to the elected officials in power. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The main reason I like this simple framework is that it breaks
down the messy policy process into more coherent phases, and offers insight into
how each phase works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using this
framework and identifying the dynamics of each phase, advocates should be able
to work more effectively – for better or for worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are a few specific ways that the basic
ideas of Kingston help.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Policy organizations aim to influence all three of these
streams, though different organizations are more capable of influencing particular
streams. An organization can seek to raise awareness of a problem, providing
evidence of a public crisis and communicating that message either to the public
at large or within the policy community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many non-profit advocacy groups focus here, highlighting social issues
and emphasizing the urgency to address the problem, without in-depth analysis
of solutions or a massive political coalition to push the issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, an organization can work to change
the political makeup of the government, through mobilizing membership to vote a
certain way or through threatening negative press. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mass membership organizations such as teachers
unions or hospital associations are effective here, given their widespread
membership in many congressional districts, but so are media savvy
organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Third, an organization
can engage with the policy community to develop solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This area of work is the primary function of
Washington think tanks, though universities are often on the cutting edge of
innovative solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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If a community of concerned actors cannot influence all
three of these dynamics at once, then absent a sudden crisis, it is likely that
policy change will not happen in the short term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But at least the framework can help identify
the main impediment for a particular issue to move forward, whether on the
problem front, the politics front, or the policy alternatives front; and the
community of concerned actors can focus greater efforts to address that
impediment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Moreover, if a policy organization or a researcher is
flexible in their issue area and want to find relevance in a relatively short
period of time, then understanding these dynamics and choosing an area of
expertise accordingly can help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
example, foresight of a surge in crime or an imminent housing crisis would
suggest that policy makers will be looking at these issues closely soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, in an environment in which a
policy community has developed, a newcomer might cause tensions with the
organizations that have spent years on a particular issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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On a more personal level as a researcher, Kingdon’s book
also provides a sense of how research makes a difference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I often lament that, no matter how good the
ideas, research usually does not find its way into policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kingdon recognizes the difficulty in discerning
a direct path by which an idea comes to influence policy, but discusses how
this community of scholars, practitioners and others is essential to developing
policy proposals that are ripe to respond to the agenda that emerges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In sum, while none of these are revolutionary ideas, the
framework helps organize and prioritize factors involved in the policy process
in a useful and even actionable way.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-35828880341850908602016-08-18T12:33:00.001-07:002018-08-15T15:08:53.077-07:00Anti-Corruption Organizations Require Systems Thinking<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6308202825085476895" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6308202825085476895" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6308202825085476895" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
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When asked why their country is not more developed, or why
there is so much poverty, most people in the world blame corruption (see this
<a href="https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2014/04/29/yes-corruption-is-bad-for-development-no-corruption-is-not-a-western-obsession-2/">blog</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corruption is present in every nation,
and the struggle against it is never complete. In this post, I’d like to make the
case for bringing systems thinking into corruption work.</div>
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First, let’s start with an obvious point that is often
overlooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corruption is defined as the
abuse of public office for private gain, but it manifests itself in
extraordinarily diverse ways, in terms of the individuals involved, the kind of
corrupt act, the potential damage to the public, and the sector in which it
takes place, amongst others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are a
few types of corruption:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<li>Mid-level officials steal stocks of life-saving
drugs and sell them on the black market</li>
<li>The executive requires a large, fixed monthly payment
from the police force, as a means of sharing corrupt earnings</li>
<li>Passengers pay an intermediary – and indirectly
the immigration office manager – to jump to the front of an immigration line</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span>A local official, at the behest of the MP, adds
names of political supporters to a list of safety net beneficiaries</li>
<li>Various officials take a portion of all construction
contracts</li>
<li>Teachers skip school to work elsewhere, but
still earn a salary</li>
</ul>
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One simple conclusion emerges upon describing the various
forms of corruption. Because it varies widely, both simple explanatory theories
and broad generalizations about the effect of corruption tend to be inaccurate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corruption is not just cultural, or only the
result of a lack of supervision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Similarly, not all forms of corruption are horribly damaging for the
public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Some have tried to argue that corruption is either good for development, or not a top priority (Huntington, 1968; or other blogs cited <a href="https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2014/04/29/yes-corruption-is-bad-for-development-no-corruption-is-not-a-western-obsession-2/">here</a>). These arguments fail to acknowledge the variety of forms of corruption. Indeed, some forms could potentially help development under certain conditions. Other forms may be relatively benign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, one need only conduct a simple
exercise to comprehend the pervasiveness of damaging forms of corruption: name
a development priority area in which corruption is not the greatest, or among
the greatest impediments to advancement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be difficult to find
such an area in the majority of countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Given that reducing some forms of corruption is critical for
development, the question is, what can be done about it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, I think that many anti-corruption
organizations suffer because they fail to adapt to the dynamic social systems that
support corruption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Systems thinking is
an essential step in developing, adjusting and executing a strategy to fight corruption.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Systems thinking as an integral part of organizations is not
new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was popularized by Peter Senge in
his classic 1990 book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fifth
Discipline</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its essence is that
organizations need to incorporate an understanding of the complex, dynamic
systems in the world in order to fulfill their mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corruption plays a role in many
socio-political systems that must be understood to make corruption efforts
effective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(For an excellent study in some
such systems, see The Wire, my favorite TV show, which provides an analysis in
terms of the interlink between the drug trade, policing, and politics.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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patronage is required in the lead up to an election, which usually involves
