Varieties of Governance: Effective Public Service Delivery

Image: Theen Moy/Flickr

Project Overview

• Develop better understanding of the way in which different aspects of governance such as decentralization, citizen’s participation, regulations and modes of delivery influence service delivery outcomes, in particular quality and equity

• Support the use of mixed method techniques (quantitative and

qualitative) and surveys when needed to complement available data to develop more nuanced studies

• Adopt a comparative approach for analysis of service delivery models

and forms of governance across countries, across sector and/or over time.

OBJECTIVES

Sectors: Basic Education, Water Supply and Roads.

16 multi-disciplinary research teams; 30 countries covered

Funded and supported by DFAT, DFID, French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, IDB, IDRC, OSI, PASGR and WB. Implemented in partnership with PASGR, IDB and OSI.

Scope

Conceptual Framework

Conceptual Framework (WDR Expanded)

Accountability - unravelling long and short routes

Adding important actors to the WDR framework which focused only on providers, bureaucrats, and citizens (principal – agent)

State and non-state actors – different incentives

Complex and messy, overlapping mandates and/or divergent interests

Informal institutions – entrenched values and norms, path dependency

Image: Mike Wren/Flickr

Conceptual Framework

Principals and Agents

3 Major Lessons on Effective Accountability in Service Delivery

Political culture and legacy are deep determinants of accountability

Path dependency of accountability culture; very slow and gradual process Change in political culture required to have appropriate incentives and accountability mechanisms in place

Adequate information flows: more than a necessary condition Information (comparable, timely and shared) promotes enforceability, choice and accountability Major determinant of quality of citizen participation Active and independent media can act as a complementary channel of information and oversight

Alternative financing avenues have effect on accountability Direct payment for services enhances accountability and performance Payment for services through local taxes as opposed to transfers (fiscal accountability) enhances accountability and performance in service delivery Non-payment for services (highly subsidized provision) may lead to inefficient provision as well as over-investment in infrastructure

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Country Findings

Decentralization and Citizen Participation

Colombia Political competition and fiscal autonomy leads to better local fiscal capacity of municipalities, leading to better match between resources and responsiveness. Higher responsiveness entails a greater efficiency of local spending, bringing about positive outcomes in the education and water sectors.

Read Working Paper: Decentralization, Fiscal Effort and Social Progress in Colombia at the Municipal Level, 1994-2009: Why Does National Politics Matter?

Image: Pedro Szekely/ Flickr

Indonesia Increased decentralization and (non-state financed) local elections, increase incentives for local corruption. However, combination of democratization, free media, ad-hoc anti-corruption agency and well-educated bureaucrats hold corruption in check and ensure a better quality of roads delivered by local bodies.

Read Paper: Decentralization, Local Democracy and the Effectiveness of Public Service Delivery: The Case of Roads in Indonesia

Image: César GonzálezPalomo/Flickr

India Women’s mandated political agency in rural local governance leads to higher participation of citizens in service delivery, larger share of expenditure incurred on education and water, reduced time required to fetch water and improved oversight of education.

Read Working Paper: Access to Water, Time Allocation and Income in Rural India

Image: Poh Si/GDN

Read Paper: Does Participatory Budgeting have an Effect on the Quality of Public Services? The Case of Peru’s Water and Sanitation Sector

Image: whirlpics/Flickr

Peru Participatory budgeting does not have significant impact on quality and coverage of water services, although it has been effective in channelizing investment at the local level to “pro-poor” projects. However, larger political participation by women, captured through percentage share of voting, has a positive impact on the quality and continuity of water services. Need education and empowerment of CSOs.

Philippines CSO participation impact on local government unit (LGU) spending in basic education is statistically insignificant. However, ability of LGUs to generate own revenues and proneness to natural calamity are positively and significantly related to education spending while achievements of students in National Achievement Test (NAT) holds inverse relationship. The study attributes its counter-intuitive findings to limited decentralization and the fact that participation by CSOs is still mostly procedural and verges on “tokenism”.

Read Working Paper: Civil Society Participation and Education Spending of Philippine Cities

Image: LauterGold/Flickr

Country Findings

Institutional Arrangements

Uruguay and Chile Increase in the degree of school autonomy, especially over resource allocation, can lead to an improvement in educational outcomes. Accountability in schools, ensured through publication of results, leads to improved completion rates and better test results, especially for students from the lowest socio-economic stratum. These aspects explain larger improvements in Chile as compared to Uruguay

Read Working Paper: Public Service Delivery in Basic Education: Institutional Arrangements, Governance and School Results in Chile and Uruguay

Image: Phani Kumar/Flickr

Uganda Contracting out provision of social services to non-government actors does not necessarily lead to better outcomes. This holds true, especially in cases where citizens have limited ability to use the political processes to articulate their demand, given that the boundaries of power are often blurred and mechanisms for handling grievances are not in place.

Read Paper: Assessing Governance Aspects in the Water and Roads Sectors in Uganda

Image: Matt Lucht/Flickr

South-Eastern Europe Study spanning 7 countries in Southern and Eastern Europe, looks into Quality Assurance Systems (QAS) in education. The study finds that lower performance of students in some countries in the region can be attributed to a lack of accountability culture and inadequate information flows between beneficiaries, service providers and regulators.

Read Paper: Quality Assurance in Basic Education in South Eastern Europe: What Works in Our Region?

Image: Johann Dréo/Flickr

Burkina Faso Quasi-market methods of management and formalisation of contracts between stakeholders of water management and service delivery bring water-users closer to service providers and thereby result in improved functionality of facilities and shorter waiting time at water points. Interestingly, although political composition of municipal council does not have significant impact on water services delivery, participation of women in municipal councils has significant impact.

Read Paper: Gouvernance du service public de l’eau et performance en matière d’approvisionnement en eau potable au Burkina Faso

Image: CIFOR/Flickr

Find out more Go to Slideshare to find a

copy of this powerpoint with all the links

Book: Available via Amazon and Palgrave

Varieties of Governance: Improving Public Service

Delivery webpage

Pierre Jacquet’s articles in Le Monde:

GDN Working Paper Series

www.gdn.int

Colombia

Peru

South Eastern Europe

IDB Working Paper

Colombia

Peru