1. Research Program: Governance for Agriculture and Rural Development
How to improve the ability of the poorest and hungry to demand pro-poor policies and ensure the effective delivery of services?
Regina Birner
Research Program: Governance for Agriculture and Rural Development

2. Reducing Hunger and Poverty
Much has been learnt on how to do it
Role of growth; role of different sectors
Role of social safety nets and redistributive policies
Some countries had remarkable successes
Innovative approaches to reach the poor
Micro-credit
Cash transfers
Rights-based approaches
Declared political commitment is high
Millennium Development Goals
Still: Hunger and poverty persist!

3. The Triple Challenge of Reducing Hunger and Poverty
Virtually all policy instruments face at least one of three challenges:
Political feasibility
Political opposition (e.g., against land reform)
Lack of political support
Administrative feasibility
Lacking ability of the public administration to implement “first-best” policy instruments effectively
Fiscal feasibility
Lacking ability to raise financial resources for pro-poor policies on a sustainable basis

4. The Triple Feasibility Challenge
Type of policy instrument
Political feasibility
Administrative feasibility
Fiscal feasibility
Redistribution of assets
low
low to neutral
Public infrastructure
high (with exceptions)
Technology
high
(with exceptions)
low to high
Social safety nets
Subsidies, trade protection
Market liberalization
Pro-poor fiscal and tax policies

5. The Triple Feasibility Challenge
Type of policy instrument
Political feasibility
Administrative feasibility
Fiscal feasibility
Redistribution of assets
low
low to neutral
Public infrastructure
high (with exceptions)
Technology
high
(with exceptions)
low to high
Social safety nets
Subsidies, trade protection
Market liberalization
Pro-poor fiscal and tax policies

6. The Triple Feasibility Challenge
Type of policy instrument
Political feasibility
Administrative feasibility
Fiscal feasibility
Redistribution of assets
low
low to neutral
Public infrastructure
high (with exceptions)
Technology (ag. research)
high
(with exceptions)
low to high
Social safety nets
Subsidies, trade protection
Market liberalization
Pro-poor fiscal and tax policies

7. The Triple Feasibility Challenge
Type of policy instrument
Political feasibility
Administrative feasibility
Fiscal feasibility
Redistribution of assets
low
low to neutral
Public infrastructure
high (with exceptions)
Technology
high
(with exceptions)
low to high
Social safety nets
Subsidies, trade protection
Market liberalization
Pro-poor fiscal and tax policies

8. The Triple Feasibility Challenge
Type of policy instrument
Political feasibility
Administrative feasibility
Fiscal feasibility
Redistribution of assets
low
low to neutral
Public infrastructure
high (with exceptions)
Technology
high
(with exceptions)
low to high
Social safety nets
Subsidies, trade protection
Market liberalization
Pro-poor fiscal and tax policies

9. The Triple Feasibility Challenge
Type of policy instrument
Political feasibility
Administrative feasibility
Fiscal feasibility
Redistribution of assets
low
low to neutral
Public infrastructure
high (with exceptions)
Technology
high
(with exceptions)
low to high
Social safety nets
Subsidies, trade protection
Market liberalization
Pro-poor fiscal and tax policies

10. The Triple Feasibility Challenge
Type of policy instrument
Political feasibility
Administrative feasibility
Fiscal feasibility
Redistribution of assets
low
low to neutral
Public infrastructure
high (with exceptions)
Technology
high
(with exceptions)
low to high
Social safety nets
Subsidies, trade protection
Market liberalization
Pro-poor fiscal and tax policies

11. How to overcome the feasibility challenge?
Adjusting Policy Design and Implementation
Improving the Underlying Conditions
Political feasibility challenge
* Compensating the losers; packaging
* “Windows of opportunity”; stealth
* Increasing transparency
* Strengthening political voice of poor people
– Democratization, political decentralization
* Social mobilization/political organization
Administrative feasibility challenge
* Reducing technical complexity
* Reducing scope for corruption
* Working with NGOs
* Supply-side reform strategies
– Increased capacity and incentives
* Demand-side reform strategies
– Citizen report cards, right to information
Fiscal feasibility challenge
* Recovering costs
* Targeting
* Reform of the budgetary process
* Reform of tax system

12. How to overcome the feasibility challenge?
Adjusting Policy Design and Implementation
Improving the Underlying Conditions
Political feasibility challenge
* Compensating the losers; packaging
* “Windows of opportunity”; stealth
* Increasing transparency
* Strengthening political voice of poor people
– Democratization, political decentralization
* Social mobilization/political organization
Administrative feasibility challenge
* Reducing technical complexity
* Reducing scope for corruption
* Working with NGOs
* Supply-side reform strategies
– Increased capacity and incentives
* Demand-side reform strategies
– Citizen report cards, right to information
Fiscal feasibility challenge
* Recovering costs
* Targeting
* Reform of the budgetary process
* Reform of tax system

13. How to overcome the feasibility challenge?
Adjusting Policy Design and Implementation
Improving the Underlying Conditions
Political feasibility challenge
* Compensating the losers; packaging
* “Windows of opportunity”; stealth
* Increasing transparency
* Strengthening political voice of poor people
– Democratization, political decentralization
* Social mobilization/political organization
Administrative feasibility challenge
* Reducing technical complexity
* Reducing scope for corruption
* Working with NGOs
* Supply-side reform strategies
– Increased capacity and incentives
* Demand-side reform strategies
– Citizen report cards, right to information
Fiscal feasibility challenge
* Recovering costs
* Targeting
* Reform of the budgetary process
* Reform of tax system

14. A voice for the poorest! Institutional mechanisms
Reservation of seats in local councils
Empowerment – a political process!
True empowerment is self-empowerment!
Social mobilization
Vision and leadership – Ideas matter  change of mindsets
Amartya Sen: “There is much evidence in history that acute inequalities often survive precisely by making allies out of the deprived. The underdog comes to accept the legitimacy of the unequal order and becomes an implicit accomplice.”
Coming to believe that “another world is possible!”

15. Social movements – pathways to economic and political empowerment
Labor movement
Welfare state, collective bargaining
Peasant movements
Land reforms
Cooperative movement
F.W. Raiffeisen – created farmers’ cooperatives (19th century)
Until today, large agricultural market shares in cooperative hands
Ghandian movement
Mobilization of the poor –small-scale farmers also became organized
Grameen-Bank type women’s organizations
Economic empowerment as a path to political empowerment
Rights-based development movements
Right to information; right to food

16. What can the development community do?
Promoting the frame conditions for self-empowerment – people-oriented governance
Right to association
Freedom of speech, free press
Transparency; access of the poor/women to justice!
Political institutions that accountable to all citizens
Encouraging leadership – at all levels!
Project implementation methods that create space for empowerment
Community-driven development
Works best if building upon local initiatives
Refrain from “blue-printing” and “one-size-fits all”

17. Challenges ahead
Building the “demand-side” of governance is not enough!
State institutions need to have the capacity and incentives to respond to the poor (supply-side reforms)
Why do only the rural poor need to form user groups to get better services
Supply-side reforms - unresolved problem - requires more attention!
Some innovative approaches: E-government; ISO 9000 certification for governments
Equity in financing public services
Cost-recovery debate focuses on how to get the poor to pay for services – how to make sure that the rich pay a larger share?