distributing some free items (such as money, rice, or jobs).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to spread wealth, politicians must
raise funds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these funds will be
collected through corruption while in power, either in the form of money raised
or favors earned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corruption therefore
forms a foundation of power for politicians, via patronage networks; and
political power then allows them to use the government apparatus to conduct
corrupt acts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Impeding the various forms
of corruption that support the patronage networks would therefore threaten the political survival of those who manage them.<br />
<br />
Political Power <br />
| ^<br />
| |<br />
| |<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6308202825085476895"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6308202825085476895"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6308202825085476895"></a> V |<br />
Corruption --------> Patronage</div>
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This very basic system diagram – which represents systems
thinking - has important implications for fighting corruption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One advantage is that it lets you know what
you’re up against.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this example, it
suggests that political leaders have a strong interest in maintaining some
forms of corruption, because their political power – and therefore their
ability to be corrupt - depends on it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, an anti-corruption organization
that focuses on the forms of corruption that support patronage can expect a
strong reaction from political leaders. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Activists
need to develop a contingency strategy to respond to the various tactics that
politicians may take to undermine their activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, if an anti-corruption project seeks to
reinforce checks and balances that limit the types of corruption that are
needed for patronage, the effort will likely face opposition from politicians
and their allies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The system diagram also indicates that, for many forms of
corruption, real reform would require a weakening of the strong, dynamic systems
that rely on corruption, such as these patronage networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the short or even medium term, this is
unlikely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If corruption is reinforced by
other elements of the system, then a transformation of the system may be
necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, the fight against
corruption should be seen as a long-term struggle that requires a multi-pronged
strategy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Similarly, an immediate approach that seeks to grab low
hanging fruits should begin with a contextual analysis to determine the precise
forms of corruption that are not supported by these strong and dynamic systems.
If there are not powerful individuals opposing the anti-corruption effort, the
likelihood of progress should increase.<br />
<br /></div>
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The diagram also suggests that a success in reducing
corruption in one area may actually increase the corruption elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Patronage requires resources, so even if an
anti-corruption efforts is successful, the necessity will push those involved
to seek out other corruption opportunities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Such an effect is frequently discussed in economics, with the analogy of
stepping on a balloon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The net effect
may be the same for the public, thus neutralizing any gains won through the
successful reduction of corruption in the particular area.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Instilling smart approaches to fight corruption are
critical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too much of this work takes a
standard, technocratic approach of ‘capacity building’ for an anti-corruption
commission and supreme audit institutions, or generally promoting transparency
and open data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More targeted approaches
with systems thinking is needed to increase the effectiveness of anti-corruption
work.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-29228866784563286182016-08-12T07:55:00.001-07:002018-08-15T15:09:12.599-07:00A Bangladesh without ForeignersHere is a recent editorial I wrote for The Daily Star in Bangladesh.<br />
<a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/bangladesh-without-foreigners-1267627">http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/bangladesh-without-foreigners-1267627</a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the natural results of the recent terror attacks in
Bangladesh is contemplation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some are
rightly focused on the immediate need to understand how these unprecedented
acts of violence could happen, and how to stop them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the fact that one major attack targeted
foreigners in Bangladesh makes me wonder, what would Bangladesh be like without
the foreigner presence?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I first came to Bangladesh in 2002, and have lived in the
country for several years and visited numerous times since then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the first time in memory that many of
my foreigner friends and colleagues in Bangladesh are hesitant to stay in or
visit the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we foreigners count
our blessings that we were not among the victims at the Holey Bakery, we also
recognize that it could have easily been us that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fear is amplified by both the brutality
and the utter lack of sense behind the attacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the recent past, few major areas of economic and social progress
that would have happened without a partnership with a foreign individual or organization
with a presence in Bangladesh, even if all progress was completed with
Bangladeshi leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main markets
for the garment industry are the US and Europe, whose buyers have large offices
in Dhaka with other buyers visiting the country frequently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The aid industry supports many government
programs, as well as the enormous NGO system in Bangladesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Academic partnerships have similarly been
crucial in creating life saving health institutions such as ICDDR,B, involved
in life-saving interventions that include <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ORS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Foreigners,
particularly from Sri Lanka and India, contribute greatly as skilled employees
for a number of industries, particularly garments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not to say that the record is
perfect, with numerous disastrous aid projects and imposed, destructive
policies, amongst other negative effects; but the partnership has been positive
on the whole.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we look to the future, these areas of progress have been firmly
established in the country, so even if many foreigners would depart, it is
difficult to imagine they would vanish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But one wonders, which other partnerships for progress are
endangered?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where are the major new areas
where a partnership with foreigners in Bangladesh can make further
contributions?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would argue that four
areas are vital to maintain growth and ensure Bangladesh progresses further as
a Middle Income Country.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
New Businesses<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While the garment industry is strong, sustained growth requires
the development of new sectors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Export
of light manufacturing goods is one of the most promising sectors, but as with
garments, this requires the presence of buyers in the country, who will provide
business opportunities and work with manufacturers to improve their
capacity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, the growing technology
sector of Bangladesh should be greatly enriched through international business
and the exchange of ideas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reliance on
the garment industry to sustain growth is a risky approach for the
economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Investment<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To continue developing, Bangladesh requires major
investments in infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone
knows the current infrastructure in Dhaka is woefully inadequate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, several of the victims of the
terrorism were reported to be visiting Dhaka to advise the government on the
