Other Public Sector Study
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Publication
Building SOE Crisis Management and Resilience: Emerging Practices and Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Crisis
(Washington, DC, 2021-09)This note is one of a series produced by the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice to help client countries address the impact of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on their economies and governance structures. Addressed to central governments and the management of individual state-owned enterprises (SOEs), this note analyses the implications of the COVID-19 crisis for the public sector and provides guidance on how governments and SOEs can use this crisis to build or strengthen their crisis response systems. Suggested measures involve calibrating risks and introducing proper risk management systems, ensuring business continuity and resilience in emergency situations, as well as supporting the ability of public enterprises to bounce back in the post-crisis environment. This note draws on existing World Bank analysis of emerging global trends in governments’ COVID-19 response measures as pertains to SOEs. It includes practical recommendations that can be considered for implementation by governments and by individual SOEs. In addition, the note lists examples of policy measures that can potentially be supported through the World Bank’s budget support operations. -
Publication
Chatbots for Third-Party Monitoring: CivicTech Pilot in Madagascar
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)Growing evidence confirms that citizen engagement is key to improving the delivery and quality of public services, management of public finances, and to promoting social inclusion, resulting in tangible improvements in people’s lives. The advent and availability of new technologies provide new opportunities to reach citizens, aggregate their ‘voice’ and demand, help governments respond, and partner with citizens to find and implement solutions collectively. With the right approach, CivicTech enables citizens to overcome income, social, and geographical barriers to interact with governments and participate at the local or national level. The CivicTech pilot in Madagascar supported the development of a Facebook ChatBot (bot) to enable third-party monitoring of service delivery operations for the Madagascar Public Sector Performance Project (PAPSP, P150116). A similar approach could be replicated for Community Driven Development (CDD) projects and local government and decentralized service delivery projects to achieve a multi-channel structure for third-party monitoring (offline, mobile, and web). The note documents the CivicTech pilot experience in Madagascar and lessons learned. -
Publication
Citizen Engagement in Operations: A Stock-Take of Citizen Engagement in Development Policy Financing
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)Guided by the 2014 Strategic Framework for Mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in World Bank Group Operations, the World Bank supports policies, programs, projects, and advisory services and analytics where citizen engagement (CE) can improve development results. While the corporate commitment to mainstream CE targets investment operations, the World Bank teams continue to explore CE in other instruments. Engaging Citizens for Better Development Results, a report by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), assessed the Bank Group’s efforts to mainstream CE. It recommends the World Bank “encourage and support efforts of its regional, country, and Global Practices teams to establish, where appropriate, thick CE that is regular and continuous, uses multiple tools, and is embedded in country systems.” It also suggests this objective could be achieved by more systematically using existing channels of dialogue and stakeholder engagement, including that of Development Policy Financing (DPF), and applying tools at the various levels. Given this context, this Governance Note aims to take stock of existing CE practice in DPF by shedding light on the prior action usage. -
Publication
Collaborative Social Accountability in Fragile Settings: Lessons from Guinea, Niger, and Tajikistan
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)The United Nations and World Bank jointly urge a shift away from managing crises toward prevention through inclusive and collective interventions (United Nations and World Bank 2018). Collaborative social accountability—a process where citizens and civil society actors engage with state actors in joint, iterative problem solving to improve service delivery, sector governance, and accountability—can make an important contribution to this goal. Citizen engagement, and within that social accountability, can potentially help to strengthen the social contract and build state legitimacy. A consensus is emerging among scholars that state legitimacy is enhanced not by service delivery alone but by the opportunities the process provides for citizens to interact positively with the state. Inclusive citizen engagement involving women, youth, and other traditionally excluded groups in decision-making is fundamental to sustaining peace. Formal and informal civil society organizations (CSOs) can play critical roles by representing citizen interests and preferences, enabling citizens to hold government to account, facilitating collaboration of citizens and state actors, and involving coalitions of stakeholders. Supported by the State and Peacebuilding Fund (SPF), the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) piloted collaborative social accountability approaches that bring together citizens, CSOs, and the state actors in Guinea, Niger, and Tajikistan from September 2018 to December 2019. This note aims to capture the activities and lessons learned as a resource for World Bank operations teams. -
Publication
Bangladesh: Political Economy of Right to Information
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-04-30)The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2009, was a milestone in the legal history of Bangladesh to ensure people’s right to obtain information from the government offices and other organizations. This act covers most bodies owned, controlled, or substantially financed either directly or indirectly by the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The act aims at giving citizens the right to hold the government accountable. In the 1990s, civil society advocated for the RTI Act as one of the best-fitted tools to establish good governance. The act was drafted by the government and civil society organizations (CSOs) together, following an analysis of a few other RTI Acts. A caretaker administration further cemented the path for the introduction of the RTI Act. The Council of Advisors of the caretaker administration approved the RTI Ordinance in September 2008, and it became formally recognized as a law from October 20, 2008. The democratically elected new government passed the RTI Act in March 2009, in the very first session of Parliament. The context of introducing a law for RTI in Bangladesh was different from that of India. The demand came from the grassroots level in India with a 40-day sit-in protest by a citizens’ rights body in 1996. In the case of Bangladesh, it came from Dhaka-based elites and lacked connection with the grassroots (Article 19 2015). The RTI Act, 2009, helps investigative journalism, but that is not the entire goal of this act. The goal is to empower citizens with information and make livelihoods easier for the ones who will otherwise have no means of getting answers from the state or other social actors. -
Publication
Subnational Governance and Conflict: The Merits of Subnational Governance as a Catalyst for Peace
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020)The potential for subnational governance to serve as a catalyst of peace has been widely recognized. It is reflected in the frequent inclusion of subnational governance arrangements in political settlements. The study seeks to analyze the merits and risks of subnational governance as a conflict mitigation mechanism within the framework of political settlement processes. This work is a contribution to the broader effort to close the knowledge gap on how development interventions can support the transition from war to peace. The findings are largely informed by in-depth analysis of seven case studies of countries where subnational governance arrangements have been applied and proposed as a tool for mitigating violent conflict. These include Kenya, the Philippines, Somalia, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yemen, and Mali. -
Publication
Bangladesh Right To Information Survey 2019
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020)The year 2019 marks the tenth year of the Right to Information (RTI) act enactment in Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has made good progress in implementing the RTI Act 2009 in the past decade. The RTI survey was conducted between January and March of 2019. The survey results reveal that the contribution of the RIT Act 2009 has overall been positive in the last decade. Especially, notable progress has taken place in making the supply side prepared in implementing the RTI Act. The survey will enable policymakers and RTI activists to identify and seal the pores and bring about the desired changes in perception, behavior, and actions of various stakeholders, including the citizens.