Other Public Sector Study

335 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/2206

Items in this collection

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Bangladesh: Political Economy of Right to Information
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-04-30) Ahsan, Syed Khaled; Hasan, Sadik; Imran, Nadee Naboneeta
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.
Republic of India - eGovernance in the North East : Reducing Public Administration Constraints to Improve Service Delivery
(Washington, DC, 2014-06-02) World Bank
The Government of Assam (GoA) is engaged in a process of improving services to citizens. The focus on better services to citizens is in line with the National e-Government Plan (NeGP), with a number of existing and anticipated Union Acts, and with recently passed acts in Assam, especially the Assam Right to Public Services Act of 2012. The GoA is fully aware that progress on service delivery will require attention to both vertical and horizontal connectivity, and it intends to develop a Strategic Action Plan which focuses on these critical elements. The policy dialogue with the Government of Assam and review of relevant documents reveal general agreement on main public administration constraints (PAC's) to service delivery. The current report proposes a gradual reform approach, with a focus on searching for improvements that can be accomplished with a reasonable effort. The present report is structured as follows. Chapter two, 'Public Administration Constraints (PAC's)', provides a detailed diagnostic of constraints identified in Assam, groups those under five headings, and proposes actions to address each of the constraints. Chapter three, 'the way forward' proposes a process leading to the preparation and adoption by the Government of Assam of a strategic action plan to address to address selected PAC's.
Local Service Delivery in Nepal
(Washington, DC, 2014-06) World Bank
The effectiveness of public service delivery depends in large part on the capability, resources and inputs, and the motivation of frontline service providers at the local level. In Nepal a combination of de-concentrated line agencies and local bodies at the district, municipal, and village level provides inputs which are translated into delivery of service outputs and outcomes. Yet the relationships between line agencies and local bodies in service delivery are not well understood. The purpose of this report is to examine in detail the current dynamics of frontline service delivery to identify institutional limitations and present approaches to addressing them. This study seeks to map out the dynamics of service delivery at the local level through analysis of the institutional framework and actual practices in service delivery in 14 jurisdictions in the two districts of Dhankuta and Dhanusa. The study includes a detailed review of the provision of local roads networks and primary and lower secondary education. In this context, the report is divided into four parts: part one gives introduction; part two presents institutional framework for local service delivery; part three focuses on sub-national service delivery: local roads and primary education; and part four presents conclusions and recommendations to improve frontline service delivery.
Developing a Regulatory Framework for Municipal Borrowing in India
(World Bank, New Delhi, 2011-09) World Bank
This report provides an overview of the municipal debt market as it exists and has evolved over the past ten years. It provides an assessment of trends and patterns from both bank and bond sources covering all types of municipal governments. The overall objective of the work is to assess the regulatory environment pertaining to municipal borrowing in the country and to generate recommendations to improve this in a manner which expands municipal access to private debt finance while ensuring that risk is appropriately allocated and properly priced. More particularly, this report: 1) outlines the need and rationale for expanding access to credit finance on part of municipalities in India; 2) provides an overview of the existing municipal debt market; 3) provides an overview of the chief characteristics of the regulatory environment pertaining to municipal borrowing in India, places the existing regulatory system in international context, and outlines a suggested overall direction for reform; and 4) provides specific recommendations to improve the regulatory regimes over which the state and union governments have respective control.
Pakistan - Tax Policy Report : Tapping Tax Bases for Development - Full Report
(World Bank, 2009-07-01) World Bank
The main message of this report is that Pakistan can take measures to increase the tax to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio by around 3.5 percentage points over the next five years. In order to ensure a healthy long-run economic development, Pakistan needs to embrace substantial changes in tax policy aimed at increasing the buoyancy of the tax system, broadening the tax bases, reducing distortions and phasing out exemptions. Such tax reforms are also required to deal with the risks stemming from sustained large budget deficits. Failing to act sooner rather than later, only makes the problem more difficult to address without considerable instability, raises the probability of fiscal and financial disarray at some point in the future, and runs the risks of further constraining policy flexibility in future. This report highlights design ingredients for a comprehensive reform of tax policy in Pakistan. In the final analysis, the success of tax reform will depend less on the mechanism of taxation and more on the politics of taxation. Beyond adequate administrative resources and an implementation strategy, this will require a clear political recognition of the importance of the task and the willingness to persist with tax reform over the long haul.
Procurement Monitoring and Social Accountability: Curriculum Development Program
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009) World Bank
The devolution of procurement responsibilities to local levels of government is increasingly occurring across South Asia. This trend is significant because increasingly localized decision-making better enables communities to hold government authorities accountable for the effectiveness of public spending, which can lead to various improved development outcomes, such as improvements in quality of service delivery; greater empowerment and understanding by end-users services supplied through public procurement processes; and improved oversight and accountability of service delivery agencies. The objective of this report is to set out an overview of the strategic approach developed by World Bank Institute (WBI) as a component of the Norwegian governance trust fund (NTF) program `procurement and service delivery: establishing effective collaboration between government and beneficiaries on monitoring procurement outcomes`. WBI received funds under the NTF to facilitate the development of context and audience-specific knowledge products by recognized practitioners and civil society organizations in South Asia as part of a broader effort to create a practical curriculum on social accountability in procurement.