construction of a badly needed metro system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Foreign governments and other institutions are needed to both provide
advice and financing for infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Skilled Labor Force and Higher Education<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most large businesses in Bangladesh identify the lack of
highly skilled, well-educated employees as a key constraint, leading many to offer
such jobs to Sri Lankans and Indians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These foreigners play a critical role in meeting this need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time, it is clear that Bangladesh
needs to further develop its higher educational institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While foreign investment in universities has
been limited, exchange with foreign universities will play a critical role in
producing critical research for the country, as well as improving the quality
of higher education. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Climate Change<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bangladesh has received worldwide attention as one of the
main victims of climate change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While
some progress has been made, adapting to this challenge will require large-scale
programs, with cooperation on a number of fronts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The West should rightfully bear the costs of
many of these programs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same
time, their presence is required to offer these resources, as well as cooperate
to produce technical analyses to understand the varied effects of climate
change.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The need to prevent terrorism in Bangladesh is obvious, but
it’s important to keep in mind what is at stake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As if a general sense of fear and sadness
isn’t enough, there are also grave threats to the partnerships that have
yielded economic and social progress of the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Re-establishing a general sense of security
in the coming months and years may prove to be pivotal to the future of
Bangladesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The country may continue its
current, admirable progress or see that progress grind to a halt.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-41348270119656226482016-07-05T08:26:00.001-07:002018-08-15T15:09:25.836-07:00What's the Use of Development Plans?<div class="MsoNormal">
Nearly two years ago, I was part of a team that drafted the <a href="http://www.plancomm.gov.bd/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/12_Governance-and-Justice-_Final-Draft.pdf">background
paper on governance, justice and human rights</a> for the current Seventh Five
Year Plan of the Government of Bangladesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bangladesh still drafts a Soviet/ Indian style Five Year Plan, as led by
the Planning Commission of the government.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This experience presented valuable lessons on planning, and
especially how to think about the value of a planning exercise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ex ante, one would think this planning
document is the master plan, directing practically all government initiatives
related to development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is incorrect,
as is the case with most planning documents. This is not to say that the
document is useless; instead, it requires a different conception of the function
of a planning document.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To explain this,
let me present some important contextual realities. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, I quickly realized that there is a major issue in
terms of implementation. I thought that, to provide some context and
accountability, I should dedicate a section of the paper to a stocktaking of
what had been completed under the Sixth Five Year Plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The results were not encouraging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of the 72 activities related to governance,
justice and human rights that appeared, just 13 had been completely
implemented, 38 had been partly completed, and 21 had not even begun to be
implemented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Granted, these topics – governance, justice
and human rights – tend to be a difficult and contentious area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is a rather mediocre track record.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, I realized that the process for generating the plan
does not generate sufficient ownership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
starting the paper, I learned that the main Five Year Plan is written by an
outside think tank for the government, then goes through an extensive review by
the government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This process clearly
raises concerns regarding ownership by the ministries involved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One such concern is first mover advantage: as
long as the planned action – planned being the operative word – was not somehow
controversial, it was quite possible it would remain in the document.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if the idea didn’t stem from the
responsible ministry, it’s quite possible the action would be tolerated in the
plan, but with no intention of following through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ideally, a given ministry composes the
relevant section of the overall plan, to ensure ownership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Simply having the ability to edit an outside
product is not sufficient to build on genuine intentions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That said, we also realized that the plan is not the main
driving force behind government action, but it can help to serve as a
rationalization for action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a
well-placed individual in government wants to implement an activity, then its
appearance in the Five Year Plan can further justify implementation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This became the priority in developing our
recommendations: identify genuine champions within the ministries, and if their
ideas had a reasonable possibility of generating positive results, strongly
recommend these actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The experience brings up serious questions about the value
of a plan in development organizations in general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the technocratic development
practitioner’s view, a plan is made to set things in stone, then a budget and
implementation indicators are developed, the project is financed, and then
executed. However, this becomes ridiculous once one acknowledges two
realities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, the implementing
organization – or the branch that implements - often feels little ownership
over the plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such plans are generally
developed by an outside consultant at the request of the funding organization,
with the funding organization hiring that person and financing the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The consultant usually has little contextual
knowledge, and few days in which to develop the plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, because the funding cycle takes so
long, this exercise may have been completed years before implementation begins;
further learning may have emerged, senior staff been replaced, and country
conditions transformed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Second, unless the program is a routine development
intervention, everything changes once implementation begins. The plan may be
comprehensive with a substantial consultative process, but when things begin,
challenges emerge, and the intervention may prove to be ineffective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To make matters worse, the financing bureaucracies face
difficulties in allowing for flexible implementation plans, at times demanding
that the implementing organization stick with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In such cases, the implementing organization
often pretends to go through the motions, so as not to interrupt the flow of
resources; they may do so, even if they realize that the plan will not achieve
the targets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, the lack of
flexibility discourages innovation and the testing of a variety of approaches
to see what works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
All of this is to say that a more realistic planning
approach is needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We shouldn’t simply
scrap plans, though they are sometimes useless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, a greater focus on process is needed, one that is long-term,
inclusive, and on-going, that provides the opportunity for revisions along the
way and for learning by doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ideas
such as flexible planning and the development of a learning organization (i.e.
