Clay G Wescott

World Bank · Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) (Operations Evaluation Department)

Many developing country governments are trying to understand why the policies put in place to reduce poverty and build prosperity are not leading to the results they want. One way forward could be a new form of knowledge, the “science of delivery”. This concept is borrowed from the healthcare field, where the previous emphasis on understanding the...

The horizon of public management reforms in the region is vast and multi-layered. Experiences across the region demonstrate that there is still a considerable distance to go in claiming, with any great degree of confidence, that any one country’s model can necessarily be taken for replication elsewhere. Instead, each country will continue to challe...

This paper examines official development assistance (ODA) to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), tax/revenue administration, and procurement in developing countries and asks what works, in what conditions, using what approaches, and how could it be more effective? Evidence is obtained through a number of channels such as the following: • Web search usi...

Since the mid-1990s, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has increased its focus on governance challenges in developing member countries (DMCs). Some political governance issues, such as how societies enable political participation and choose leaders, were considered too sensitive for ADB's involvement. However, ADB and other development partners have...

Poland turned in an impressive performance since the fall of communism, and even during the global financial crisis beginning in 2008. Highly innovative public policies helped catalyze a vibrant private sector, which in turn enabled high economic growth, low unemployment, increased exports, and labor productivity, leading to a much-improved standar...

An evaluation looked at the results of World Bank assistance in Afghanistan over the period 2002-2011. This chapter focuses on one key area of support: building the capacity of the state and its accountability to citizens. There were two main dimensions to this assistance. First, the Bank supported core financial systems. The results include a rela...

FMIS are a set of automation solutions that allow government finance and accounting staff to carry out their day-today operational tasks. This enables government finance managers to plan, prepare and approve budgets, approve and verify commitments, issue payment orders and payments, monitor and report on financial resources collected, and develop a...

Over the past two decades, international development has seen a rise in global partnerships, a relatively new mechanism for reducing poverty and improving living conditions. The rise in these partnerships is due, inter alia, to cross-border issues requiring administrative coordination, and to the idea that pooled resources and leveraging different...

This study assesses the impacts of citizen participation on strengthening the accountability systems of local government in Nepal. Based on qualitative analysis using multiple set of data, this study concludes that assessing the impacts of citizen participation appears to be rather challenging, as the inferences drawn are not conclusive. By and lar...

BOOST is a new resource launched in 2010 to facilitate improved quality, classification, and access to budget data and promote effective use for improved government decision making, transparency and accountability. Using the Government’s own data from public expenditure accounts held in the Government’s Financial Management Information System, and...

No abstract is available for this article.

Should international partners drastically change the way they support poor governments? Thomas’ idea of leveraging patronage networks for better results is not new, as presented in the book reviewed here. Others have argued before that there are conditions under which corruption can provide the solution to development problems such as overcoming di...

Education is a critical public service needed to achieve shared prosperity and an end to extreme poverty. Previous research has found that monitoring and disseminating appropriate data can help improve strategic planning, resource allocation and in turn education quality and learning outcomes. There can be added benefits from using such data at the...

Over the past two decades the international development landscape has seen a rise in global partnerships, a relatively new mechanism for tackling poverty and improving social and human development. Their rise in international development is due to a confluence of factors ranging from the development effectiveness agenda to the idea that pooled reso...

The following addresses the research question: Do World Bank supported education projects achieve better outcomes when there is deeper attention to designing monitoring and evaluation systems during project design? Education is a critical public service needed to achieve shared prosperity and an end to extreme poverty. Previous research has found t...

Over the past two decades the international development landscape has seen a rise in global partnerships, a relatively new mechanism for tackling poverty and improving social and human development. Their rise in international development is due to a confluence of factors ranging from the development effectiveness agenda to the idea that pooled reso...

Developing countries adopt policies to achieve certain results, such as reducing poverty and building prosperity. Why do many such policies not seem to work? A recent World Bank evaluation highlighted one possible reason: projects don’t adequately protect community impacts, labor and working conditions, and health, safety and security issues. Thi...

In 17th and 18th century Bogotá, Colombia (formerly called Santa Fe, New Granada), intersecting developments of social, political and cultural institutions worked together to create a Christian society. The approach was to use the relatively large indigenous population, along with imported African slaves, as the basis for extractive institutions to...

