Poverty Reduction

It is uncontroversial that the resources governments spend belong to the people.  How these resources get allocated varies from country to country at the national and local levels.  Debates and deliberations surrounding the budgetary process are usually technical, tedious, and time-consuming.  Nonetheless, budgeting in the public sector is a critical entry point for the demand for better public goods and services and, more broadly, meaningful and effective citizen engagement.  If citizens could exercise their voices in the prioritization of public sector spending, then government programs would have a higher likelihood of reflecting the needs and wants of constituents.  So a key challenge and opportunity in this area is finding a judicious balance between solid technical analysis and meaningful citizen participation.
 

There are a lot of highly interesting talks and events on governance at the World Bank these days, often we discuss them here in our blog. The other week we had a guest from the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), Roland Rich, who is the Fund's Executive Head. He gave a remarkable presentation, full of memorable propositions that would all merit a blog post or two. From "We're all footnotes to Plato" to "An idea is not responsible for the people who support it" there was a lot of food for thought. For this post, I'll pick only one of his many inspiring ideas: the role of social capital in development.

“Effectiveness in aid is also effectiveness in governance”, said Mark Nelson, senior operations officer at the World Bank Institute (WBI) during a recent panel discussion on the progress-to-date of the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA).  The AAA reflects an international multisectoral agreement on how the delivery of development assistance might be improved “so that it can make the greatest difference in the lives of poor people around the world.” 

A well-known musician from Mozambique, Feliciano Dos Santos, was recently featured in a New York Times article  on his use of pop music toward changing people’s sanitation habits, especially in far-flung rural villages.  His songs include messages regarding boiling water to prevent diarrhea and washing one’s hands before leaving the bathroom.  His band, Massukos gained international fame via a combination of pop and socially relevant songs, while his nonprofit Estamos (“We are”) installs latrines and provides services to AIDS patients.