Recurring Errors in Public Policy and Major Development Projects: Contributions and Solutions from Evaluation (Commentary)
Public Policies are only as good as the available finances to implement and enforce them. This then requires a viable tax base to support the civil services. Unfortunately, too often the host country does not have the necessary tax base. This is what I refer to as a financially suppressed economy. That is an economy serving a mostly impoverished society in which up to 80% of all income or production must be spent on a meager diet to feed the population. This leaves so little discretionary funds that can be taxed. No taxes, no services!! This leaves most host governments financially stalled, barely able to meet their salary and fringe benefit obligations for the civil officers with virtually no operational funds to implement programs or support policies. Thus, most public policies are paper polices, show a governments’ good intentions, and perhaps appease donors interested in providing financial assistance and funding development projects.
The result is:
that the data going into policy decisions might be of limited quality, in proportion to the budget allowance to collect it. This was elaborated on in a previous submission to this forum.
The service proclaimed as provided maybe highly compromised by relying on the honor/gratuity/baksheesh system. As appears to be the case for certified seed in Kano, Nigeria.
One must be very careful in building a technical capacity that can not be operationally supported with adequately supported financially. This can be a major disservice to the intended beneficiaries and possible the general public. While not meeting certified seed quality standards may not be particularly deferential, claiming a food safety program based mainly on the honor/gratuity/baksheesh system can easily result in contaminated food getting into the supply chain, resulting in multiple sickness and even death. Better to have no system than a misleading system to prevent people becoming over confident in the food safety and avoiding taking personal caution in preparing food.
There may not be much you can do about this other than be aware that it can and mostly likely is occurring. Also, it might be better to minimize the involvement of host governments in projects as the marginally paid civil officers are usually looking for some informal (politely avoiding the horrible “C” word) opportunities from within the project and can be more a hinderance than an assistance to project implementation. Unfortunately, too often the informal income is a financial necessity for civil officers to obtain any reasonable professional live style.
RE: Recurring errors in public policies and major projects: contributions and solutions from evaluation
Recurring Errors in Public Policy and Major Development Projects: Contributions and Solutions from Evaluation (Commentary)
Public Policies are only as good as the available finances to implement and enforce them. This then requires a viable tax base to support the civil services. Unfortunately, too often the host country does not have the necessary tax base. This is what I refer to as a financially suppressed economy. That is an economy serving a mostly impoverished society in which up to 80% of all income or production must be spent on a meager diet to feed the population. This leaves so little discretionary funds that can be taxed. No taxes, no services!! This leaves most host governments financially stalled, barely able to meet their salary and fringe benefit obligations for the civil officers with virtually no operational funds to implement programs or support policies. Thus, most public policies are paper polices, show a governments’ good intentions, and perhaps appease donors interested in providing financial assistance and funding development projects.
The result is:
One must be very careful in building a technical capacity that can not be operationally supported with adequately supported financially. This can be a major disservice to the intended beneficiaries and possible the general public. While not meeting certified seed quality standards may not be particularly deferential, claiming a food safety program based mainly on the honor/gratuity/baksheesh system can easily result in contaminated food getting into the supply chain, resulting in multiple sickness and even death. Better to have no system than a misleading system to prevent people becoming over confident in the food safety and avoiding taking personal caution in preparing food.
There may not be much you can do about this other than be aware that it can and mostly likely is occurring. Also, it might be better to minimize the involvement of host governments in projects as the marginally paid civil officers are usually looking for some informal (politely avoiding the horrible “C” word) opportunities from within the project and can be more a hinderance than an assistance to project implementation. Unfortunately, too often the informal income is a financial necessity for civil officers to obtain any reasonable professional live style.
Please review the following webpages from the https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/ :
https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-suppressed-economy-2/
https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-stalled-governments/
https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/impact-of-financially-stalled-government-limited-variety-improvement-seed-certification/
https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/informal-income-opportunities-seed-fertilizer-voucher-program-of-afghanistan/
Thank you,
Dick Tinsley
Colorado State University