Comments on: How can aid agencies promote local governance and accountability? Lessons from five countries.

By: Tord Steiro

Tord Steiro — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:03:08 +0000

I look forward to the studies. Governance, or ‘institutions’ are a tricky issue on which we do have some recent research that has been popularized to the general practitioner (like Acemoglu and Robinsons ‘Why Nations Fail’).

The weakness of most of the recent literature is that is holds a macro-perspective on the issue, and don’t tackle local conditions and practical advice.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:06:50 +0000

I have only looked at the Tz case study. It would be interesting to know what it cost. Power is challenged and change made to happen by Tz organisations too. It would be interesting to see what was the added value of Oxfam and if it was worth the cost.

In my experience, having designed and managed programmes of that nature, the cost benefit ratio is rarely attractive.

By: Gaddeswarup

Gaddeswarup — Thu, 31 May 2012 22:11:04 +0000

On a recent trip to India, I came across the concept of ‘social audit’ which seems to be working well in some areas like Andhra Pradesh. What gives teeth to it seems to be RTI act 2005
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45982857/Social-Audit-Manual-by-Nird
Would like to see your comments on it. Thanks

By: Bonnie Koenig

Bonnie Koenig — Thu, 31 May 2012 17:12:43 +0000

The study and discussion of governance has historically focused on formal structure and interactions, not the equally important informal ones. It’s good to see increased attention to the informal. And I loved the use of the concept of ‘serendipity’ in the last quote. Was discussing recently – are there ways we can strategically create conditions for positive serendipity to happen?

By: Mtega

Mtega — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:21:12 +0000

I agree with Paul, at least in the sense that challenging power relations is a zero-sum game that can face firm resistance by those who stand to lose out. This is not easy, and the temptation will always be strong to take the easy way out by focussing on technocratic / administrative processes rather than power and politics.

One of the best levers to challenge local power relations, in my experience, is local media. The media carries much more weight than most civil society initiatives, which tend to be only weakly rooted in the community. It also reflects how decisions are actually made – i.e. “outside the room”, based on political influences – better than efforts to improve participation in formal planning processes.

By: Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:46:53 +0000

Good topic at the right time. THanks. Will read studies with interest. Looking at the language in the chart,] and your blog, is there still some discomfort?

Certain types of power are zero sum game–who gets to decide how a budgetary dollar gets spent–and we aren’t going to redistribute power from elites to the marginalized unless we can talk in sophisticated and explicit ways around how to confront and ultimately disempower the powerful. We need to get better at using disruptive language and ideas, while protecting our own and our allies. .