the Fifth Discipline) should be taken up by both financing and implementing
bureaucracies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t found a good
example in development of flexibility that appears in <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/09/keeping-your-business-plan-fle.html">this article</a>
from Harvard Business School, but I’m curious to find one.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-24361217851906914532016-06-28T10:08:00.002-07:002018-08-15T15:11:31.542-07:00Technocrats Prioritize Development Projects: Thoughts on Cost Benefit Analysis in Bangladesh<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the past couple of months, I have worked for the
Copenhagen Consensus Center, writing two studies on nutrition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their approach is to complete benefit to
cost ratios, after a long process of consultation on
priority areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, for
every dollar spent on this intervention, x dollars of benefit will result. In
Bangladesh, they hired a variety of analysts to calculate 75 such ratios.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21698302-ambitious-attempt-work-out-best-use-scarce-resources-how-spend-it">The
Economist</a> provides a summary of this work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not naturally prone to such an analysis. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The world is complex, so how can we boil it
down to one number?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It smacks of a
technocratic, top down approach to development that often harms more than it
helps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I’m emerging from the
exercise with some positive views, primarily after seeing the types of
interventions prioritized after the exercise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I developed my most upbeat opinions of the exercise during a
nutrition conference jointly organized by the Copenhagen Consensus Center with local partners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My two papers analyzed what we might
consider the most basic and proven nutrition interventions, primarily
consisting of supplements for pregnant women and for infants in their first
1,000 days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As part of the dissemination
of this and other nutrition research, the conference brought together many members of the
nutrition community in Bangladesh, including the Minister and Secretary of the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What became clear in this meeting is that the government and many of the
nutrition champions are trying to take a holistic approach to addressing
nutrition that fails to prioritize interventions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the implementation record is generally poor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I view the logic of the cost benefit analysis as appropriate
for nutrition in Bangladesh in two ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>First, as mentioned, a more focused approach on a few priority steps is
needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The combination of a laundry
list of actions and poor implementation rationally points to the need for
prioritization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, the types of
interventions that emerge from the exercise tend to fit the limited
implementation capacity of governments such as in Bangladesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While nutrition education in schools would be
wonderful, the quality of primary education is quite poor; I don’t see how this
can be implemented effectively in this context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Similarly, I’m unclear how poorly trained and often absent health
workers can implement complex behavioral change such as breastfeeding practices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But providing iron folate supplements to pregnant women seems a more feasible task.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, all of this must be negotiated with the local
political context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If performance is a
measure, nutrition has not been a consistently high priority for the Government
of Bangladesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the current approach
of demanding 100 different nutrition actions, forming high level nutrition
committees that never seem to meet, and fighting between ministries regarding
the lead for nutrition is not proving productive.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That said, I would highlight four limitations to a cost
benefit analysis: the difficulty in standardizing assumptions, sensitivity to
small estimate changes, and the lack of focus on distributional and other
concerns, and the reality of implementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the first, the analyses
should use similar assumptions and approaches for calculating the costs and
benefits to be comparable, but this is nearly impossible to do in a context
with scarce data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, a variety of
approaches were used in the Copenhagen Consensus exercise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, my papers used international
estimates of the costs based on the input prices, and not on existing programs
in Bangladesh; other programs had such information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This point was highlighted in the Economist
article. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Second, the estimates are highly sensitive to small changes,
meaning that we should not have too much confidence in the results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, the analyses often multiply three
approximations to find a benefit, then divide by an approximation of the cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something like the use of an exchange rate
from different years can yield large changes in the final ratio. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Third, cost benefit analyses take a neutral position
regarding social values, such as the distributional effects of the
interventions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An intervention achieves
the same value whether it increases the wealth of a rich person by $5 or a poor
person by $5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, programs focused
on the ultra poor, which generally do not yield huge financial outcomes, do not
end up on top.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly, the financial
value of a program does not necessarily include a social value, such as
preventing the exploitation of women through child marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While an analysis could attempt to provide
for such a valuation, it would further amplify the approximations, putting an
estimated social value on such factors. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Fourth, it is difficult to know how accurately the analyses would
reflect the costs and benefits of large-scale programs in Bangladesh, given the
numerous implementation concerns. Prime amongst these is that institutions vary
dramatically in their capabilities, which would influence both the benefits and
the costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Programs may face rampant
corruption. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or their staff may lack the skills
to implement complex interventions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
such, I didn’t hope to provide an accurate representation of the likely costs
and benefits if the Government of Bangladesh allocated further funds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, my hope was to use the analysis to
show the likely costs and benefits based on a decent implementation of
nutrition programs, i.e. if the government would get their act together to
organize an effective nutrition service delivery system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, it might be interpreted as the
need to allocate further resources to nutrition, when the government only spends
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<div class="MsoNormal">
One final note relates to advocacy for research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The project was very smart in hiring local
staff with excellent connections, and inviting many of the right people to
attend meetings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, many
conversations have only just begun; to be truly effective, these must be
ongoing, where a local institution continues to engage government and other
stakeholders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">p.s. My two papers covered interventions that were selected among the top priorities for Bangladesh. They can be seen here:</span><br />
<span style="color: #eeffdd; font-family: "garamond"; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8ly6oGPuGCRdldIODZraE9oYTQ&usp=sharing" style="color: #ddff66; text-decoration: none;">https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8ly6oGPuGCRdldIODZraE9oYTQ&usp=sharing</a></span></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-20439482185865521162016-06-03T02:47:00.001-07:002018-08-15T15:10:13.895-07:00Prioritizing Development Projects: Simple Addition vs. Conditional Processes<div class="MsoNormal">
Many development projects encourage access: access to
justice, access to schools, access to hospitals, access to information,
etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This access is generally provided
to the poor, who face difficulties due to a lack of financial or other
resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, some
projects – though perhaps relatively fewer - focus on improving the quality of
services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, these projects
seek to improve the capacity of judges and the efficiency of court processes; others train teachers to improve school quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall, I think there needs to be a
fundamental change in some simple logic, which may transform the rationale for
