International Food Policy Research Institute
sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty
Building the capacity of African states is at the top of the continent's development agenda. The challenge is great, and the record is mixed. Although we may know what makes for an effective state, knowing how to get there is not a linear process. We need to know what works, what doesn't, and why. Building State Capacity in Africa presents and analyzes recent experiences and insights of seasoned practitioners and researchers with supply side efforts to build administrative capacity, and demand-side efforts to strengthen government accountability to citizens. Early on, practitioners had assumed that poor public administration was a management issue and could be remedied through a combination of reorganization, technical training, and hardware. The reality is that public administrations are embedded in complex and interdependent systems of bureaucratic, political social, and economic interests. The volume concludes that only a few countries are ready for a comprehensive 'big-push' program of state capacity building -- countries with political leadership that has a development-oriented vision and a mandate for acting on that vision, plus a workable baseline of bureaucratic capabilities. Far more common are countries that have been part of Africa's democratic opening and that enjoy political stability, but have various levels of resistance to change. Here, modest steps should be taken to identify and leverage those entry points that can set in motion far-reaching cumulative changes.