38908 Capacity Development B R I E F S S H A R I N G K N O W L E D G E A N D L E S S O N S L E A R N E D WHERE CAPACITY IS NOT THE ONLY PROBLEM Moving from generic capacity building to support for issues-based change in Nigeria Christopher Pycroft, Richard Butterworth1 For many years, donor approaches have typically relied on technical assistance and training of project staff to perform specific tasks. Since the early 1990s, donors and multilateral lenders have increasingly sought to affect the broader context and institutional environment within which indi- viduals and organizations operate, rather than focus exclusively on training specific staff within selected organizations. This is premised on a new and broader approach to capacity development, one in which interventions take into account the larger institutional and political context within which various stakeholders and groups are willing and able to undertake reforms and affect change themselves. This Brief highlights DFID's experience in Nigeria in adopting an issues-based approach in which its role lies more in responding to and following--rather than leading--local change processes. This shifts the donor's role to engaging with a wider variety of stakeholders, identifying groups and coalitions that are most likely to drive and achieve institutional changes that can allevi- ate poverty, and to designing innovative means of supporting such locally driven efforts. Why focus on capacity at the institutional level? Nigeria between 2000 and 2003. The programmes Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, donors spent themselves were well designed and appropriately large portions of aid funds on training and technical implemented, with the reviews showing that at least assistance targeting a specific team or group of staff some capacity had been built within the target organi- in selected agencies and organizations in recipient zations. But the quality of the organizations' service countries. In the early 1990s the focus shifted to seldom improved as predicted at programme inception. organizational change and review of the implement- DFID came to the conclusion that other factors were ing organization's capacity, and designing interven- intervening to dilute the impact of its development tions that would strengthen the capacity of the orga- assistance, and set out to use a `Drivers of Change' nization in question. process to discover what these factors are. In designing programmes aimed at capacity develop- Drivers of change: Identifying the real barriers ment, donors tend to follow a well-understood path to pro-poor change beginning with problem identification, review of the implementing organization's capacity, and designing DFID's development assistance is usually based interventions that would strengthen the capacity of upon two fundamental assumptions: the organization in question. This approach is tried, tested, and eminently sensible. And yet, programme 1Christopher Pycroft is Senior Governance Adviser with DFID reviews--particularly those done after programme South East Asia. Richard Butterworth is Assistant Governance completion--frequently show that the impact of capac- Adviser, DFID Nigeria. Thanks to Simon Foot and Chris Heymans (independent consultants) and Alex Stevens ity development has been less significant than was (Assistant Governance Adviser, DFID Nigeria) for additional originally anticipated. This was the finding of a num- contributions. The views expressed in this article are the ber of programme reviews undertaken by DFID in authors', and do not necessarily represent those of DFID. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 NUMBER 12 1. In a development context, capacity is often a sig- would create the necessary political will for far nificant problem and building capacity through reaching reforms that would have a positive impact technical support is an effective solution. on poverty reduction. Assuming the existence of 2. The broader environment (political, social, cul- political will, DFID's programmes focused on limited tural, and institutional) in which capacity build- organizational capacity, and sought to build the ing takes place will enable improvements in orga- capacity of a range of organizations to improve ser- nizational capacity to be utilized to facilitate the vice delivery in health, education, justice, and local anticipated development outcome. service provision. However, these programmes had less of an impact on poverty levels in Nigeria than The first assumption rests on the logic that if indi- originally planned. viduals and organizations in developing countries are Trying to understand why these interventions were better able to perform their responsibilities then the less successful than anticipated led to a shift in focus quantity and quality of their contributions will away from organizations and individuals (champions increase--and if these contributions are related to of change) to an analysis of broader features of poverty reduction then the objectives will be Nigeria's political economy: achieved. This is attractive to donors because it pro- vides a technical solution to complex problems and · The analysis began with assessment of structural can be presented to both host governments and features--including demography, resource own- donors as apolitical--avoiding accusations of interfer- ership patterns, religion, history and the nature ence in internal affairs. of ethnic divisions--to better understand how The second assumption can be distilled into the and why Nigeria's particular institutional and mercurial concept of `political will'. It is commonly organizational environment had evolved. found in the assumptions and risks section of most · The second level of engagement looked at programmes, but never fully explained, and rarely Nigeria's institutional environment--to better mitigated. understand how the rules that facilitate and con- · In the best-case scenario, a government's political strain interaction between individuals and orga- will is reflected in a country's adoption of a nizations developed and operated. Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) that establishes The structural features frame the parameters within the government's commitment (financial as well which Nigeria's political and economic system oper- as political) to poverty reduction and the achieve- ates. Nigeria's modern political economy has devel- ment of the Millennium Development Goals oped in response to key determining structural char- (MDGs). The assumption is that a more legitimate acteristics--including the significance of a single and accountable government is likely to have a point-source resource (oil). Ethnic, regional and reli- greater impact on poverty reduction, as it will gious diversity have complicated nation building and tend to be more responsive to the demands of its precipitated civil war and military intervention in the poor people, especially if they are in the majority. polity. Furthermore, Nigeria's endowments have been managed and manipulated through time, and through · Alternatively, there are numerous examples of a unique set of institutional arrangements, that cre- governments that have a degree of legitimacy ated the current political economy. and control the levers of state power, but do not The analysis focused on three features that have exercise this state authority in the interest of the become pervasive in Nigeria's political economy: majority of citizens, and certainly not in the inter- est of the poor. Assuming the existence of politi- 1. The mismanagement of revenue from oil; cal will in these cases, designing interventions 2. The weakness of formal accountability mecha- based on capacity building alone runs the risk of nisms; and reinforcing (and legitimizing) government action 3. The absence of non-oil sector economic growth. that fails to address poverty. These three characteristics are closely related and · Even if government does have `political will,' a mutually reinforcing, and combine to act as a signifi- traditional capacity development approach fre- cant barrier to reform in Nigeria--even reform led by quently underestimates powerful institutional a democratically elected government with commit- constraints on the behaviour of individuals and ment to change. Profound changes in the institutional organizations. environment--such as the transition from military to civilian rule--have had less impact on these features What determines political will to undertake than anticipated. and sustain pro-poor reforms? Within the institutional environment, the discrep- In Nigeria, there was an assumption that the tran- ancy between formal and informal institutional sition from military to civilian rule in 1998-99 arrangements should be underscored. Nigeria has a S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 NUMBER 12 well-established formal institutional system--a ing change has been developed by DFID as the Constitution, democratic processes of accountability, `issues-based approach'. functioning legislative processes, and a recognizable judiciary. Although not entirely moribund, the formal A donor response: The issues-based approach institutions are not without flaws (leading to the The issues-based approach starts with an analysis assumption that capacity is the key problem). The of the political economy surrounding the institutional weaknesses are illustrated in such trends as a pro- changes that reformers are attempting to achieve, and gressive failure to connect policy with budgets; cor- the identification of key issues that will motivate a ruption in procurement practice; debt mismanage- critical mass of support for reform. ment; and lack of expenditure control. A range of · Interventions are based on an analysis of the institutions has also emerged to facilitate the extrac- strategic importance of an issue, its link to insti- tion of surplus rents for political sustainability and tutional reform (and potential to facilitate a consumption by the elite. transfer from the informal to the formal institu- Informal institutional arrangements tend to be more tional realm), and its impact on poverty reduc- powerful and pervasive than their formal counter- tion. parts. Reliance on informal institutional arrangements · Issues must be Nigerian-led, have an established extend from the use of traditional authority to medi- Nigerian constituency demanding reform, and ate disputes, and ethnic trading networks to underpin wherever possible, be linked to the government's economic activity, to the manipulation of the electoral own reform agenda. DFID can then add value by system to reinforce patronage-based rather than con- supporting these coalitions (with financial and stituency-based politics. technical assistance) to achieve the outcome. The power of informal institutions presents a sec- ond tier of challenges in a capacity building This is done in support of the government's new approach that focuses on strengthening formal insti- reform agenda, the National Economic Empowerment tutional arrangements. Unless transactions migrate and Development Strategy (NEEDS), Nigeria's home- from the informal to the formal institutional grown poverty reduction strategy. The NEEDS estab- arrangements, capacity building focused on formal lishes a bold agenda for far-reaching institutional institutions will have less impact than anticipated. reform that challenges the existing status quo and DFID's work in Nigeria between 2000 and 2003 directly confronts many of Nigeria's vested interests, demonstrated the limitations of capacity building both within and outside government. exclusively at the individual and organizational lev- Within this context, DFID Nigeria has applied the els. Even some organizations that had strong capac- issues-based approach in three ways: ity were ineffective in taking forward reform. Staff · Supporting the growth of coalitions around exist- and organizational capacity are not irrelevant, but ing government reforms; they are only part of the solution. The situation has · Following an issue; significantly improved during the second Obasanjo · Combining traditional and issues-based government where the reformers in government approaches. have a strong vision and strong political support. However, the conclusion remained