I blogged here highlighting the obsession in international development circles with new ideas and innovations and neglect of regular development interventions and examined the reasons; here questioning the belief that there are new ideas and innovations waiting to make a transformative impact; here that policies in most of the development matter very little and it's mostly about implementation; here questioning the conventional wisdom on impact evaluations and arguing that evaluations should focus on the use of administrative data (and surveys) coupled with qualitative information to help improve the effectiveness of implementation; here that the combination of the grafting of externally generated ideas and innovations and the associated flow of easy money prevents developing countries from cultivating their ability to make good development decisions; and here that any significant scale implementation of a development program should necessarily be iterative if it’s to realise its objectives.
In this post, I’ll highlight the importance of effective management in the execution of development interventions. I have argued on multiple occasions that development is virtually all about execution. Therefore the importance of state capability. Arguably a most important aspect of state capability is the effectiveness of management of people, events, tasks, and so on.
By management, I’m talking about the capabilities of the officials at the top of the organisation implementing the intervention to effectively administer the processes and swiftly and effectively manage the emerging issues with the implementation.
This would include adopting implementation protocols; analysing emerging evidence on the program’s implementation; undertaking periodic reviews and follow-ups; coordinating among the various stakeholders; managing the political economy; and making decisions on emerging situations and course corrections, as required. At its core, good management of a program implementation is about having a good monitoring system - feedback channels, reliable data flows, practical monitoring formats, periodic reviews and inspections, and tight follow-up on them.
In tangible terms, all this boils down to the capabilities of the organisational leadership to manage the associated processes with diligence and persistence. I can think of the following practical ingredients for effective management in developing countries like India.
1. Professionalism and transparency in administrative conduct, especially in personnel management and decision-making.
2. Continuous tours and inspections of field locations to understand problems first-hand and also to signal vigilance across the system (bureaucracy and the external environment).
3. Focus on building internal institutional and personnel capabilities.
4. Cultivation of at least a small group of internal champions at the senior and middle management, and nurturing systems that encourage and motivate committed officials among field functionaries.
5. Creation of a reliable data collection and analysis system, formulation of credible monitoring formats and reporting, and diligence with monitoring and follow-up.
6. Creation of good feedback systems, formal and informal, that obtain insights about the effectiveness of the implementation of the program.
7. Active engagement with primary external stakeholders - local communities, civil society organisations etc - and responding to their feedback, as appropriate.
8. Engagement with the political representatives that conveys both sensitivity and responsiveness on the one hand and firmness, professionalism, and clear boundaries on the other hand.
9. Decision-making based on the information and insights gathered from the aforementioned sources.
10. Firm control over the bureaucratic machinery, both the people and the systems, so as to be able to enforce strict administrative discipline.
All of these will invariably fit into some management framework. I have merely outlined them from the practical perspective of how interventions actually get implemented.
All these ingredients have personal and institutional aspects. The former involves the capability and commitment of the organisational leaders to pursue these management ingredients. The latter involves the organisational processes/pathways through which they are pursued as a practice or norm.
The energy of a passionate leader can often mask the deficiencies in the institutional channels and ensure effective implementation. But this approach gets exposed when there’s a leadership change. It therefore becomes important for passionate leaders to build institutional capabilities as they pursue the implementation. It’s essential for sustainability.
I’ll argue that no matter how perfect the design of a development intervention, its effectiveness in terms of achieving the objectives is critically dependent on the management quality of the organisational leadership. This is especially so in developing countries with their weak state capabilities.
Given the pervasive human failings, it’s very rare to find leadership that meets all these requirements of a high quality. It’s therefore prudent to accept and nurture leaders who are cognisant of these ingredients and strive towards them.
Unfortunately, it’s surprising how little attention is paid to this very important aspect of development, compared to the likes of the application of digital technologies, data analytics, and private participation. It’s taken for granted or overlooked, whereas good management is acutely scarce in development.
It appears that the only time the development experts talk about management is when they want to hire management consultants. And it’s an irony that these management consultants themselves who waste no opportunity to promote shiny ideas like digital technologies and data analytics rarely discuss basic management within public systems in their works.
I believe that an important reason for this blindspot is that there are no clever-sounding or innovative solutions to the problem of management deficiency. It’s about painstakingly creating norms about effective management and cultivating the requisite traits in public leaders. It’s about creating a culture of good governance. These are not amenable to a paper publication or a tweet.
No amount of innovations like cash transfers, workflow automation, data analytics, outsourcing, privatisation etc., can be a substitute for good management. Instead, they can become serious distractions.
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