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Una nueva generación de sistemas de evaluación de desempeño en América Central. Panoramas de un recorrido reciente
Article / Working Paper, Latin America and the Carribean, Public Administration, Academic/Think TankExamina las característica de una nueva generacíon de sistema de evaluacíon de de desempeño en América Central. Se procura identificar si los mismos han tomado elementos de un enfoque centrado en el desarrollo de las personas. El recorrido realizado es importante pero hay pendientes y desafíos con el propósito de lograr un sistema efectivamente centrado en el aprendizaje organizacional, el...
A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Demand and Supply Side Education Interventions:The Case of Progresa in Mexico
Article / Working Paper, Governance and MDG, Latin America and the Carribean, Civil SocietyThis paper is concerned with the issue of the most cost-effective way of improving access to education for poor households in developing countries. We consider two alternatives: (1) extensive expansion of the school system (i.e., bringing education to the poor) and (2) subsidizing investment in education by the poor (i.e., bringing the poor to the education system). To this end, we evaluate the...
Sanctions, Benefits, and Rights: Three Faces of Accountability
Article / Working Paper, Latin America and the Carribean, Local Governance and Decentralization, Academic/Think TankAs countries throughout the world democratise and decentralise, citizen participation in public life should increase. It is said citizens in a decentralised and democratic system of government are governed better because they can punish electorally those who do not deliver on promises. This paper suggests that local government 'by the people' is enhanced when citizens have access...
Lessons for reformers: how to launch, implement, and sustain regulatory reform
Article / Working Paper, Asia and the Pacific, Civil Society, Europe and CIS, Latin America and the Carribean, Inter-Governmental OrganizationGovernments base their economic development and poverty reduction strategies on efforts to expedite and expand reforms that improve their countries’ business environments. The inefficiencies constraining growth must be addressed mainly at the micro-economic level, through broad legal and regulatory reforms. Successful reform requires overcoming vested interests in the public...
Access to public information and citizen participation in Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) guide to good practices
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Latin America and the Carribean, Inter-Governmental OrganizationConsensus is growing within the global community on the relevance of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), their transparency and the need to be open to citizen participation. External oversight agencies perform a fundamental role in monitoring the exercise of power in democratic regimes, especially in countries characterised by high corruption rates and inefficiency in public management. Their...
Democratic governance, citizenship, and legal identity
Article / Working Paper, Democracy, Justice, Latin America and the Carribean, Public Administration, Civil SocietyLegal identity is about being a citizen and one’s sense of belonging and ability to exercise their rights and obligations. This working paper presents new empirical findings on the problem of under-registration in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region and discusses the emerging academic concepts and project development. Internationally, people without identification documents are...
Institutional quality and fiscal transparency
Article / Working Paper, Latin America and the Carribean, Public Administration, Inter-Governmental OrganizationDespite the worldwide attention that has been paid to transparency in the last decade, empirical studies on its determinants are still quite limited. Relying solely on economic factors while disregarding institutional concerns may be misleading. This paper investigates the role of the institutional environment in shaping the informational structure of various...
The Making of Policy: Institutionalized or Not?
Article / Working Paper, Civil Society, Democracy, Latin America and the Carribean, Media, Parliament, Political Parties, Inter-Governmental OrganizationFormal analysis of policy-making within the realm of political institutions has deepened the understanding of how political institutions shape economic policies. Other than voting, forming political parties, bargaining in the legislature, and the like, there are a number of alternative political technologies (APTs), like threats of violence and of disruption of economic activity,...
Supporting domestic accountability: exploring conceptual dimensions and operational challenges
Africa, Article / Working Paper, Latin America and the Carribean, Public Administration, Civil SocietyThis discussion paper tackles the conceptual and policy dimensions of domestic accountability, an issue that has edged to the forefront of the development agenda. It discusses the Dutch Development Cooperation Ministry’s and partners’ policy focus on domestic accountability and the pilot projects in Benin, Bolivia, Ghana, Guatemala, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa...
The predatory or virtuous choices governors make: political institutions and economic performance
Article / Working Paper, Democracy, Latin America and the Carribean, Political Parties, Academic/Think TankThis paper explores the idea that political institutions are important determinants of the policies implemented in states. The authors propose a model of the policymaking process and then test its implications with state-level data for the period 1999 to 2006 in Brazil. The focus of the empirical tests is on the impact of political competition and checks and...