Transcript Capacity Development at the World Bank Some thoughts from the

Capacity Development
at the World Bank
Some thoughts from the
Bank Task Force on CD in Africa
Mark Nelson, World Bank Institute
Member of World Bank Task Force on
Capacity Development in Africa
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Why the taskforce?
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Set up in response to demand by World Bank President and
Executive Directors
Not a typical World Bank report: Focus on wider body of
capacity development work—by the Bank, other donors and
African countries
Strong push to extract lessons of good practice wherever
they were found and pushing the frontiers of knowledge
Importance of building consensus on the findings,
particularly in Africa
Need to reach a diverse audience: Africa and international
community, and within that, the World Bank—part of a
larger global effort
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Our approach
We have learned from diverse sources:
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Exhaustive literature review: 150 studies and reports
14 case studies
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Desk reviews of Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi,
Mauritius, Mozambique, and Uganda
In-depth field studies of Botswana, Burkina, Rwanda, Tanzania,
Malaysia and Sri Lanka (the last two for comparison)
Six thematic and sectoral reviews: Public financial management;
public service reform; health; local governance and
decentralization; Regional bodies; Rapid results approaches
World Bank review: capacity development portfolio
Consultations: African institutions and intellectuals
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1. Why capacity development
and why now?
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Capacity: Critical for growth & MDGs
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Africa lags other regions in growth, human
development, MDGs
Evidence suggests that capacity—skills, incentives,
resources, organizational systems, and the rules of
the game—matters
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The capacity of individuals, organizations and institutions to set
goals and achieve them
The capacity to budget resources and use them for agreed
purposes
The capacity to manage the complex processes and
interactions of a working economic and political system
The challenge is to unleash, nurture and retain capacity and
create a political environment that encourages
participation, excellence, learning and innovation….
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Capacity is the missing link
Over the past 15 years…
 Macroeconomic stability
has returned to most
countries
 Social and structural
policies have improved
 Significant improvements in
governance and political
environments
But capacity remains an
enduring challenge
 Skills: availability, utilization
and retention
 Organizational effectiveness
 Institutional framework
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Why Capacity Now?
Africans are setting the pace
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PRSs, peer review and stronger country ownership
offer new opportunities for capacity development
Progressive liberalization raises new demands for
better governance, better services, decentralization,
and regional engagement to preserve peace and
security
Partners put Africa and capacity at center stage
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G8: New resources along with good governance
UK Commission and UN Millennium Project
Africa urgently requires new capacities to
govern more complex and open societies…..
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2. Key lessons from
the report
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Capable states and engaged societies
are critical to achieving results
Effective states…
Engaged societies…
 Deliver
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public goods and
services
 Provide an enabling
environment for growth
and development
 Ensure peace and
security
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Participate in public
decision-making
Contribute to provision
of public goods and
services
Hold authorities
accountable
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Effective states and engaged societies
are needed to achieve development goals
END
GOALS
Growth, poverty
reduction, peace,
empowerment
CAPACITY OUTCOMES
Effective state:
Public goods and
services
Engaged society:
Participation,
accountability
CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES
Skills, professionalism
Performance, incentives
Good governance
Capable social actors
Information / access
Open policy / space
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Capacity development is largely
a governance challenge
 Earlier
technocratic approaches to CD tended to
ignore link between good governance and policy
environment, on one hand, and capacity
development and its effective use, on the other
 Capacity
takes root where incentives are favorable,
dwindles where incentives are perverse
Capacity development means promoting effective
states that are responsive and accountable to
engaged societies….
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Capacity development requires
different paths in different contexts
 Approaches
will vary from country to country
depending on:
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Existing capacity
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Political and administrative leadership
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Extent of societal engagement in decision making
 Countries
make the choices of appropriate paths
State effectiveness
and sequencing
High
High
c
a
Low
No ‘one size fits all’…..
