The Anatomy of Failure: An Ethnography of a Randomized Trial to Deepen Democracy in Rural India

Ananthpur, Kripa; Malik, Kabir; Rao, Vijayendra

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-6958

Cited by 12 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…If an experiment suggests that a program is effective, funders may decide to replicate it elsewhere (to test for external validity) or to roll it out more generally (in a context deemed similar to that of the experiment). Yet as we demonstrate, replication in a different context is fraught with uncertainties (see also Ananthpur, Malik, and Rao, 2017;Bold, Mwangi Kimenyi, & Alice Ng'ang'a, 2013). While preliminary research can, and should wherever possible, be used to identify potential barriers ex ante, not all problems can be anticipated, or corrected even if anticipated, before implementation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Flows, leaks and blockages in informational interventions: A field experimental study of Bangalore's water sector

2018

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a b s t r a c tMany policies and programs based on informational interventions hinge upon the assumption that providing citizens with information can help improve the quality of public services, or help citizens cope with poor services. We present a causal framework that can be used to identify leaks and blockages in the information production and dissemination process in such programs. We conceptualize the ''information pipeline" as a series of connected nodes, each of which constitutes a possible point of blockage. We apply the framework to a field-experimental evaluation of a program that provided households in Bangalore, India, with advance notification of intermittently provided piped water. Our study detected no impacts on household wait times for water or on how citizens viewed the state, but found that notifications reduced stress. Our framework reveals that, in our case, noncompliance among human intermediaries and asymmetric gender relations contributed in large part to these null-to-modest results. Diagnostic frameworks like this should be used more extensively in development research to better understand the mechanisms responsible for program success and failure, to identify subgroups that actually received the intended treatment, and to identify potential leaks and blockages when replicating existing programs in new settings.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Flows, leaks and blockages in informational interventions: A field experimental study of Bangalore's water sector

2018

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“… See also Ananthpur, Malik, and Rao () for an impact evaluation involving a substantial parallel, ethnographic component. See Dunning () and Kapizewski, MacLean, and Read (2015) on how qualitative methods can inform field experimental design and explanations of why interventions have the effects that they do.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontline worker compliance with transparency reforms: Barriers posed by family and financial responsibilities

2017

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Significant development funding flows to informational interventions intended to improve public services. Such "transparency fixes" often depend on the cooperation of frontline workers who produce or disseminate information for citizens. This article examines frontline worker compliance with a transparency intervention in Bangalore's water sector. Why did compliance vary across neighborhoods, and why did workers exhibit modest rates of compliance overall? Drawing on ethnographic observation and an original data set, this article finds that variation in workers' family responsibilities and financial circumstances largely explains variation in compliance with the intervention. Furthermore, workers often prioritize long-standing responsibilities over new tasks seen as add-ons, leading to modest rates of compliance overall. Perceptions of "core" jobs can be stickyespecially when reaffirmed through interactions with citizens. This article represents one of the first multimethod companions to a field experiment, and illustrates how the analysis of qualitative and observational data can contribute to impact evaluation. | I NTRO DUC TIO NMore information for lay citizens, cheaply provided and easily accessed, is at the heart of global efforts to "make services work for poor people" (World Bank, 2004). The underlying assumption is that transparency improves citizens' experience with service delivery; information about services positions citizens to make better use of them. In addition, citizens armed with information about service provider performance are better placed to press for improvements and to demand accountability. Improved transparency, in other words, promotes a virtuous cycle leading to improved service delivery. Development institutions, telecommunications companies, and national governments have channeled significant funding into informational interventions to improve the

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“…We identified nine studies from South Asia, four of which took place in India (Ananthpur, Malik, & Rao, 2014 Ravallion et al, 2013 in Bihar). The remaining studies took place in Afghanistan (Beath et al, 2013;Berman et al, 2017), Pakistan (Giné et al 2018;Kasim, 2016) and Nepal (Tachibana & Adhikari, 2009).…”

Section: Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…which are principally measures of the relationship between citizens and government. We categorised these into variables measuring taxes paid (Ananthpur et al, 2014;Beuermann & Amelina, 2014;Timmons et al, 2015) or in the case of natural resource management contribution to local service fees (Bandyopadhyay et al, 2010;Huang et al, 2014); feelings of trust in leadership and institutions Kasim, 2016); and, relatedly, public perception of corruption among public servants including the police (Banerjee et al, 2014).…”

Section: Service Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen engagement in public services in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A mixed‐methods systematic review of participation, inclusion, transparency and accountability (PITA) initiatives

Waddington

Sonnenfeld

Finetti

et al. 2019

Campbell Systematic Reviews

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Background: How do governance interventions that engage citizens in public service delivery planning, management and oversight impact the quality of and access to services and citizens' quality of life? This systematic review examined high quality evidence from 35 citizen engagement programmes in low-and middle-income countries that promote the engagement of citizens in service delivery through four routes: participation (participatory priority setting); inclusion of marginalised groups; transparency (information on rights and public service performance), and/or citizen efforts to ensure public service accountability (citizen feedback and monitoring); collectively, PITA mechanisms. We collected quantitative and qualitative data from the included studies and used statistical meta-analysis and realist-informed framework synthesis to analyse the findings.Results: The findings suggest that interventions promoting citizen engagement by improving direct engagement between service users and service providers, are often effective in stimulating active citizen engagement in service delivery and realising improvements in access to services and quality of service provision, particularly for services that involve direct interaction between citizens and providers. However, in the absence of complementary interventions to address bottlenecks around service provider supply chains and service use, citizen engagement interventions alone may not improve key wellbeing outcomes for target communities or state-society relations. In addition, interventions promoting citizen engagement by increasing citizen pressures on politicians to hold providers to account, are not usually able to influence service delivery. Conclusions:The citizen engagement interventions studied were more likely to be successful: (1) where the programme targeted a service that citizens access directly from front-line staff, such as healthcare, as opposed to services accessed independently of service provider staff, such as roads; (2) where implementers were able to generate active support and buy-in for the intervention from both citizens and front-line public ---

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The Anatomy of Failure: An Ethnography of a Randomized Trial to Deepen Democracy in Rural India

Cited by 12 publications

References 7 publications

Flows, leaks and blockages in informational interventions: A field experimental study of Bangalore's water sector

Flows, leaks and blockages in informational interventions: A field experimental study of Bangalore's water sector

Frontline worker compliance with transparency reforms: Barriers posed by family and financial responsibilities

Citizen engagement in public services in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A mixed‐methods systematic review of participation, inclusion, transparency and accountability (PITA) initiatives

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