Capacity Development for Good Governance in Developing Countries: Some Lessons from the Field

Good governance is essential for sustaining economic transformation in developing countries. However, many developing countries currently lack the capacity, as opposed to the will, to both achieve and sustain a climate of good governance. This article addresses, from a practitioner's field perspective, the fundamental objectives, principles, and key areas that need to be addressed for developing capacity for good governance. These frameworks are now beginning to be recognized as both governments and donor institutions attempt to take advantage of the current demand and opportunities for addressing governance deficits. In pursuing capacity development for good governance, developing countries must ensure that such initiatives are comprehensively designed to be simultaneously related to change and transformation at the individual, institutional, and societal levels and be owned and controlled locally.     

Political Instability and Export Performance in Sub-Saharan Africa

The political landscape of post-independent sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been one of rampant coups d'etat. Existing evidence suggests such elite political instability (PI) has been growth-inhibiting even when exports are accounted for. In the light of the increasing interest in the role of export-promotion strategies in fostering economic growth, however, the present paper examines the impact of PI on export performance in these economies. The paper explores the hypothesis that the lack of a stable political environment adversely influences export performance via competitiveness, and that PI may actually play a more crucial role in export than in overall GDP growth. Based on detailed data on the incidence of coups in 30 SSA countries, real export growth over 1967-1986 is regressed on a principal-component of the various forms of coup events - "successful" coups, abortive coups, and coup plots - as well as on export structure, terms of trade, production capacity, and exchange rate misalignment. The results support the above hypothesis of an adverse impact of PI on export growth, and further suggest that PI has been even more deleterious to exports than to overall GDP.     

Assessing Revenue Authority Performance in Developing Countries: A Synthetic Control Approach

In many developing countries, comprehensive reforms have been undertaken in tax administration during recent years and the implementation of semiautonomous revenue authorities (SARAs) constitutes one of their most visible expressions. To date, no comprehensive assessment has been undertaken to investigate how successful these SARAs have been in improving revenue collection in these countries. Therefore, this article attempts to fill this gap by assessing revenue collection trends in 20 developing countries after the SARA has been implemented. Using the synthetic control method, we show that in most countries, the implementation of a SARA did not significantly improve government revenues.     

Economic Crisis and Sub-national Elections in Selected European Countries. Three Types of Possible Relationships

During the past two decades, decentralisation issues have generated a keen interest in a large number of countries. However, this notion is very difficult to define as it refers to a wide range of institutional arrangements on the political, economic and social levels. There are many good reasons why the allocation of fiscal resources and budget transfers among levels of government must come after a strict assignment of spending powers. Hence, decentralisation as a silent revolution in public sector governance has swept across the globe and has reemerged as a valued political and economic goal in most countries, significantly varying from country to country. The purpose of this article is to show the impact of financial and economic crisis on sub-national government and sub-national elections in chosen European countries such as Poland, Ireland, Denmark and Greece. In some of the countries mentioned the sub-national run-offs were conducted with national parliamentary elections, but not in other countries, including Poland. Because of its uniqueness, however, the explanation of which constitutes an essential part of the article, Poland can be ‘a matiere a penser’ and a starting point for interesting analysis. As can be seen, the economic situation can not only change the election results, but also stabilise the political system, which is a good example of how the government party can manipulate public opinion, or even make elections a referendum on economic policy. The main determinant is the financial situation of sub-national government units and the country concerned.     

Labour Crisis and Innovation in Developing Countries: An Analysis of Locum Program for Health Personnel in Malawi

This article interrogates the dynamics of public sector innovation within the context of labor crisis in a developing country environment. It finds that to minimize the impacts of labor shortage in the health sector, Malawi uses a locum program where health workers are encouraged to work extra hours and are paid overtime allowances accordingly. The article observes that although the program has been pivotal in motivating the existing staff to go the extra mile and attempt to cover up for the labor shortages, it is rocked with several challenges which usually disrupt effective service delivery. These include delayed payments, sustainability problems, governance challenges, work ethics challenges, and negative effects of the quality of services delivered. Taking a qualitative approach, the analysis combines the use of primary and secondary data.     

The determinants of foreign direct investment inflows in the Central and Eastern European Countries: The importance of institutions

This study investigates the determinants of FDI inflows in six Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) by incorporating the traditional factors and institutional variables over the 1996–2009 period. The study identifies whether and how these determinant factors differ across four investor countries (EU-15, the US, China, and Japan). The results verify the positive and economically significant role of GDP size, trade openness, EU membership, and institutions (measured by economic freedoms, state fragility, political rights, and civil liberties indices) on FDI inflows. The results also reveal the existence of notable differences in the determinant factors across four investor countries.