The paper will initially review the idea of public-private partnerships (PPPs) as it has evolved over the past few decades first in OECD countries, and then in developing countries. Questions will include: How is PPP defined (it means different things to different people and this is an asset)? How is PPP part of the New Public Management (NPM) agen...

The paper will initially review the idea of public-private partnerships (PPPs) as it has evolved over the past few decades first in OECD countries, and then in developing countries. Questions will include: How is PPP defined (it means different things to different people and this is an asset)? How is PPP part of the New Public Management (NPM) agen...

Successful transition from conflict and fragility hinges on the quality and legitimacy of public financial management (PFM) systems. This article shows that such systems develop asymmetrically in these settings. Formal aspects of modern systems are adopted, but a layered series of informal arrangements govern resource management. Analysis of data f...

East Asia’s success at promoting economic growth and poverty reduction is well known. Since the early 1980s, sustained economic growth rates in the order of five percent have reduced poverty rates by half. But it is a clear fact of contemporary geopolitics that not all areas are equally well connected with newly expanding

The recent history of Bangladesh provides an international comparative perspective of how public services can contribute to improved social outcomes. This paper will begin with a brief overview of the process. It will then look at the case of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) under the Local Government Division, Ministry of Local G...

Asia-Pacific countries have increasingly sought to innovate the way they are governed. The following begins with the question: How have global economic governance regimes affected the development of public governance in the region? It then narrows the focus to public financial management and procurement, looking at how external forces have affected...

E-government holds the promise of improving administrative efficiency and citizen participation, but can also reinforce traditional administrative processes. This paper reviews the evidence, mainly from case studies, of these processes. It looks both at Asia-Pacific jurisdictions, and the wider experience. It finds that advances in information and...

In recent years, the World Bank has channeled up to one-sixth of its lending and advisory support to reform of central governments. A recent evaluation tried to understand what was working, what needs to be improved, and what needs to be added or discontinued. The evaluation looked at four key central government tasks: public financial management a...

During the last decade, globalization and democratization have been the major forces that helped transform the structures, functions and processes of Asian public sectors. These transformation efforts of Asian countries vary considerably depending on local context, and have met with different degrees of success. Some countries experienced smooth tr...

The advice provided by the World Bank on improving public financial management and procurement is influenced by debates on theory and practice in developed and developing countries. This article touches on some of the highlights of these debates, drawing from the indicative literature mainly since 1990 from scholars and practitioners. It goes on to...

Asian governments and their partners increasingly recognize potential contributions of overseas professionals. In recent years, attention has focused on financial remittances, which are estimated to be worth annually more than double the amount of official development assistance. Yet overseas professionals can also help in realizing knowledge excha...

The advice provided by the Bank on improving public financial management (PFM) is influenced by debates on theory and practice in developed and developing countries. This paper touches on some of the highlights of these debates, drawing from indicative literature mainly since 1990 from scholars and practitioners. The second part of the paper discus...

http://books.google.com/books?id=jjNm8gOEXI8C&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=clay+g+wescott&source=bl&ots=dkdZiaJB0h&sig=f3K3l_d9bYfemfeeukDwS7yFJow&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xfQDUoXuF_Ko4APe_4HgBw&ved=0CDEQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=clay%20g%20wescott&f=false

https://books.google.com/books/about/Governing_Regional_Integration_for_Devel.html?id=r8IHBVewBSsC

This article provides perspectives on some key issues countries need to consider in rethinking their priorities to achieve greater social, environmental and economic sustainability from increasing urbanization in Asia. It discusses three areas where such new thinking is needed: improved governance requiring clearer assignment of responsibilities, m...

Nonaka (1990) makes the distinction between generic knowledge that can be applied in many similar contexts, and local knowledge that can be best applied in a specific local context. Israel (1987) and Fukuyama (2004) point out that “high specificity” tasks (i.e. with clear objectives, and using well-defined technologies) with low transaction volume...

Developing country governments and international donors are taking notice of diasporas' potential contributions to economic development. Attention has primarily focused on financial remittances, which are estimated to outpace official development assistance. Yet overseas professionals can also benefit their home countries through social remittances...