focusing on access vs. quality.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the justice field, the logic of conventional projects is the following:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Access of the Poor + Good Courts -> Justice<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we want the poor to achieve justice, then we need to fund
paralegals to help them develop court cases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Similarly, we should improve the capacity of these courts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should work on both to achieve justice for
the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a simple problem with this logic, if we see this as
a conditional process where each step depends on the next:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Access of the Poor -> (Quality of the) Courts -> (Quality
of) Justice<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The steps downstream in the process determine whether the end goal is achieved, which is the conditionality. If we give the poor access to relatively dysfunctional
courts, then the poor don’t get justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even worse is that giving the poor access to dysfunctional courts may
make those courts even more dysfunctional, as the case backlog will increase.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A similar logic may be applied to conditional cash transfers
for school attendance, i.e. paying parents to send their children to school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the quality of education is so poor that
students don’t learn anything, then perhaps transfers are not a productive way
to increase education among the poor. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From this, we can come up with several conclusions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, perhaps development institutions and governments
should not spend so much money on access to badly functioning
institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The priority is the downstream areas that are necessary conditions for achieving the outcomes. As such, </span>a relatively better
allocation is to focus greater attention to improving their quality, moreso than increasing access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second, if these badly functioning institutions are not
going to improve, then perhaps we should give the poor access to alternative
institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> If the downstream areas are necessary conditions that will not be met in the short or medium term, an alternative path would make sense. </span>In the justice example,
the poor may find a much greater level of justice through alternative dispute
resolution, such as community-level justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Third, none of these factors is absolute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No justice institutions are completely
dysfunctional, or teachers completely unable to teach students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not arguing for 100% resource allocation
for quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A calculation must be made
relative to each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What doesn’t make
sense is spending 75% of resources on access and 25% on quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the quality is poor, then perhaps this
should be closer to 25% and 75%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately, there are huge incentives for development
institutions and government to focus on access rather than the quality of
institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Development partners and
government can burn through huge amounts of money by providing cash transfers,
but improving the quality of education is quite difficult and does not allow
for a quick disbursement of resources. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Governments
also love handling cash transfer projects for a variety of other reasons, such
as the patronage it represents and the large amounts of money that might be
diverted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, the internal incentives
of these institutions work against a more rational priority.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are some other situations to which this logic applies,
though they are endless:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Transparency with weak accountability mechanisms.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Legislation that is generally not enforced, to achieve
anything.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Road infrastructure on the outskirts of town if that traffic
is heading downtown (i.e. you’re speeding up traffic to a larger traffic jam).<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-67955870664412881622016-05-05T06:45:00.000-07:002018-08-15T15:14:12.396-07:00Citizen Participation in International Development Projects – Part 1 of many<div class="MsoNormal">
Citizen participation sounds like a positive thing, but when
applied to international development programs, it is difficult and frequently
ineffective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Few people would claim that
we should oppose citizen participation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On
the other hand, many people, especially technocrats, doubt its effectiveness in
private conversations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As one high-level
government official put it once, “Why should we turn the government over to a
goat herder?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, these are
nice ideas, but are they practical?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Answering this question is difficult, because the term
citizen participation is mixed in a jargon stew along with many other
terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These include social
accountability, empowerment, inclusion, bottom up development, participatory
development, feedback loops, consultation and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As may be expected, development practitioners
often put these into a black box, then concoct opinions based on just a couple
of examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In this post, I outline some simple characteristics of
citizen participation processes to allow observers to evaluate them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My main argument is that, given the diversity
of participatory mediums, any analysis of citizen participation should attempt
to distinguish the form of participation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Citizen participation is practiced in many ways in development, and too
often, development officials form an opinion without a closer look at what they
are talking about. Citizens can simply share ideas in a meeting, execute
monitoring of a project, provide feedback on performance, vote in elections for
committees, etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To distinguish these
forms, and give substance to an analysis of citizen participation, the three most
critical questions are: What specific decisions are citizens involved in?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What substantive decision-making power do
they yield, and if not much, will the official with such power act based on the
information provided by citizens?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what
is the quality of participation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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To illustrate this, I would like to take an example of
consultations, the most common form of direct citizen participation in
development. This is the case in government projects such as some forms of Community
Driven Development, or common NGO projects that involve building
infrastructure; it is also mostly applicable to school management committees
and health committees, or social accountability initiatives such as citizen
report cards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The first question is, what specific decisions are citizens
involved in?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In general, these
consultations aim to reveal information on preferences (though there are side
benefits such as generating community buy in).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consultations are particularly important in cases where citizens have
distinct and unpredictable needs that may be met by a development project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The choices as to which interventions are
possible are generally set by the funding organization – i.e. the government or
NGO, which greatly limits the outcomes of the process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, choices are limited informally, as participants
understandably perceive certain choices as more likely to ‘fit’ in the
organization’s plans, and thus lead to funding and execution. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As relates to substantive decision-making, citizens’ power
is usually quite limited in consultations, along with most participatory forums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The implementing organizations take
consultations as a form of advice, and can easily ignore the suggestions made
by participants. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizations sometimes
spend time and resources on these meetings, only so that decision makers completely
ignore them, which is obviously disconcerting for participants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In such cases, it is important to determine
whether the decision-makers actually want to listen to people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If not, then the process is mostly pointless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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The third area relates more to the quality of the process. Just
as elections can be free and fair, or full of ballot box stuffing, participatory
processes vary in their quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
list of potential determinants of quality is long, but the main concerns are
