Diagnostic Tools for Governance in Fragile States : Lessons, Trends and Suggestions

Hyden, Goran ; Agborsangaya -Fiteu, Ozong

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ACCOUNTABILITY;    AGGREGATE ANALYSIS;    AMBITION;    ANTICORRUPTION;    ANTICORRUPTION STRATEGY;   

RP-ID  :  64353

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The purpose of this issues note is toreview the experience in and outside the World Bank of usingdifferent diagnostic tools in fragile state situations. Itwill identify trends in the use of such tools, lessonslearnt, and arrive at suggestions for the future. Becausegovernance has continued to be a major concern in theinternational community, over the years this has led to agrowing diversity in the application of the concept. Withthis diversification the types of assessment in use havealso increased, a process that reflects two things. First,each agency tends to design an assessment to meet its ownprogram needs. Second, diagnostic tools have often fallenshort of expectations leading agencies to develop new ones,including more recently political economy studies that gobeyond what was at least until recently mainstream types ofassessing governance. Accepting the diversity of definitionsand assessments, this note does not intend to review thewhole field. A diagnostic tool here refers to the approachand methodology used in assessing governance. Choice of toolhas a direct bearing on how an activity is designed andcarried out. Making the right choice, therefore, isimportant. A tool may become 'main stream' and theoriginal rationale for its use disappears. It is appliedbecause everyone else is using it or there is pressure touse the same tool as others. A shift to other tools,however, may become necessary because existing tools do notdeliver. Such a shift is occurring in the governance fieldwhere a focus on institutions is being increasinglycomplemented, if not replaced, by a studies of underlyingpolitical economy factors. This Note tries to trace thisprocess by highlighting both specific and more generalexperiences with tools used to assess governance. Fragilestates or situations are not typical but they give rise togovernance challenges that more than other contexts test thelimits of particular tools. This becomes an especiallyimportant issue given that what works in countries that arenot fragile seems to fall short of the same achievement infragile situations.