Societal
engagement
Low
d
b
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…but good practices can be
learned and scaled up
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Public service reform
Public financial management
Decentralization
Improving the investment climate
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New opportunities, mutual
responsibilities
African countries
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Take the lead in CD and aid
management
Focus on unleashing, nurturing
and retaining existing capacity
along with better use of local
talent and engagement of the
Diaspora
Place priority on country
capacity to develop capacity:
local institutions
Develop robust monitoring and
evaluation with a focus on
results
External partners
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Avoid capacity-draining
practices like project
implementation units and
excessive use of external
consultants
Deliver a higher and more
predictable level of support to
well designed capacity
development initiatives
Adapt CD interventions to
diverse country circumstances
Accept mutual accountability
and independent monitoring
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What should be expected of
African countries?
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Defining capacity development as core objective of
homegrown strategies
Frank diagnosis, including governance constraints,
and open review processes
Prioritized action with entry points and trajectories
explicitly identified
Leading aid coordination and alignment of donor
support
Emphasis on knowledge networks, regional bodies,
and peer learning through NEPAD
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What should be expected of
international partners?
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Respect and give space to African leadership
Implement Paris Declaration with emphasis on CD
Support new areas of capacity development
Improve analysis and advice on capacity issues
Make aid modalities more capacity sensitive
Focus on results
Be prepared to finance scaling up
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3. Walking the talk at the
World Bank
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Walking the talk: How the Bank
should update its approach (1)
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A stronger country focus for capacity development in Country Assistance
Strategies (CAS) and appropriate monitoring frameworks
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Doing more on the demand side
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Opening up Bank diagnostic processes (e.g. PERs) to social actors and partners
Support transparency and access to performance information (e.g. budgets)
Strengthening formal institutions of accountability (e.g. audit agencies)
Supporting capacity of social actors to participate
Doing business differently
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Maximum use of country systems
Pooling technical assistance and redirecting TA towards capacity development
Greater reliance on programmatic instruments
Financing of recurrent expenditures, e.g., to allow support of pay reform
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Walking the talk: How the Bank
should update its approach (2)
Support “knowledge institutions” and skills
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Support science and technology
Tertiary education
Fund more regional and sub-regional initiatives
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Capacity for delivery of regional public goods
Peer learning and review initiatives
Develop vertical instruments for grant funding through African intermediaries
Strengthen the results focus of capacity development work
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Further innovation in the benchmarking of capacity development
Greater investment in country M&E systems
More independent monitoring of performance of all partners
Provide strong management leadership within the Bank
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Focal points for coordination in capacity development
Improve staff skills and incentives
Strengthen knowledge management and learning
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Capacity: What is it in Bank operations?
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Input side: training, technical assistance (consultants),
equipment (roughly $1 billion a year at the Bank)
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Results side: much broader range of outcomes are sought
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Workshops, seminars, study tours
South-South exchanges (Shanghai)
Computers, air conditioners(?), buildings(??)….
Improved policies, incentive systems
Improved performance of key organizational structures
Higher skills and knowledge of key personnel
Project management side: getting the job done, by-passing
local bureaucracies
PMUs/PIUs
 Improved incentives, salaries for staff of PMUs
Not surprisingly, capacity development or institution building is
claimed as development objective of close to three-fourths of
Bank projects.
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But project design rarely reflects
clear capacity development focus
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Capacity inputs are not clearly spelled out or
costed
Target of intervention is not clear
Links between inputs and CD goals is not
clear
Benchmarks are not established
Indicators do not show intermediate steps or
even end goals
PMUs and external consultants are the norm
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A proposal: focus on
organizations
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Organizations are the key building blocks of
country action
Individual effectiveness is defined and
enhanced by high performing organizations
Organizations can be major players in
changing the overall environment, incentive
systems and institutions
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What does organizational
focus mean?
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Targeting organizational outputs, not inputs
Good diagnostics to understand the context
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Can needed changes be implemented?
Can operation be successful given context?
Benchmarks to define current outputs, performance
level
What level of performance is being sought? Are
there norms—local, international—that can be
agreed?
Indicators for intermediate steps and long-term
goals
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Why we stand a better chance now
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A new context: More international focus on the
capacity issue, new resources
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A new set of leaders and democratic change in some
key countries, NEPAD and other regional efforts
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The Paris Declaration: a renewed focus on capacity
development with specific targets
…but this agenda requires leadership, management focus,
new incentives and resources in the World Bank
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