Gabriel Zowam

How To Create Strong Institutions In Developing Economies Gabriel Zowam

Most of our developing countries (DCs) have become aware that they cannot go very far with their developmental efforts, unless they address the issue of weak and dysfunctional governance institutions. This dysfunctionality explains why many of these DCs are wasting away in hopeless poverty and underdevelopment, at a time many other economies are bustling, innovating and progressing. It also explains why decades of efforts to arrest corruption in these nations have largely been disappointing, even with significant international support. Now, if the strengthening of institutions has become the answer, how exactly can a nation go about it? What practical guidance can policymakers find, when they want to embark on that critical journey to institutions strengthening? That is one goal of this book: to attempt to provide guidance to policymakers on their governance institutions, and on how they may go about strengthening them - not just at the national level, but also at the state and local council levels; and also even at the levels of government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), and individual government programmes. There is also a second goal! It has been decades since governance reform experts provided the world with a flurry of profound principles that should guide the structuring of governance systems and programmes. Most of these principles remain as relevant today as ever. However, it is remarkable how the institutional processes and programmes that one encounters in the DCs tend to be structured in almost total violation of these principles! The book uses many currently operational systems in our DCs, to explain many of these violations, and show how they may be restructured for better outcomes. The book comes with many tools for carrying out very effective, low-hanging reforms, even within the constraints of existing political arrangements. Although it is designed primarily with our DCs in mind, it can also be very handy to all other policymakers seeking to structure governance services and programmes, for optimum effects.