In recent years many developing countries are choosing to follow patterns that have emerged in businesses and in some developed country governments over the last several decades of establishing results-oriented monitoring frameworks that report on progress against strategic plans, budgets and sector strategies. This paper addresses five key element...

There is emerging evidence that overseas professionals can benefit their home countries even without return. Factors conducive to such diaspora contributions include: 1) their ability to mobilize (e.g., the existence of social capital or networks that link diaspora members to each other through formal or informal associations); 2) opportunity struc...

1 This paper will focus on two issues: (i) recent e-government progress and challenges, and (ii) the practices regional organizations follow to cope with the challenges, while maximizing the benefits. Beginning with an overview of efforts to improve governance in the region, it then analyzes recent progress in the use of information and communicati...

East Asian success at promoting economic growth and poverty reduction is well known. Since the early 1980s and particularly in recent years, sustained economic growth rates on the order of five percent have reduced poverty rates by half. But it is a clear fact of contemporary geopolitics that not all people in developing nations are benefiting nor...

Officials, economists and others in developing nations worry about the economic impact of losing their best and brightest people to opportunities presented in richer countries. However, increasingly some of the effects of diasporas appear to be positive so that the new focus is on brain gain rather than brain drain. The paper begins with a brief di...

The paper analyzes three recent events that ADB has been closely involved in responding to: the financial contagion in SE Asia in 1997, the SARS crisis of 2003, and the Tsunami of 2004. These three rather different types of events show that a combination of factors have been at work in shaping the response to and outcome of each crises. The 1997 co...

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1081/E-EPAP2-120024438

Asia-Pacific countries are increasingly working to improve the management of their social and economic resources for development. Although the ADB (1995, pp. 1–7) recognizes a diversity of political systems and institutional cultures in the region, the ADB defines four aspects of sound governance relevant for all countries:1. accountability (offici...

This article draws on recent experience in the Asia-Pacific region to examine some conditions that are needed for administrative reforms to take hold, some lessons, and two approaches to reform. It then gives a brief overview of some key reform priorities, with examples from the region. A typology is drawn from a framework recently developed by the...

This chapter will examine recent progress of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Viet Nam to set up effective institutions to fight corruption in the public sector, drawing on governance assessments recently carried out by the Asian Development Bank. It will make

This article explores how decentralization supports the policy commitments made by the Viet Nam government to increase citizen participation and accountability, and to reduce poverty and regional disparities. The article includes a review of basic definitions of decentralization that places the case study in an international context, a brief look a...

Asia‐Pacific governments are only in the initial phases of adopting information and communications technology to improve financial management information and reporting, streamline the delivery of government services, enhance communication with the citizenry, and serve as a catalyst for empowering citizens to interact with the government. This artic...

The Guiding Principles on Civil Service Reform were endorsed by the Special Programme of Assistance for Africa (SPA) as a tool for better co-ordination of donor support. Because of the range of administrative problems, and the economic and political urgency of solving them, African governments need a strategic framework for civil service reform. Th...

Focuses on two types of activities concerning secondary towns which have been of great interest to the government in recent years: the promotion of manufacturing enterprises and administrative decentralization. Both types of activities are in many ways complementary, industries based on these towns can provide a lucrative market for farmers, thereb...

Examines the effects of Kenyan government policies towards the location of industry. Finds that government attempts to achieve a dispersion of industry have had some effect (through provision of finance and infrastructure) but that, nevertheless, industry remains overwhelmingly concentrated in Nairobi and Mombasa. Examines the policies in the Devel...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Boston University, 1980. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 317-338). Microfilm. s

https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/1161

Officials, economists and others in developing nations worry about the economic impact of losing their best and brightest people to opportunities presented in richer countries. However, increasingly some of the effects of diasporas appear to be positive so that the new focus is on "brain gain" rather than "brain drain." The article begins with a br...

As the Twenty-First Century moves ahead, it is increasingly evident that globalization and democratization are strong forces playing crucial roles in shaping public sector transformation around the world. For Asian countries, the key questions are, how should selected reform ideas from other countries be diffused, and which parts of one's tradition...

Thesis (A.B., Honors)--Harvard University, 1968.