Institutional and Governance Review
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Publication
"Strengthening Performance Accountability in Honduras" : Institutional Governance Review : Executive Summary
(World Bank, 2009-03-09)Having achieved fundamental milestones in terms of representative democracy and institutional modernization, Honduras continues to face important challenges in its bid to provide public services with coverage and quality commensurate with the resources available to the country. Honduras has come a long way in its democratic development, with seven free elections held since 1981 and the military subordinated to civilian control. Since the 1980s, the country has undertaken key public sector management reforms and has all of the formal components of a modern democracy. However, its average rate of economic growth and its degree of progress in reducing poverty over the past two decades have been low relative to most other Latin American countries, at this growth rate, Honduras will reach the current income per capita of El Salvador ($2,530) in 2050. Efficiency of public spending continues to be very low compared to regional standards, and the capacity of the public administration insufficient for ensuring the minimum goal of universal coverage of basic services. A general conclusion, highlighted throughout the study, is the need to strengthen the country's accountability framework and in particular, the accountability of policymakers towards citizens and tax payers, and to focus the policy discussion on performance. -
Publication
"Strengthening Performance Accountability in Honduras" : Institutional Governance Review : Background Chapters
(World Bank, 2009-03-09)Having achieved fundamental milestones in terms of representative democracy and institutional modernization, Honduras continues to face important challenges in its bid to provide public services with coverage and quality commensurate with the resources available to the country. Honduras has come a long way in its democratic development, with seven free elections held since 1981 and the military subordinated to civilian control. Since the 1980s, the country has undertaken key public sector management reforms and has all of the formal components of a modern democracy. However, its average rate of economic growth and its degree of progress in reducing poverty over the past two decades have been low relative to most other Latin American countries, at this growth rate, Honduras will reach the current income per capita of El Salvador ($2,530) in 2050. Efficiency of public spending continues to be very low compared to regional standards, and the capacity of the public administration insufficient for ensuring the minimum goal of universal coverage of basic services. A general conclusion, highlighted throughout the study, is the need to strengthen the country's accountability framework and in particular, the accountability of policymakers towards citizens and tax payers, and to focus the policy discussion on performance. -
Publication
Mauritania : Anti-Corruption Study
(Washington, DC, 2008-09)This report provides analytic support to the National Anti-corruption Strategy (NACS) formulation, offers lessons from international experience on governance and anti-corruption (GAC) policy, and generally supports the Government and its development partners to better understand the phenomenon of corruption in Mauritania. The report is structured as follows: Chapter 2 focuses on the definition and measurement of corruption and the Mauritanian political economy. Chapter 3 focuses on corruption in public procurement. Chapter 4 concentrates on corruption in the courts of law. Chapter 5 deals with the extractive industries. Chapter 6 focuses on corruption from the perspective of the private sector, based on the results of the recent Investment Climate Assessment (ICA). On the basis of the analysis conducted in this report, the single most important message concerns the need for maintaining momentum and pressing ahead with the finalization of ongoing anti-corruption strategic thinking and legislation, and the implementation of already approved GAC laws and measures. Looking forward, the emphasis should shift from passing laws and rules to concrete implementation of procedures on a broader agenda of greater political accountability. Priority areas include: (1) independence of the media, (2) monitoring procedures (such as a governance diagnostic survey) and (3) the establishment of an effective mechanism through which the voice of citizens and users of public services can be heard. -
Publication
Nicaragua : Institutional and Governance Review
(Washington, DC, 2008-04)This document presents the main governance indicators for the country, as compiled by the World Bank Institute (WBI), and how are they used by international institutions in making decisions about assistance to Nicaragua. Although these indicators have weaknesses, they can provide a general indication of what are the priority areas for investigation. Accordingly, the present review concentrates on a few key areas where the Bank's expertise can add value and complement the efforts of other donors, including: (a) the regulatory system; (b) the system of property registries; and (c) two of the mechanisms for oversight and accountability of public sector performance (the Comptroller's Office and social accountability). The overall objective of the Institutional and Governance Review (IGR) is to examine the institutional and governance bottlenecks that stand in the way of more effective impact of key public policies, particularly poverty reduction policies. Since the report is limited in scope, the criteria to decide priority areas for review included: (a) issues that are of particular significance for better governance and institutionality; (b) issues that are particularly important in relation to poverty reduction; (c) issues where the Bank has a comparative advantage; and (d) issues where there would not be a duplication of effort with other donors or other studies undertaken by the Bank and where the IGR can add value. -
Publication
Chile: Toward a Cohesive and Well Governed National Innovation System
