2014年-世界发展银行全球_Can_Civil_Society_Overcome_Government_Failure_in_Africa__28页_498kb

Summary of "Can Civil Society Overcome Government Failure in Africa?"

Core Content

This paper explores the potential of civil society to address government failures in Africa, defined as accountability failures in the chain of public service delivery. These failures include teacher absenteeism, leakage of public funds, monopolized trucking, and employment-restricting regulations, which are often attributed to weak political incentives and clientelism. The authors argue that civil society should focus on improving government functioning rather than bypassing or replacing the state.

Main Points

• Government failures are widespread in Africa, with examples including:

  • Teachers in Uganda absent 20% of the time.
  • Only 1% of non-salary expenditures in Chad reach primary health clinics.
  • 60% of fertilizer subsidies in Tanzania are captured by politically powerful groups.

• These failures stem from accountability breakdowns in the long route of accountability, which involves:

  • Citizens' preferences and needs.
  • The political process.
  • State institutions and actors (bureaucrats, service providers, regulators).

• Civil society can play a role in improving state accountability, but its effectiveness depends on:

  • Whether it addresses political incentives.
  • Whether it influences state behavior rather than just private behavior.

• Political economy is central to understanding government failure:

  • Elite rent sharing and clientelism are common, with benefits targeted to specific groups.
  • Identity-based politics (ethnic, religious, regional) often reinforce clientelism.
  • Institutionalized inequality and weak bureaucratic systems hinder the delivery of public goods.

• Civil society interventions are more likely to be successful if they:

  • Focus on mechanisms that reduce government failure.
  • Are organic and experimental, adapting to local contexts and being evaluated rigorously.

Key Evidence and Findings

• Political contestation and citizen engagement are increasing in Africa, as shown by:

  • The Polity IV classification indicating a shift from autocracy to democracy.
  • Afrobarometer data showing high levels of citizen participation in group activities and willingness to protest.

• Client power interventions (e.g., citizen report cards) have shown positive impacts in some cases:

  • In Uganda, such interventions led to improvements in health services and outcomes.
  • However, the mechanisms behind these impacts are unclear—it is not known whether they improved government performance or increased private contributions.

• Ethnic homogeneity and economic equality in communities are associated with better outcomes from civil society interventions:

  • In Uganda, health user management committees showed more turnover in response to citizen campaigns.
  • Wealth inequality and ethnic diversity can hinder collective action and the effectiveness of civil society efforts.

Implications for External Donors

• Donor support for civil society should be:

  • Organic: Aim to change existing political and societal structures rather than impose external models.
  • Experimental: Based on rigorous, data-driven evaluations to understand the mechanisms of impact.

• Donors should:

  • Encourage innovative and adaptive strategies.
  • Support mechanisms that improve political incentives for accountability.
  • Avoid interventions that merely increase citizen burden without addressing systemic government failures.

Conclusion

• There is a strong case for a strengthened role of civil society in improving state accountability in Africa.
• However, strategies must be context-sensitive, focusing on mechanisms that reduce government failure.
• Rigorous evaluation and experimentation are essential to determine what works, where, and how.
• Civil society can lead to incremental and possibly transformational change, but only if it is aligned with local political dynamics and institutional structures.

Key Takeaways

• Government failures are not just administrative but are rooted in political incentives and clientelism.
• Civil society can improve public service delivery if it addresses accountability relationships.
• Donor support should be targeted and experimental, not just ideological.
• Citizen participation is widespread, but it is often distorted by ethnic and sectional interests.
• Success depends on local conditions, including ethnic homogeneity and economic equality.