Building political will for HIV response: an operational model and strategy options

Abstract

As global programs for HIV response look to transfer responsibility and financing increasingly to country governments, the political will to take on these responsibilities becomes increasingly prominent. However, defining and assessing political will are problematic; it involves intent and motivation, and thus is inherently difficult to observe. It is intimately connected to capacity and is contextually embedded. This article describes an operational model of political will comprised of seven components that are observable and measurable. Two case studies illustrate the application of the model and shed light on the interconnections among commitment, capacity and context: South Africa and China. Strategy options to build political will for HIV response identify possible actions for both government and civil society. Political will as a concept is most usefully viewed as integrated within larger political and bureaucratic processes, as a product of the complex array of incentives and disincentives that those processes create. However, this conclusion is not a recipe for discouragement or inaction. Agent-based conceptualizations of policy change offer a solid grounding for building political will that supports HIV policy and programs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Political will and government anti‐corruption efforts: What does the evidence say?

“…These findings corroborate that of Quah () who found that Singapore's CPIB is the most effective ACA in the Asian region making major global corruption league tables to rank Singapore as the cleanest country in Asia, in his analysis of ACAs in five countries, including Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, China, and Philippines. The findings in this paper also support the conceptual framework of political will informed by the works of famous scholars (e.g., Brinkerhoff, , ; Brinkerhoff & Kulibaba, ; Kpundeh & Dininio, ; Malena, ). Furthermore, this paper also supports the conclusion drawn by Yeboah‐Assiamah and Alesu‐Dordzi () that political will is the most critical success factor for government anti‐corruption efforts in their research about the calculus of corruption with evidence from Ghana.…”

“…Like any assessment effort, indicators for the four components outlined are wide ranging. However, the paper adopted a similar approach to that of Brinkerhoff who argued that “choices need to be filtered through the principles of what information is necessary and sufficient, but not exhaustive” (Brinkerhoff, , p. 5).…”

“…Political will and the lack of it is the most widely cited reason for government success or failure (Carbonetti, Pomeroy, & Richards, ; Malena, ; Persson & Sjöstedt, ; Piiparinen, ; Post et al, ; Quah, ). Political will has not only been attributed to the explanation of success and failure and inactions of good governance and anti‐corruption, but also in a wider scope including economic reforms (Hope, ), debt relief (Atkinson, ), terrorism (Burite & Gridneff, ), environmental protection (Ng, ; Rigg & Hmaidan, ), health reform (Brinkerhoff, ; Moore, ; NHS, ; Pagliccia & Pérez, ), education reform (Little, ; Marrin, ), conflict (Piiparinen, ; Woocher, ), and fisheries (Carbonetti et al, ). To this end, there is the need for government's commitment and that the absence of political will at the top is the result of lack of commitment to law enforcement and to punish the corrupt (Brinkerhoff, , p. 240; Hopkinson & Pelizzo, ).…”

“…The first component of political will emphasised in scholarship is origin of the initiative (Brinkerhoff, , ; Brinkerhoff & Kulibaba, ; Kpundeh & Dininio, ; Malena, ). This indicator of political will examines whether advocates for change perceive this change as a major issue that requires attention or if it is an inducement or coercion from an external group (Kpundeh & Dininio, ).…”

“…Resource dedication and sustenance is last and arguably one of the most important components of political will (see e.g., Brinkerhoff, , ; Brinkerhoff & Kulibaba, ; Malena, ; Quah, ; Stapenhurst et al, ). For governments to achieve the objectives of any reform initiative, there is the need for institutional and human resource capacity to make it a reality and to sustain it; and Post et al (, p. 663) describes this as “commitment to support.” An example is what Olowu () identified in Nigeria as key decision makers only pay lip service with anti‐corruption issues without proper resourcing.…”