Political Economy: From Analysis to Action

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dr. Rosa Muraguri-Mwololo on November 29, 2009 at 12:40am

Dear Sina et al,
The Dakar case is in deed a mirror image of Nairobi a few years ago. The chaos described; the overloading, the bribes, the abuse of commuters by touts, smokey highly polluting ramshackles on the road, name it - was what we experience for years without any hope for better.

Today, Nairobi is different. I do not know exactly what happened- am sure that were powerful people who benefited from the chaos, and who owned half the public transport, but it took one powerful minister to put sanity in all the madness that was experienced in the city. High, fines for malpractices were put in place, smokey junks were removed from the roads, police caught in camera taking bribes were sacked, standard capacities were established for different types of transport, routes were established and the central business district was made a no-go zone for public transport apart from taxis etc. Drivers and touts were made to wear uniforms and charged a heavy fine when found without—and the public was highly sensitized about their rights- and started resisting overloading and reporting drivers who exceeded capacity, or simply refused to make room for extra passengers. There high parking charges for private cars as well to discourage congestion in the city--- so looking back at where Nairobi was 10 years ago- I see hope for Dakar.

But like I said- while we have tackled our transport system, the judicial system remains in disarray with cases taking more than 10 years to resolve on some extreme cases, resistance to computerize, corruption cases that remain unresolved with nobody ever getting charged. A system that has never put a powerful Kenya behind bars to demonstrate that the law is equal for all- and an Attorney General that has never prosecuted a single corruption case in his nearly 20 years that position. Kenyans have lost faith in the judiciary system. They know that all are not equal before the law- like in the Animal Farm, some are more equal than others. The system protects those with money- and power…

Sina- how do you move the judicial system when the gate keepers are so strong--?

Antonio Lambino said:

Hi, everyone. Thank you very much to those who have shared experiences and posted comments. It’s a pleasure to join your community in continuing this discussion!

Hi again, Tsegaye. As regards your questions on governance in the banking industry, we should probably leave it to the experts on corporate governance reform to comment and provide technical advice. Since our group focuses on the communication dimensions of governance and accountability, please allow us to restate the general approach being advocated in this discussion: should you wish to craft a communication strategy for a banking industry reform in the future, then it might be helpful to start with some form of political economy analysis of the sector, draw out the pathologies (which you’ve started doing as seen in your post), find out why these pathologies persist, and determine which issues might be amenable to communication-based interventions.

Hi, Bimerew and Minyahel. Thank you for sharing experiences from efforts to improve the transportation system in Ethiopia. It’s very timely that you discuss the roles and incentives of some of the major stakeholders in your country’s transport sector. For example, you mention the following: transportation service providers, such as taxi owners; people who need and use these services to get to work; civil servants; and political leaders. You will find that this type of analysis was also done to inform efforts to reform bus operations in Dhaka. After the team analyzed what the problems are and why they persist, they moved into defining how these issues might best be tackled.

The team used what they had learned from the political economy analysis to craft an action agenda. They realized that the pathologies in the sector can be addressed by promoting “the collective action capability of stakeholders… and to link them up in a pro-reform coalition…” The most important stakeholders identified were large bus company owners who “would welcome the increased revenue coming from reforms leading to less congestion, and would benefit from fair route allocations, while feeling confident that they could survive and prosper in a post-reform situation.” The team also thought that “reform-oriented owners and workers may in turn urge their associations/trade unions to promote integrity, non-partisanship in association activities, and more transparency in their functions and accountability to general members”.
Other stakeholders whose interests could be aligned with those of the bus company owners included the media, civil society, and bus commuters. They needed to be well organized and willing to fight the powerful vested interests of various government agencies, bus owners’ associations, and corrupt politicians who were benefitting from the dysfunctional system.

The matrix* below depicts key stakeholders and their likely positions as regards reform. It is divided into four quadrants, each quadrant a combination of two things: a stakeholder's high vs. low interest in the reform itself (horizontal axis) and high vs. low influence in reform processes (vertical axis). This matrix goes beyond a mere listing of stakeholders and their incentives by providing a clear picture of which stakeholders are likely members of pro- and anti-reform coalitions.

The following communication and advocacy efforts were also identified as critical to moving as many players to the high influence/high interest quadrant, thereby strengthening the pro-reform coalition:
- Lobbying to delink bus organizations from political parties.
- Pilot initiatives supported by information-education-communication activities.
- Countering false rumors with credible information.
- Urging investigative journalists to master basic technical knowledge of transport issues so they can keep
citizens better informed.

In terms of the general approach in this example, what do you think about doing political economy analysis to action in this way? Is it an operationally useful methodology? Is it respectful of local realities? Do any of the recommendations surprise you? Does it lend itself to setting out outputs and outcomes that are amenable to robust Monitoring & Evaluation efforts?

If you like, please start sketching out an action plan based on the sector you identified and analyzed, and share it with us and the AfCoP community. We look forward to reading it as well as your comments and suggestions!

*Taken from Operationalizing Political Economy: Urban Bus Operations in Dhaka, South Asia Political Economy and Governance Issues Note No. 1

Permalink Reply by Antonio Lambino on November 30, 2009 at 8:04pm

Thanks, Bimerew and Rosa for responding to the latest post.

Bimerew, to the point you raise regarding the Bus Owners Association, I think the fact-finding and analysis that went into understanding the bus sector revealed a number of things that may have seemed counter-intuitive at the outset (please see "The Why" section of the Oct. 30 posting). That's one of the great things regarding this political economy analysis to action approach: it's a practical tool that, if done well, can help reformers guard against what may be misinformed assumptions.

Rosa, thank you for sharing the developments in Nairobi's transport sector. It is noteworthy that the experience you describe is a combination of elite action, bureaucratic reform, and public support and mobilization. In fact, in studying successful reforms from around the world, we have found that some combination of political will, organizational will, and public will is often a critical factor of success and sustainability. Regarding the juducial sector (or maybe any sector, for that matter), I was wondering whether adapting the analysis to action approach might be helpful? Perhaps with a little tweaking, you might find not-so-obvious ways of moving forward through the "what, why, and how" method.

And to all the members of the CoP-MfDR-Africa, thank you for allowing us to join your community for the past month. It was a pleasure to share experiences and exchange ideas on the potential uses of political economy analysis in the real world, which we think is what should ultimately matter.

Thanks again and best of luck on all your endeavors!

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