Exploring corruption practices in public procurement of infrastructural projects in Ghana
A paper by Osei-Tutu et al. (2010). A couple of quotations from the abstract give the flavour:
“Purpose – While corruption has long been recognized as a destructive social problem, the subject has not yet been given much attention in the literature of the management of procurement of infrastructure projects in Ghana. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss corruption practices inherent in public procurement of infrastructural projects in Ghana with the aim of identifying corruption related challenges that must be addressed in order to actualize the expected economic gains of infrastructural projects.
Practical implications – Implementation of sound procurement performance measurements would be imperative in the bid to curb corruption practices. The paper suggested a number of business approaches to combat corrupt practices in Ghana, which are explained in terms of political, psychological, technical, operational and retaliatory measures. In this paper, it is proposed that knowledge about and debating corruption related issues is just as important to the modern public procurement as are the abilities to creatively and logically introduce monitoring systems when planning, executing and completing projects.”
OSEI-TUTU, E., BADU, E. & OWUSU-MANU, D. 2010. Exploring corruption practices in public procurement of infrastructural projects in Ghana. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 3, 236-256.
International Development Evaluation Association
There is an International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS). The book by Rist et al (2009) brings together key papers from their global assembly in 2009.
RIST, R. C., BOILY, M. H. & MARTIN, F. 2011. Influencing Change: Building Evaluation Capacity to Strengthen Governance, World Bank Publications.
Management per result: an approach to international development project design
Ika and Lytvynov (2011) argue that “results-based management (RBM) has proved to be a valuable tool for international development project management; however, there are some inconsistencies that limit the use of RBM at the design phase to manage for results. This article presents a “management-per-result” approach to reinforcing the project design function of RBM and illustrates its application to a real-life project. Shying away from a technocratic approach, it emphasizes a “quick-and-dirty” approach and proposes an updated version of the logical framework to include success criteria and factors and very rough estimates for both project costs and benefits for targeted project results for different types of projects (infrastructure development, “process” type of project, and so forth).”
IKA, L. A. & LYTVYNOV, V. 2011. The “management‐per‐result” approach to international development project design. Project Management Journal.
The project coordinator’s perspective
Ika et al (2010) present research findings which “suggest that project success [in the international aid industry] is insensitive to the level of project planning efforts but a significant correlation does exist between the use of monitoring and evaluation tools and project profile, a success criterion which is an early pointer of project long-term impact.”
IKA, L. A., DIALLO, A. & THUILLIER, D. 2010. Project management in the international development industry: The project coordinator’s perspective. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 3, 61-93.
Some observations about One UN
Some observations from Eddie Borup ….
“The One UN was initially a trial – Vietnam was one of the first.
http://www.un.org.vn/index.
However it changed from a “single UN Structure” to be a Single UN Budget and all UN agencies in one Building – so the impact is not as big as it could have been. A single building is very sensible and there are some savings i.e. security, admin, building rent/services. Having a single budget is more exciting as it means that in a Results Based Budget it becomes clear how many agencies are interfering with “Poverty” or “Aids” so it gives the Country a better chance to have a focused approach and clear lines of responsibility.
Here in the Maldives I have tried to get the UN Family to agree to a “One Project Management Capacity Development Plan” as a way of building on the concept – many different agencies are all doing PM development…not always teaching the same principles!
I think the following link is the paper that kicked it off:
http://www.un.org/events/
Search on ‘One UN’ as well as ‘Delivering as One’.”
History of UN development cooperation – more why less how?
In The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation Odén (2010) reviews the work of that name by Olav Stokke (2009). Odén opines that “Stokke has successfully woven a comprehensive, detailed and thought-provoking UN aid and development tapestry. …. it will certainly be used as a central reference work for scholars interested in the history of UN development cooperation, including its underlying ideas and driving forces.” He also says, however, that he “would have preferred more of ‘why’ and less of ‘how’“. What do other authors have to say about the ‘why’?
References
ODÉN, B. The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation. Forum for Development Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2010. 269-279.
STOKKE, O. 2009. The un and development: from aid to cooperation, Indiana Univ Pr.