that classic Coalitions to support existing government reforms. capacity building programmes needed to be reori- Issues-based approaches can be used to respond flex- ented and supplemented if they were to support pro- ibly to government reforms to deepen or widen them poor change. to new levels of government. For example, when the Federal government published all allocations to state This led to debate about the nature of change in and local governments, it created opportunities for society--in Nigeria in particular--and whether change civil society to develop ways of monitoring the expen- happens as a result of improved individual and orga- diture of the lower tiers of government, lobbying for nizational capacity. The conclusion was that increased transparency and holding politicians to · Individual and organizational capacity is a neces- account. An issues-based approach can respond to sary but insufficient condition for change, and this agenda by supporting coalitions to capitalise on · There are other factors, bundled in the concept of these reforms. political will, that also need to be affected in order Following specific issues. In some cases, DFID will for pro-poor reforms to be undertaken and sus- design individual programmes to support specific tained. issues. Rather than focusing on individual organiza- We concluded that development assistance would be tions, the interventions focus on specific outcomes more effective if it supported, enhanced and built (related to institutional change) and then engage Nigerian-led change processes rather than focusing with a range of stakeholders to support a change on building capacity. In Nigeria, this way of support- process. DFID's approach to the 2007 elections is one 1. A traditional capacity building approach that example. A traditional approach to supporting raises the overall ability of the NNA to fulfil its improved electoral outcomes would have identified responsibilities, and the organization with responsibility for delivering 2. An issue specific aspect that supports the NNA's the election--in Nigeria the Independent National ability to engage around issues (such as the gov- Electoral Commission (INEC). A review of INEC's ernment's reform agenda). The issue specific capacity would identify a range of deficiencies, and a aspect will enable the National Assembly to sup- capacity development programme would be port coalitions seeking institutional reform, but designed. will also begin to change the way the National In contrast, under the issues-based approach, the Assembly engages in governance--itself an focus is on the outcome--a reformed institutional important institutional reform objective. environment that ensures free and fair elections. To achieve this outcome, numerous organizations need Conclusion to be involved, from government, civil society, the In environments where weak capacity is com- media and private sector. Supporting this objective pounded by an absence of broad-based political will, needs a highly flexible and non-prescriptive pro- donors need to develop new approaches. Development gramme with the ability to respond to unanticipated assistance that does not engage with the politics of opportunities and setbacks as the process unfolds. institutional constraints, but focuses only on organiza- Once a barrier to the achievement of the objective is tional capacity, will have limited impact in addressing identified, DFID uses its resources--carefully coordi- poverty--and may be counter-productive (by bolster- nated with the Nigerian coalition--to overcome the ing the existing status quo). By understanding those obstacle, and then proceed down the process `road aspects of institutional reform that are more likely to map' to the objective. have the greatest impact on poverty reduction, strate- Combining traditional and issues based approaches. gic donor engagement can accelerate reform and have In other cases, DFID has supported the ability of orga- an increased impact on poverty reduction. This kind of nizations to play a full and active role around key engagement may take DFID into new, overtly political, issues. The Nigerian National Assembly (NNA), for terrain, with all the questions of legitimacy and repu- example, plays a crucial role in Nigeria's governance tational risk that brings. But if DFID's mandate is to system, but was unable to fulfil its constitutional eliminate poverty, and the analysis indicates that the mandate due to weak capacity and the impact of existing government and the status quo it represents Nigeria's structural features on the body politic. As a is part of the problem, and where there is limited polit- result, the legislature was largely unable to engage ical will and strong constraints to change, then a new and contribute constructively on important political kind of engagement may be justified. issues (including the government's own reform agenda). DFID's Support for the NNA evolved into Peer Reviewer: Poul Engberg-Pedersen, Sr. Public two complementary approaches: Sector Specialist, AFTPR. About World Bank Institute (WBI): Unleashing the Power of Knowledge to Enable a World Free of Poverty WBI helps people, institutions, and countries to diagnose problems that keep communities poor, to make informed choices to solve those problems, and to share what they learn with others. Through traditional and distance learning methods, WBI and its partners in many countries deliver knowledge-based options to policymakers, technical experts, business and community leaders, and civil society stakeholders; fos- tering analytical and networking skills to help them make sound decisions, design effective socioeconomic policies and programs, and unleash the productive potential of their societies. WBI Contacts: Mark Nelson; Program Manager, Capacity Development Resource Center Tel: 202-458-8041, Email: mnelson1@worldbank.org Pinki Chaudhuri, Coordinator Tel: 202-458-5787, E-mail: pchaudhuri@worldbank.org Visit our website for more information and download the electronic copies of all Capacity Development Briefs: http://www.worldbank.org/capacity S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 NUMBER 12