Investigating 'pockets of effectiveness' in developing countries: a new route to building state capacity for development

实现减贫的一个主要挑战是，各国缺乏实现发展的能力，特别是在非洲。然而，“有效性的口袋”（PoE）提供了重要的线索，关于如何发展形式的国家能力可能会出现，并在困难的情况下持续。PoE是在不规范的情况下有效运作的公共组织，历史表明它们对全球南方的发展型国家的成功至关重要。这方面的例子包括：国家银行能够维持宏观经济稳定，为有利于穷人的增长创造条件;监管机构能够有效管理关键的发展资源;以及能够提供基本社会服务的政策执行单位，所有这些都是改善非洲穷人生活的核心。最近对PoE的研究表明，（如政治背景）和内部因素（如组织领导）塑造其业绩。然而，这一新兴的治理研究子领域缺乏比较研究，无法系统地确定在不同的背景和部门中，工作场所如何出现和维持，以及国内和国际行为体在这方面可以发挥的作用。这一缺失排除了发展一种关于PoE如何出现和持续的变化理论以及产生超出具体案例的政策建议。因此，主要目标是：（a）对在不同背景下和不同部门内出现和维持专业和企业的体制和政治条件进行比较分析（B）确定国内和国际行为者在发展和维持专业和企业方面的作用（c）直接为政府和发展机构支持非洲专业和企业的努力提供信息并加以改进，（d）加强非洲早期职业研究人员进行治理研究和政策参与的能力，该项目将采用“政治解决”办法，了解与减贫有关的政治和体制条件，并直接探讨国内和国际行为者可以做些什么来促进这些条件。政治解决方案分析的重点是如何正式和非正式形式的政治和权力关系塑造公共组织的表现。不同类型的政治解决为精英行为者投资于建立有效的发展机构提供了不同类型的激励和机会。我们将在两个“竞争性客户”类型（加纳，赞比亚）和两个“主导”类型（卢旺达和乌干达）内对PoE进行比较定性调查。将在每种情况下调查经济发展、监管和社会供应中涉及的PoE。这一设计将大大提高我们的政策相关的调查结果和理论发展的生成。PI和Co-I在指导和开展非洲比较研究方面拥有丰富的经验，并将积极加强参与其中的早期职业非洲研究人员的能力。PI在与这个特定团队合作方面有着非常富有成效的记录。我们的政策参与和吸收工作的创新方案将得到曼彻斯特高能力团队的进一步支持，并利用自2005年以来通过PI在国际研究中心的领导作用建立的网络。研究小组已经与一些相关的PoEs的主要官员以及国际发展机构的治理顾问建立了良好的关系。这为确保主要利益攸关方从一开始就参与项目并向项目提供信息提供了坚实的基础，并确保将调查结果直接传达给参与促进非洲国家减贫能力的主要行为者。

A major challenge for achieving poverty reduction is that the capacity of states to deliver development is in short supply, particularly in Africa. However, 'pockets of effectiveness' (PoEs) offer important clues concerning how developmental forms of state capacity might emerge and be sustained in difficult contexts. PoEs are public organisations that function effectively where this is not the norm, with history suggesting that they have proved critical to developmental state success in the global south. Examples include national banks that can maintain macroeconomic stability and establish the conditions for pro-poor growth; regulatory agencies that can effectively govern key development resources; and policy delivery units capable of providing basic social services, all of which are central to improving the lives of poor people in Africa.Recent research on PoEs has suggested that both external (e.g. political context) and internal factors (e.g. organisational leadership) shape their performance. However, this emerging subfield of governance research lacks a comparative study which systematically identifies how PoEs emerge and are sustained in different contexts and sectors, and the role that domestic and international actors can play in this. This absence has ruled out developing a theory of change concerning how PoEs emerge and are sustained and the generation of policy recommendations beyond specific cases. The key objectives are therefore to: (a) Undertake a comparative analysis of the institutional and political conditions through which PoEs emerge and are sustained in different contexts and within different sectors(b) Identify the role that domestic and international actors play in developing and sustaining PoEs (c) Directly inform and improve efforts by governments and development agencies to support PoEs in Africa, and developmental governance more broadly (d) Strengthen the capacity of early-career African researchers to undertake governance research and policy engagement.The project will employ a 'political settlements' approach to understanding the political and institutional conditions associated with poverty reduction, and directly explore what domestic and international actors can do to promote these conditions. Political settlements analysis focuses on how formal and informal forms of politics and power relations shape the performance of public organisations. Different kinds of political settlement offer different kinds of incentives and opportunities for elite actors to invest in building effective developmental institutions. We will undertake comparative qualitative investigations into PoEs within two 'competitive clientelistic' types (Ghana, Zambia) and two 'dominant' types (Rwanda and Uganda). A PoE involved in each of economic development, regulation and social provisioning will be investigated in each context. This design will significantly enhance our generation of policy relevant findings and also theory-development.The PI and Co-I have extensive experience of directing and undertaking comparative research in Africa, and will actively strengthen the capacity of the early-career African researchers involved here. The PI has a very productive track record of working with this particular team. Our innovative programme of policy engagement and uptake work will be further supported by a high-capacity team at Manchester and the use of networks established through the PI's leading role in international research centres since 2005. The research team already has good relationships with leading officials within some of the PoEs involved and with governance advisors within international development agencies. This provides a strong basis for ensuring that key stakeholders are enrolled into and inform the project from the outset, and that the findings will be channelled directly to the key actors involved in promoting poverty-reducing forms of state capacity in Africa.