(Washington, DC, 2008)Chile is increasingly looking to innovation as a pillar of its competitiveness and an engine of growth to close the income gap with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) economies. The country has doubled its per capita income since the 1990s. The growth slowdown in the late 1990s and early 2000s, however, raised concerns about that the old sources of growth. While the rate of growth has picked up again, spurred by a favorable external environment, there is an increased awareness of the importance of innovation to growth and a desire to move toward a more diversified and knowledge-based economy, following the example of other successful resource-rich economies such as Australia and Finland. Higher government commitments to innovation have raised new challenges. The remaining of the report is structured as follows. Chapter two discusses the importance of innovation to Chile's economy and highlights the need to define innovation policy within a comprehensive framework that encompasses the entire production system. Chapter three organizes thinking around some basic governance principles for innovation systems drawing form the public governance literature, the broader innovation literature, and international experiences. Chapter four applies those principles to Chile's public institutions and agents that will be responsible for defining and implementing innovation policies. Chapter five examines the rationale and guiding principles of regional innovation policies and offers recommendations for Chile's regional innovation systems and their governance framework. Chapter six summarizes the main conclusions. -
Publication
Mongolia : Building the Skills for the New Economy
(Washington, DC, 2007-06)This report examines the challenges in the labor market in Mongolia as the economy has undergone a transformation into a market economy. It identifies three major interrelated challenges-joblessness, informality and skills mismatch. The inability to find productive employment has important poverty implications, as labor is the main asset of the poor. But along with the skills mismatch, they also affect efficiency, and thus economic growth, by preventing the economy from using the available human capital to its fullest potential. -
Publication
Republic of Belarus : Corruption Vulnerability Scan
(Washington, DC, 2007-05-23)The Corruption Vulnerability Scan (CVS) is an internal Bank document aimed at providing a better understanding on the Bank's vulnerability in extending assistance to Belarus, and making suggestions as to how to reduce risks in the use of Bank funds, while improving results on the ground. The CVS team visited Belarus in March 2007. Its main conclusion is that the vulnerability to corruption of Bank funds and activities funded from loan proceeds in Belarus is low, as long as Bank fiduciary procedures are used and implementation is closely supervised. The report is in three parts: Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Belarus, Public Finance Management and the Bank Portfolio. -
Publication
Democratic Governance in Mexico : Beyond State Capture and Social Polarization
(Washington, DC, 2007-03)Mexico is in the midst of a transition. The defeat of the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) in the 2000 presidential election marked a watershed, and with the repeated defeat of the PRI in the 2006 election, the era of the single?party dominance appears to be long gone. The demise of the one?party system may have been expected to usher in a new era where benefits of the government policies and economic development are more widely shared. But, such a change has yet to take place. Why not? At the same time, there is a strong perception that the pace of much?needed economic reforms slowed down under the new political arrangement. Why? This Institutional and Governance Review (IGR) addresses these crucial questions, and in so doing tries to offer some insights into how Mexico's democratic governance may be strengthened over time. Taking into consideration the evidence collected for this work, the study argues that Mexico is well positioned to start its second transition towards effective democratic governance in the country, but to do so will require addressing certain socio-political obstacles that continue to limit the full effects of democratic accountability. -
Publication
Ethiopia : Decentralization, Delivery and Accountability
(Washington, DC, 2006-06-30)One of the fruits of this partnership was the preparation of an unusually rich set of background papers, under the umbrella of a process-driven Institutional and Governance Review (IGR); this Analytical and Advisory work was skillfully designed to support the design and implementation of PSCAP. Some of the papers focused on policy; others provided qualitative assessments of the realities on the ground; yet others benchmarked different facets of the governance environment, as a basis for monitoring going forward. A comprehensive synthesis of these IGR papers (referenced in Part A of the bibliography) is neither necessary not desirable; they stand on their own terms. (Also: see the powerpoint overview in Appendix 1 of Ethiopia's decentralization experience prepared by the World Bank team which led the process.). The objectives of this IGR summary are more modest, namely to; Provide (following staff turnover in the World Bank team) an entry point of access to some of the rich materials which have been prepared under the IGR umbrella; draw on the materials (plus other background material on Ethiopia) to provide a qualitative, on-the-ground sense of the extent to which the 2002 reforms have transformed the local governance realities; highlight some of the important base-line benchmarking exercises which were completed under the IGR umbrella, and which provide a key basis for monitoring progress going forward ; and point to some ways in which benchmarking can support the broader objective of strengthening the accountability for performance of Ethiopia's government, in the context of the political realities prevailing in 2006. -
Publication
Improving Local Governance in Angola : Strengthening the Links between Decentralization and Community Driven Development - Case Studies
(Washington, DC, 2006-05)This study is the second phase of an analysis of local governance in Angola. The first phase aimed to identify factors enabling and constraining local governance, from the point of view of local government and of civil society. Phase one also identified opportunities for reinforcing state-citizen co-productive relationships. The second phase considers how current programs are dealing with the structural constraints and opportunities identified during phase one. The study aimed to be practice based and produce recommendations firmly based in local reality. The study is part of a three-country analysis by the World Bank, including the Philippines and Zambia, in addition to Angola. The three country studies followed the same questionnaire and gathered similar information to allow for comparative analysis. While the study highlights a variety of programs aimed at strengthening local government-civil society relationships, a note of caution is essential. Most of these programs are still in the relatively early stages and are continuing to identify the most effective approaches in overcoming constraints. Sustainability remains a live question for most and while the study tries to address this issue, further analysis will be required in the future.