focusing the meeting (and avoiding a long wish list at the end), ensuring
inclusiveness if different members of the community have different needs, and
providing the requisite background information so people can participate
effectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most concerning, informal
power relations can undermine the inclusiveness of the process, leading to
capture from narrow interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Hopefully, in the future, analyses of citizen participation
in development will sharpen their focus along these three lines, instead of
trying to make broad generalizations about participation in all its forms.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-80580210826309758292016-04-11T09:40:00.000-07:002018-08-15T15:13:55.511-07:00Two Misuses of the Word ‘Empowerment’<div class="MsoNormal">
Words such as empowerment are thrown around the
international development vocabulary as a buzzword.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It forms essential vocabulary in constructing
a standard funding proposal with all the right terms, along with gender,
climate change, sustainablility, etc. Ironically, despite the pervasive use of
this word, I think the discussion of power in international development, and
especially at the World Bank, is adolescent at best, and needs to be much more
prominent and mature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also shows how
carelessly philosophy and especially political philosophy is treated in the
practice of international development.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are two main uses of the word ‘empowerment’ that get
muddled together, and are used in a problematic manner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Empowerment derives from the word power,
which the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The ability to do something or act in a
particular way, especially as a faculty or quality<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "cambria"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The capacity or ability to direct or
influence the behavior of others or the course of events.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Let me start with the first definition, whereby empowerment
refers to gaining an ability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hear
this all the time. For example, X project will empower girls with knowledge and
skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I find troublesome is that
the use of the word empower here should only refer to the first definition, but
is jumbled with the second definition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In other words, the implication of the use of the word empowerment is
that it will increase girls’ capacity or ability to direct behavior, especially
their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that’s not what the
project is doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, the project
is simply giving girls the ability to do something if it is a skill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, in this case, the girls can
gain a new skill, but remain completely unable to direct their own lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That hardly seems like an ‘empowered’ person.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the other definition, empowerment relates to influence;
this is particularly used in reference to citizen participation, a field in
which I’ve done some work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My problem
here is not with the use of the word, but rather the fact that practice
generally does not reflect a genuine change in power relations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of citizen participation, the
reason that participation often does not represent empowerment is that citizens
do not control projects and programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, they are providing information to decision makers, who can
choose to follow or disregard this information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One example reflects the questionable use of the term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With citizen report cards, citizens are given
the opportunity to provide feedback to government officials regarding the
performance of a particular government service or project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The report card is billed as a means of empowering
citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the report card does
not empower citizens, as it does not change power relations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Citizen report cards provide government with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">information</i>, which officials can choose
to follow or ignore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One might argue
that, if the report card leads to positive changes, then the report card is a
tool of empowerment, whereby citizens have the ability to influence
government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are not the ones doing
the influencing, however.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Information
from the report card might flow via existing power relations such as the media
to socially embarrass the politicians into action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, the policy maker may be benevolent and
discover something new from the report card.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In either case, citizens are not directing the behavior of the
politician through the report card.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Discussions like these are important because they get at the
fundamental power relations in the society, and question just whether the
larger population truly has a say in the development process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once the term empowerment is watered down, it
can provide a veneer that something transformative and pro-poor is taking
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect that a deeper look
shows how, despite decades of work on this topic, international development
remains fundamentally disempowering.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-55478075279816675732016-03-16T18:49:00.000-07:002018-08-15T15:11:12.166-07:00Micro Finance and the Development of BRAC<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Microfinance has gotten some flack in recent years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) have
provided some empirical basis for skepticism regarding its transformative
impact on the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The development fad
focused on microfinance appears to be waning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For those who aren’t familiar with BRAC, an organization I
have been working with on and off since 2014, it is the world’s largest NGO,
has programs serving a large portion of the population of Bangladesh, and is
arguably one of the greatest success stories of the international development
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its reach is mind boggling,
such that I often compare it to an alternate socialist government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has programs in health, education,
industry, and of course microfinance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The BRAC family includes a bank, cash transfer company and what will
soon become one of the largest universities in South Asia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has programs in 12 countries as well.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some months back, I read “Freedom from Want” by Ian Smilie, which
presents a history of BRAC. It’s a very interesting read, and I highly
recommend it, particularly given the importance of BRAC in the development
world. Even though much of it reads like a ‘great men’ version of history, with
some role for particular women involved, it touches on a number of interesting
organizational themes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One idea, which requires greater scrutiny, is the importance
of microfinance in the financial and organization health and evolution of
BRAC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, the importance of
microfinance to fund BRAC activities is undeniable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to its annual report of 2014, BRAC earned
over $270 million from service charges for microfinance; expenditure for the
program was just over $171 million.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
net earnings create a huge fund that is then used to cross subsidize other
programs and costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Own source revenue
also reduces the vulnerability of the organization to the fickle behavior of
international development partners.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Microfinance allowed for direct linkages, both upstream and
downstream, with other initiatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
the book describes, providing microfinance services was not enough to have an
impact; instead, BRAC had to present and develop business opportunities for
women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This led to work in a wide
variety of programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, the
book describes the poultry business, where BRAC developed both a chicken feed company
as well as a vaccination program and an egg selling business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Feed, chickens and vaccines were often bought
using microfinance funds.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me, even more interesting is the organization that is
fostered by micro finance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It provides
an economic need for BRAC field offices, which can be used for other purposes. Similarly,
microfinance requires the creation of women’s groups in communities, which one
might refer to as social capital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>BRAC
therefore develops both a network of individuals affiliated with the
