Getting to Denmark or Departing from Rwanda? Changes in Approaches to the Challenges of Africa Rising Goran Hyden University of Florida

Why Getting to Denmark? Denmark a steady top performer on global governance and development indices The level or state of development of this Nordic country deemed to be the ”end-point” of good governance, inclusive and sustainable development

The Fallacies of the Donors They believe that they have the recipes for development because they have themselves succeeded; hence belief in imitation and transfer of models of the West to poor and low-income countries; They are normatively locked into preferences that are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to implement successfully in these poor/low-income countries; They limit the options available for countries to make their own path to modernity.

Three decades of liberal hegemony Western donor interests have driven the good governance agenda for three decades with little or no reflection on the experience Academics have uncritically gone along with this agenda scoping up donor funding and limiting their own research agenda to donor agenda Scholars have been mainly interested in creating indices to show how far a democratic transition has come and limited their analysis to problems of achieving democratic transition or consolidation

At last, some critical analysis! Emerging critique of how the good governance agenda has been implemented comes not just from scholars but practitioners (with a theoretical knowledge):  Public sector reforms have succeeded only in improving organizations but not institutions (Matt Andrew 2013)  Evaluations show that reforms succeed only when driven by local actors (Brian Levy 2014)  Policy reforms succeed only when supported by the dominant political settlement (Musthaq Khan 2010)

So what is an ”institution”? Institution as abstraction and as material entity Institution not same as organization Different approaches to analyzing institutions

Four different approaches 1960sModernizattion theory: institutions reflective of social and economic structures (democracy not possible without a certain level of development) 1970sHistorical institutionalism: state institutions a prerequisite for organizing and conducting politics in a peaceful manner (socialist states better placed to succeed than others) 1980-New institutionalism: institutions as rules shaping human 2000behavior (institutional reforms produce progress) ”Growing with the Grain”: institutional reforms only succeed if datebased on local initiative and will-power (Rwanda held up as case in point)

THE LIMITS OF NEW INSTITUTIONALISM Assumes that institutions are autonomous of human agency and thus instruments or tools to change the world Development and governance experience has shown that this is a false premise People do not ”face the law” but play the rules in creative manners for good or bad Institutional stability not the default position; institutions go ”off track” because of what institutional actors do (corruption not an aberration but a reflection of actors’ normative preferences

Rethinking institutions for a rising Africa African countries will only rise if allowed to do so on their own socio- economic and cultural foundation Local norms and knowledge not a liability but an asset ”Growing with the Grain” recognizes human will-power is ingrained in institutions Same approach begins with recognizing the dominant institutional pattern as starting-point for recommending reforms It opens up policy space, encourages adaptation and fosters learning

Looking beyond donor conventions DONOR CONVENTIONS”GROWING WITH THE GRAIN”  TOP-DOWN BOTTOM-UP  CONTROLADAPTATION  VALIDATIONLEARNING  RESULTSPROCESS  VALUE FOR MONEYEFFECTIVENESS  SHORTTERMLONGTERM  POLICY IN ISOLATIONPOLICY IN POLITICS  FORMAL INSTITUTIONS ONLYINFORMAL INSTITUTIONS AS BASE  CONTEXT-FREECONTEXT MATTERS

CONCLUSIONS Trying to get to Denmark without first knowing from where one starts is a ”non-starter” Knowing how to get there is more important than where to go Compass better than road-map or ”blueprint” Relative success of Rwanda is a better ”model” of what to do than trying to imitate Western countries without a sense of history and difference in socio-economic and cultural conditions With donors losing their grip, a chance for Africa to enter the global community on its own terms may become reality