Do Citizens Reward Good Service? Voter Responses to Basic Service Provision in Southern Africa

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel de Kadt ◽  
Evan S. Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Good Service ◽  
Basic Service

Legal, Regulatory, and Institutional Framework of Water and Sanitation Services in the Eastern and Southern Africa Region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Magawa
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Regulatory Cooperation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

Deteriorating quality of service provision and disease outbreaks (such as cholera) led to the institution of water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector reforms in Eastern and Southern Africa region in the 1990s. The realization of the urgent need to improve the performance of the sector, especially as related to health impacts, resulted in the formulation of new policy and legal and institutional frameworks to reorganize the sector and establish regulators who could address networked and nonnetworked WSS systems. Regulators as policy implementers have the delicate role of balancing the interests of government, service providers, and consumers. Decision- makers continue to design, implement, and evaluate the outcomes associated with new frameworks. Regional regulatory cooperation can accelerate improvements in service provision to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through development of common frameworks and approaches for WSS that can be adapted to unique country situations.

scholarly journals Who Can We Count On? Authority, Empowerment and Accountability in Mozambique

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Egidio Chaimite ◽  
Salvador Forquilha ◽  
Alex Shankland
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Basic Service ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

In this paper, we explore the use of a governance diaries methodology to investigate poor households’ interactions with authority in fragile, conflict and violence-affected settings in Mozambique. The research questioned the meanings of empowerment and accountability from the point of view of poor and marginalised people, with the aim of understanding what both mean for them, and how that changes over time, based on their experiences with governance. The study also sought to record how poor and marginalised households view the multiple institutions that govern their lives; providing basic public goods and services, including health and security; and, in return, raise revenues to fund these services. The findings show that, even if the perceptions and, with them, the concepts of empowerment and accountability that emerged do not differ significantly from those identified in the literature, in terms of action and mobilisation there are distinctions. In our research sites we found that people rarely mobilise, even faced with prevalent injustices and poor basic service provision. Many claim to be ‘unable’ to influence or force ‘authorities’ to respond to their concerns and demands.

scholarly journals La descentralización de la política ambiental en la frontera norte: algunas reflexiones desde Sonora

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P. Mumme
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Basic Service ◽  
Northern Mexico ◽  
Political Decentralization ◽  
Northern Border ◽  
Institutional Initiatives ◽  
Border State ◽  
Movimientos Sociales

Resumen: Este estudio describe las reformas hacia la descentralización en materia ambiental en México, utilizando evidencia del caso de Sonora, estado fronterizo del noroeste. El estudio identifica primero la descentralización ambiental dentro de un proceso más amplio: el de la descentralización política del México contemporáneo, así como las diversas formas de descentralización que se han dado en el país y en instituciones innovadoras específicas, tanto nacionales como internacionales, que contribuyen para lograr la descentralización ambiental. El progreso sonorense en el área ambiental es descrito enfatizando lo referente a recursos y actividades de los municipios, en particular, el municipio de Hermosillo, así como las diferencias entre municipios fronterizos e interiores. El texto concluye que la descentralización en Sonora toma la forma de desconcentración, que está ligada a la provisión de servicios básicos, que avanza con más rapidez en la frontera norte, que está asociada con la fuerza creciente de los movimientos sociales, y que se trata de un proceso intrincado por las numerosas ambigüedades de las leyes y estatutos existentes que necesitan ser clarificados si los municipios de Sonora han de asumir mas responsabilidades dentro de esta área.Palabras clave: Norte de México, Sonora, Descentralización política, Medio ambiente, Política ambiental.Abstract: This study describes Mexico's decentralizing reforms in the area of environmental policy as they are evident in the case of the northwestern border state of Sonora. The study first locates environmental decentralization within the larger process of political decentralization in contemporary Mexico and the various forms of decentralization that are evident in Mexico today and specific institutional initiatives, national and international, contributing to the goal of environmental decentralization in Mexico. Sonora's progress in decentralizing environmental policy is then described with special emphasis on the role, resources, and activities of ?municipios?, particularly the municipio of Hermosillo, and on differences among border and interior municipios. The paper concludes t h at environmental decentralization in Sonora largely takes the form of disconcentration, is linked to basic service provision, is proceding more rapidly in the northern border are a , is associated with the growing strength of social movements, and is hampered by numerous ambiguities in existing laws and statutes that need to be addressed if Sonora?s municipios are to assume more responsabilities in this policy area.Palabras clave: Northern Mexico, Sonora, Political de-centralization, Environment, Environmental policy.