organization, and a familiarity with the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am still unclear just how much of a role
these offices, staff and volunteers involved in microfinance played in the
history of BRAC, but I suspect it was an important one. In recent history, the
book observes that BRAC International has taken this approach, describing that “the
health program [piggybacks] on the microfinance program” employing staff in the
field offices and pulling health volunteers from among the microfinance groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All in all, I wonder if studies of microfinance take these
linkages into account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, I haven’t
seen much written about these topics and obviously feel they deserve further
inquiry.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-72105166641070360442016-03-16T18:48:00.001-07:002018-08-15T15:11:48.385-07:00The White Man’s Burden: a slippery slope in international development practice<div class="MsoNormal">
When does an international development practitioner engage
in racist condescension?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>International development
work is chock full of people, especially white people, who enter the field out
of a desire to reduce poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently,
I passed by an advertisement for USAID depicting a white American working with
poor children in Africa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was well
intentioned, but my immediate response was to think of the famous Rudyard
Kipling poem, which starts as the following:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Take up the White
Man's burden, Send forth the best ye breed<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Go bind your sons to
exile, to serve your captives' need;<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
To wait in heavy
harness, On fluttered folk and wild—<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Your new-caught,
sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(The poem of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White
Man’s Burden </i>was used as the title of the famous book of William Easterly,
whose book made an important contribution but did not relate the development
industry to colonial history.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still today, the general public in the West exhibits a kind
of racism against much of the world where high poverty rates are found.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can be found in most characterizations
of Africa and South Asia that are presented in the media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is missing in this context is the history of colonialism,
a system that was arguably essential in establishing the standard of living
found in the West today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same system
led to countless deaths in the victim countries, as well as slavery and a
decimation or warping of local institutions, among other results. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still today, developing countries generally
struggle to make the resulting government, market, and social institutions work
(which I call the original sin of development, something for future posts).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the international development community, outright racism
is rare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One seldom hears of broad
generalizations about the inherent characteristics of a people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are elements of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White Man’s Burden</i> that I have
encountered in international development work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I would identify three particular areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->White
people who brag to their friends that they are helping the poor<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The picture of the white person surrounded by African
children exemplifies the bragging by development workers that they help the
poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This bothers me along several dimensions,
which requires a basic historical context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The West decimated local institutions and exploited the poor throughout
the world for centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, their
relatively privileged citizens are showing up in the countries to help the
poor, when the pretense for colonialism was similar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than bragging, the West has a
historical obligation to do something genuinely good, in order to begin to make
up for centuries of exploitation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other obvious criticisms arise as well, such as the lack of
acknowledgement of local partners and national staff who generally do most of
the work and get little of the credit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
white people try to position themselves in the front to get recognition, either
from their friends in the case of the photo, or in a professional environment, from
their managers who will promote them and from their funding agencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
example, I recently became familiar with a U.S.-based civil society association
who, when providing financing for local partners who have been working for decades,
either claimed that the association itself implemented the project, or stated
that they jointly implemented the work - even though the association only
provided a small fund recently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally,
the absurdity of the situation increases because most development agencies do
not adequately measure the impact of their work, which due to the short time
that the white development practitioners stay in the country, is usually a
temporary relief at best. Bragging about something so superficial seems ridiculous.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->White
people who dictate how things should be done in a developing country<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have personally witnessed, and heard of a number of cases,
where white development practitioners go into a government office and
effectively tell the official how to run their department.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same occurs occasionally but less
frequently in the NGO sector, where the international NGO worker tells local
staff how to do things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sometimes
astounded at the lack of diplomatic skills present among many staff.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The basis of the problem in this case is effectively the
money and the resulting power dynamics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Government officials and local NGOs desire outside financing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, they are willing to submit to
these demands in order to please the white people so that they will finance
projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are obviously the wrong
motives for undertaking any initiative, and usually lead to haphazard and
temporary implementation of the desired program or policy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->White
people who naively intervene –i.e. with little contextual knowledge and using
their own biases/ limited knowledge <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, it is easy to have opinions on how things should
be done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Experts” abound in the
international development field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
then you have to wonder what this expertise is built on, and whether it has
been contextually adapted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without
extensive time spent working in a developing country, along with a certain
street smarts, white people rarely have the contextual knowledge of what might
work. The lack of familiarity not only endangers the activities to be
undertaken, but may also make the dictates of the development practitioners
damaging if implemented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The source of
knowledge and the way to do things is often steeped in a technocratic vision of
the world, based on a bias of how organizations work that often doesn’t even
apply to their home countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Data,
plans, laws, instructions for local staff, regulations, and other
recommendations are often ineffective steps in an environment of strong
interests and institutional norms that resist them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve personally come across two common examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, in order to reform a government
institution, the government needs to pass a law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A foreign expert writes the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The government is then pressured, or
effectively bribed via a loan or grant, to pass that law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not surprisingly, the law is never
implemented.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, too often one hears
of the need for an organization to write a plan, which will then be used to
bring in funding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, an outside
expert is brought in to develop the plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The implementing organization then more or less ignores that plan after
receiving funding.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each of these three present-day concerns has ancient
historical roots, with damaging consequences throughout the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hope that international development
practitioners would learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
these mistakes still exist in the international development field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the very least, development practitioners
should study the basic history of colonialism, if only to realize their own