Citations of ‘The UN and Development: from Aid to Cooperation’
Google Scholar says that ‘The UN and Development: from Aid to Cooperation‘ (Stokke, 2009) is cited by nine authors. Five are in English:
- Global governance and the UN: an unfinished journey (Weiss,2010)
- The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation (Odén, 2010)
- Ideals or interests? An analysis of the motives for the European Commission’s aid allocations from 1960 to 2008 (Brekke, 2010)
- The MDGs in Historical Perspective (Jolly, 2010)
- Patterns of Science: Developing Knowledge for a World Community at Unesco (Selcer, 2011)
Of these, only ‘Global governance and the UN: an unfinished journey‘ (Weiss,2010) has further citations. There are twelve:
- Governance: An “Empty Signifier”? (Offe, 2009) cited by a further 11
- Toward a Third Generation of International Institutions: Obama’s UN Policy (Weiss, 2009) cited by a further 5
- Human security networks in the indian ocean tsunami (Kamran, 2009) cited by a further 5
- Misrepresenting R2P and Advancing Norms: An Alternative Spiral? (Badescu, 2010) cited by a further 7
- Less Pretension, More Ambition: Development Policy in Times of Globalization (Van Lieshout & Went, 2011) cited by a further 2
- The CNN effect reconsidered (again): problematizing ICT and global governance in the CNN effect research agenda (Livingstone, 2011)
- Legitimacy, Identity and Climate Change: moving from international to world society? (Weiss, 2011)
- The European Union and the Reform of the United Nations: Towards a More Effective Security Council? (Pirozzi, 2011)
- Creating global synergies: inter-organizational cooperation in peace operations (Balas, 2011)
- The Power of Networks: Organizing the Global Politics of the Internet (Flyverbom, 2011)
- Rising Asian Powers and Changing Global Governance (Florini, 2011) cited by a further 1
- Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament: Can the Power of Ideas Tame the Power of the State? (Thakur, 2011)
References
BADESCU, C. G. & WEISS, T. G. 2010. Misrepresenting R2P and Advancing Norms: An Alternative Spiral? International Studies Perspectives.
BALAS, A. 2011. Creating global synergies: inter-organizational cooperation in peace operations. University of Illinois.
BREKKE, K. 2010. Ideals or interests? An analysis of the motives for the European Commission’s aid allocations from 1960 to 2008.
FLORINI, A. 2011. Rising Asian Powers and Changing Global Governance. International Studies Review, 13, 24-33.
FLYVERBOM, M. 2011. The Power of Networks: Organizing the Global Politics of the Internet, Edward Elgar Pub.
JOLLY, R. 2010c. The MDGs in Historical Perspective. IDS Bulletin, 41, 48-50.
LIVINGSTON, S. 2011. The CNN effect reconsidered (again): problematizing ICT and global governance in the CNN effect research agenda. Media, War & Conflict, 4, 20.
ODÉN, B. The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation. Forum for Development Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, June 2010. 269-279.
OFFE, C. 2009. Governance: An “Empty Signifier”? Constellations, 16, 550-562.
PIROZZI, N. 2011. The European Union and the Reform of the United Nations: Towards a More Effective Security Council?
SELCER, P. 2011. Patterns of Science: Developing Knowledge for a World Community at Unesco.
STOKKE, O. 2009. The un and development: from aid to cooperation, Indiana Univ Pr.
THAKUR, R. 2011. Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament: Can the Power of Ideas Tame the Power of the State? International Studies Review, 13, 34-45.
VAN LIESHOUT, P., WENT, R. & KREMER, M. 2011. Less Pretension, More Ambition: Development Policy in Times of Globalization, Amsterdam Univ Pr.
WEISS, T. G. 2009. Toward a Third Generation of International Institutions: Obama’s UN Policy. The Washington Quarterly, 32, 141-162.
WEISS, T. G. & THAKUR, R. C. 2010. Global governance and the UN: an unfinished journey, Indiana Univ Pr.
WEISS, T. G. & BURKE, M. J. 2011. Legitimacy, Identity and Climate Change: moving from international to world society? Third World Quarterly, 32, 1057-1072.
The UN and Development: review by Oden
The UN and Development: From Aid to Cooperation. Bertil Odén reviews the book of that title by Olav Stokke.
UN Ideas that Changed the World
The useful review by Shaw of UN Ideas that Changed the World (by Richard Jolly, Louis Emmerij and Thomas G. Weiss. Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009) also contains useful background on the United Nations Intellectual History Project.
DJ Shaw is a former economic adviser and chief, Policy Affairs Service, UN World Food Programme and consultant to FAO, the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat.