How does the World Bank Influence the Development Policy Priorities of Low-Income and Lower-Middle Income Countries ?

Knack, Stephen; Parks, Bradley C.; Harutyunyan, Ani; DiLorenzo, Matthew

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-9225

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, recent research comparing the influence of policy advice and conditionality has pointed out that the World Bank’s knowledge services seem to influence recipients consistently. In contrast, the effect of conditionality through policy-based lending is more ambiguous (Knack et al., 2020). These findings are supported by a range of scholars who have demonstrated the potency of policy advice in case studies (Broome, 2010; Jakobi, 2012; Kudrle, 2014).…”

Section: Policy Recommendations In Times Of Institutional Overlapmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy recommendations of international bureaucracies: the importance of country-specificity

Busch

Feil

Heinzel

et al. 2021

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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Many international bureaucracies give policy advice to national administrative units. Why is the advice given by some international bureaucracies more influential than the recommendations of others? We argue that targeting advice to member states through national embeddedness and country-tailored research increases the influence of policy advice. Subsequently, we test how these characteristics shape the relative influence of 15 international bureaucracies’ advice in four financial policy areas through a global survey of national administrations from more than 80 countries. Our findings support arguments that global blueprints need to be adapted and translated to become meaningful for country-level work. Points for practitioners National administrations are advised by an increasing number of international bureaucracies, and they cannot listen to all of this advice. Whereas some international bureaucracies give ‘one-size-fits-all’ recommendations to rather diverse countries, others cater their recommendations to the national audience. Investigating financial policy recommendations, we find that national embeddedness and country-tailored advice render international bureaucracies more influential.

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Section: Policy Recommendations In Times Of Institutional Overlapmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy recommendations of international bureaucracies: the importance of country-specificity

Busch

Feil

Heinzel

et al. 2021

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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“…Another important tool is conditionality, where financial support (such as general budget support) is tied to policy reform. Conditionality attempts to induce governments to choose certain policies (Collier et al, 1997;Hayman, 2011;Knack et al, 2020). More broadly, donors use approaches including negotiation, bargaining, policy dialogue, compacts and partnerships with countries to try to secure their desired policy choices (Abrahamsen, 2004;Black, 2019;Brown, 2013;Clemens and Kremer, 2016;Swedlund, 2017;Whitfield, 2008).…”

Section: Ownership In Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Why does local agency matter? Ownership, partnership, and decision spaces in foreign aid

King¹

2020

Preprint

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The importance of local agency and leadership has long been emphasised in aid reform agendas, under the heading of 'ownership'. But in practice, this focus has often fallen victim to 'agency creep', as donors strive to retain control over the policy choices of aid-receiving countries. Even the ‘second orthodoxy’ risks being locally informed without being locally led. More recently, many factors have been reducing donors’ previous leverage over aid recipients’ policies. Given their previous difficulties with local agency, how can donors find new ways to support, enable and embrace it, and to navigate this new world of changing hierarchies? This paper explores the potential benefits of prioritising local agency, as well as the risks and constraints which make it difficult. The analysis suggests a possible way forward for donors: to create an enabling environment, by providing meaningful policy space for local leaders in aid-receiving countries to make their own policy choices. This change in emphasis could enhance the accountability and responsiveness of aid-receiving governments, while managing risks and delivering results. It would involve a shift in donor focus, away from being the protagonist and trying to influence the outputs of policymaking - the policy choices that countries make - and instead, towards trying to support the process of making those choices. In short, the remedy for a perceived misuse of power may not be to usurp it, but rather to support and enable its use for good.

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“…Development organisations and governments have increasingly recognised, at least formally, that capacity development is about more than just building individual technical knowledge and skills. Building on the work of Douglas North, there has been a growing acceptance and Development of a framework that structures interactions into three categories: individuals, organisations, and institutions (North, 1991) 1 . This has shifted the focus on the In the last box, the lifeline icon pulse shows that the system has a life of its own and it is not only the sum of all the parts -the individual, organisational and institutional capacity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technical assistance: a practical account of the challenges in design and implementation

et al. 2020

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Technical assistance is provided to strengthen state capability as part of international development programmes. This article presents the conceptual evolution of the technical assistance linked to capacity development, starting from a single unit of analysis, that of individual capacity to complex systems theories. It presents some of the frequent challenges in designing and implementing technical assistance, with a focus on the challenges common across government-funded and externally funded technical assistance, as well as the challenges unique to externally funded technical assistance. The article reviews the recent thinking on the practice in technical assistance from locally-driven technical assistance to positive deviance as a method to identify what works. It discusses change management as an adaptive and iterative process, and technical advisers acting as enablers of change rather than as change-makers and relying on adaptive and flexible approaches to programme management.

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How does the World Bank Influence the Development Policy Priorities of Low-Income and Lower-Middle Income Countries ?

Cited by 15 publications

References 40 publications

Policy recommendations of international bureaucracies: the importance of country-specificity

Policy recommendations of international bureaucracies: the importance of country-specificity

Why does local agency matter? Ownership, partnership, and decision spaces in foreign aid

Technical assistance: a practical account of the challenges in design and implementation

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