By Rebecca Haines In the development community, we typically interpret a government pushing for greater decentralisation as a positive step for governance reform and an opening for greater citizen participation and voice. Donors invest considerable funds in supporting the decentralisation processes of global governments, and NGOs focus energy and resources on preparing citizens to influence …
Continue reading Divide and Conquer: Citizen Voice without Contested Politics
From Australia and Canada’s decision to integrate their development agencies, to the resurgence of nationalism in the UK and US and the flat-lining of public support for aid (see below graph from IDS) – major bilateral donors are increasingly bringing aid closer to the heart of government operations. As a result, the ‘old’ aid policy …
Continue reading Governance, Foreign Policy and Populism – All the Fun things
By Anar Ulikpan This blog is a response to the post entitled "What is this Governance Thing Anyway?" In very simple and broad terms, governance is a process through which public/community goods and services are coordinated to serve its peoples’ best interests in an equitable and fair manner. Countries with ‘good’ governance are expected to have …
The fourth meeting of the ‘Doing Development Differently’ movement (as one of its founders, Michael Woolcock, calls it) was held over two days in Jakarta a couple of weeks ago. Jointly hosted by the Government of Indonesia, the World Bank and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the workshop attracted over 200 participants from …
So, here’s our take – but what’s your view? What is this ‘governance’ thing anyway and what does it mean to you?
The first blog post will tackle the complex question of ‘what is this governance thing anyway?’ I remain surprised how many times I am asked this question. I suppose it’s like most things; if you know which English King was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine, then question is pretty easy. If you don’t it’s tricky.
In 1926, John Maynard Keynes said that “everything is politics, nothing is policies”. Has the World Bank discovered this truth for itself? What does the 2017 World Development Report say about governance, politics and power? Its very title – Governance and the Law – tries its best to put us off. It sounds more like a learned journal written by be-wigged barristers than one in a series of the most important development publication to emerge every year.
Governance and Development Soapbox 