relationship to this history. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next question is, how can we prevent this behavior?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, real accountability only comes
from those who finance the organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is an asymmetry of information in these cases, and only imperfect
means of correcting this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The recipients
of project financing are unlikely to push back for fear of losing the money,
though an increased number of sources of project financing may help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The governments and donors that fund these
organizations are unlikely to detect these subtle styles, and probably don’t
recognize their importance. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
As a white person in development, I struggle with these
issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They give good reason for an
extreme position, that white people should just stay out of development
altogether.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or that white people should
simply support local efforts from a distance, and stay out of the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both of these approaches have their own risks,
such as denying important resources and naively throwing around cash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a rule of thumb, three individual
approaches seem reasonable: humility, diplomacy, and a deep contextual
knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A deep contextual knowledge
will help in tailoring initiatives to the local context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humility will prevent practitioners from
imposing themselves in a damaging way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And diplomacy will generate a network that will provide both knowledge
and the ability to influence things productively behind the scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, without systematic change in
how aid works, the recruitment process for international organizations seems to
be the best opportunity for minimizing the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White
Man’s Burden</i> approach to development.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-26230679136236715742016-03-16T18:47:00.001-07:002018-08-15T15:12:02.107-07:00And an Attempt to Define Governance<div class="MsoNormal">
Supposedly, I am an expert on governance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought I would share my thoughts on what
that vague term means for me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Governance work is so commonly mis-characterized that its
name should be changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Too often, the
corruption issue dominates governance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This prompts many international development program managers to avoid the
issue completely, because they think that by taking on governance they will
offend government, who make the same association.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, given the prevalence of corruption in
programs, the managers are afraid that by inviting a governance lens, they will
expose themselves to scrutiny that at the least represents a headache, if not a
potential for the discovery of corruption issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While most people agree that corruption – or
rather certain types of corruption - are a major impediment to development,
this strong association shifts attention away from numerous other organizational
issues.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My own definition of governance relates to the health of
organizations, particularly their efficiency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In other words, good governance is simply the organizational ability to
fulfill the organization’s mandate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
includes a variety of basic organizational factors: on the formal side, it is
an appropriate structure (decentralized vs. centralized), sufficient financing,
good recruitment processes and other human resource concerns, formal internal
and external accountability systems, etc.; on the informal side, it is productive
institutional norms, esprit de corps, and social pressures for performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This relates to all relevant organizations in
a society, obviously including the government, but also NGOs and other non-state
groups, whose governance is often neglected by international development
institutions.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In my view, governance work is defined by its focus on
improving these factors in a given organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is primarily distinguished from the central
focus of international development work, which is the delivery of stuff mainly to
citizens, whether money (scholarships), goods (nutrition supplements), or
infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result of the
relative disregard by international development practitioners for a variety of
organizational weaknesses at least partly translates into the continually poor
quality of services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, while
there are high praises for the increase in school enrollment found in many
developing countries, often due to the provision of scholarships, the quality
of education continues to be very poor in most developing countries (as well as
the USA).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A similar challenge arises in
work on justice, where there are numerous legal aid programs that contribute to
a case backlog due to the inefficiency of the courts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The incentives present in international
institutions contribute greatly to this state of affairs, a topic that will be
explored in future posts.<o:p></o:p></div>
Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-52959911976467368832016-03-16T18:44:00.002-07:002018-08-15T15:12:13.331-07:00An Attempt to Define International Development<br />
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Given this site is dedicated to ideas on international
development, I thought I would begin with a definition of international
development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even more than other career
areas, it is a field that is not easy to distinguish, whether conceptually or
professionally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is an
international element to it, obviously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And, while much ink has been spilt theorizing about the meaning of
‘development’, its essence can be divided along two dimensions: big ‘D’ and
little ‘d’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Big ‘D’ refers to ‘the great
transformation’ in which economic growth rates are sustained over a long period
of time, leading to major socio economic changes in a nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is mainly an intellectual focus of the
field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Generally, training is based on
the economic schools of thought, but various disciplines provide a diversity of
views on this process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Little ‘d’, which
is the center of most of the practice of international development, is an
improvement of the human condition, the areas of improvement being a matter of
intense debate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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It seems that everything under the sun is included in the
practice of international development, at least as involves the public.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One need only look at the current UN Sustainable
Development Goals to see the numerous topics that populate approaches to
international development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two of the
only exceptions are national defense and culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just about every other ministry in government
or type of NGO receives some form of support from international development
institutions, ranging from the police to politicians to groups of parents of
school children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Taking into account the lack of conceptual clarity, I would
argue that international development is moreso defined as a field that involves
the international intersection of certain institutions, i.e. government, NGOs
and international organizations (both bilateral and multilateral), along with
foundations and the private sector to some extent. Given that this is the only
definition that makes some sense to me, I remain skeptical of efforts to unite
the field under an intellectual rubric.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The one unifying topic that may make sense is the thinking behind big ‘D’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the hope is for research to be relevant to
current development institutions, whose focus on big ‘D’ is at best an
afterthought in their work, I would argue that international development
scholars should leave behind big ‘D’, and let the various relevant academic
disciplines focus on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Particular
fields that specialize in various sectors should take over little ‘D’, such as
schools of education and health, as this number is too great for any single
field to absorb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, the field needs
to focus on the practice of development, i.e. what the international
development institutions do and how one can be effective in influencing them
from the inside and outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this
reason, much of this blog will focus on the practice of international
development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6308202825085476895.post-82598017270767744492016-03-01T04:04:00.002-08:002016-03-01T04:04:14.998-08:00This is my first blog post...Jonathan Rosehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11693079408470968025noreply@blogger.com0