NGOs as Intermediaries for Pro-Poor Electrification in India

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 178-204
Author(s):  
Bipasha Baruah
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Shock Therapy ◽  
Basic Service ◽  
Multiple Stakeholder ◽  
Alternative Practices ◽  
The City

Neoliberalism is generally associated with certain paradigmatic regulatory experiments, such as privatisation, deregulation, trade liberalisation, financialisation, structural adjustment, welfare cutbacks and monetarist shock therapy. Prominent observers of the global economy swiftly proclaimed the “end of neoliberalism” after the global economic crisis of 2008. This paper shares the experiences of two Indian NGOs participating in a multiple-stakeholder pro-poor urban electrification programme that was designed to demonstrate a viable alternative to neoliberal models of basic service provision. By 2008, close to 100,000 homes had been electrified in the city of Ahmedabad and the programme is currently being replicated in smaller cities in Gujarat and in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan. The broader findings from this research suggest that the news of neoliberalism’s demise may be greatly exaggerated. The “alternative” practices and strategies that have emerged more recently, such as the ones documented in this article, may challenge certain aspects of neoliberal thinking even as they reconfigure and recalibrate others. Although this case study cannot in any way enable us to gauge if India is moving toward “post-neoliberalism”, it does highlight the importance of documenting and understanding sub-national scales and actors in experimenting with and testing alternatives to market-based solutions.

scholarly journals Putting a Face to Institutions: Professionals and Generalized Trust

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea Ioana Alecu
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Good Service ◽  
Generalized Trust ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Informal Settings

The central role institutions play in the development of generalized trust is well established by previous research. Yet, the role of the professionals employed in these institutions has received considerably less attention. This paper explores whether confidence in welfare state professionals is important in maintaining a high level of generalized trust in the Norwegian context. It is hypothesized that professionals may influence people’s generalized trust both via their formal role as gatekeepers and in informal settings as part of social networks. The results are based on novel cross-sectional data, and indicate that confidence in welfare professionals is correlated with generalized trust, while the presence of welfare professionals in a social network is not significantly associated with generalized trust. The relationship between confidence in professionals and generalized trust indicates that alongside good institutions, good service provision is important in maintaining a high level of generalized trust.

What Comes After the Social? Historicizing the Future of Social Assistance and Identity Registration in Africa

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
Global North ◽  
International Transfers

Key contemporary mechanisms of distribution are routed through the ‘social assistance’ programmes provided by states. While we still often think of such programmes on the model of the well-known ‘welfare states’ of the global North, new forms of state and international transfers to the poor (in Africa and elsewhere in the global South) suggest a need to rethink the question of social assistance from a less Eurocentric perspective. With a special focus on southern Africa, this chapter reviews the meaning of ‘social assistance’ in a region where the domain of ‘the social’ was never securely established in the first place. It reflects on the possibility that new rationalities and techniques of social assistance may be calling into question the assumed dependence of social service provision on traditional forms of population registration and documentation.

Protocol for assessing services for people with severe mental illness

1998 ◽  
Vol 172 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Wing ◽  
Susannah Rix ◽  
Roy H. Curtis ◽  
Paul Lelliott ◽  
Alan Beadsmoore
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Rank Order ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Advisory Group ◽  
Good Service ◽  
Excellent Performance ◽  
Key Points ◽  
The Mean

BackgroundThe Clinical Standards Advisory Group was asked by UK health ministers to advise on the standards of clinical care being achieved for people with schizophrenia. A subcommittee commissioned a review of standards, followed by research into how far these were reflected in contracts and met by providers.MethodNo comprehensive but practical set of standards was found. A protocol of 143 items of good service practice was constructed, and applied by teams visiting services in 11 UK districts. The team appraisals were summarised in 20 key points, each scored 0 (absent) to 4 (excellent performance). Seven points were used to assess standards of commissioning and 13 for standards of service provision.ResultsWhen placed into rank order, the mean key point scores for commissioners and providers in the same district tended to be very similar. Total district scores were then used to assign districts to one of three groups. Four performed reasonably well, five were moderate and two were poor.ConclusionsOne of the key elements associated with these differences was the local level of morale. After wide consultation, a revised protocol of 26 key points for direct rating was drawn up and has since been further tested.

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