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- Convenor:
-
Syeda Ayesha Subhani
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Asad Ghalib
(Liverpool Hope University)
- Discussant:
-
Ahmad Nawaz
(Lahore School of Economics)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Politics and political economy
- Location:
- Palmer G.01
- Sessions:
- Friday 30 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Leaders across the developing and developed world were tested to their limits during the pandemic. One year on, and gradually approaching normality, we take a step back and look at how leaders involved in the development sector acted and performed their roles during and after the pandemic.
Long Abstract:
The pandemic led to leaders bearing the burden of making critical, timely and accurate decisions to lead their followers out of the crisis. This role was compounded for those who were associated with the development sector. The reason simply being that the decision that they took would set forth a chain of interconnected reactions, eventually touching countless lives. The extent and the magnitude of leaders' decisions depend on the number, location and type of followers and the various programme beneficiaries that they served.
While some success stories have narrated the commendable leadership exhibited by some during these testing times, there have been several instances where there was a total failure on the part of the leaders across various levels.
This panel invites empirical papers from around the globe that have carried out studies involving leaders at all levels, capacities and roles. Underpinned by theoretical frameworks and supported by empirical evidence, these studies will be a useful addition to the literature surrounding the theory and practice of leadership in the global development sector.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 30 June, 2023, -Ujjwal Krishna (La Trobe University)
Paper short abstract:
Donor agencies make decisions based mostly on political, technical and administrative factors. But how do Australian bureaucrats at DFAT engage with research expertise? The Developmental Leadership Program explores this through interviews with officials and researchers conducted during the pandemic.
Paper long abstract:
Decision making in international development bureaucracies is driven by a variety of political, technical, and administrative factors, and is the outcome of complex interactions between these domains. Reviews of the integration of the Australian Agency for International Development into the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) have pointed out that post-merger, a substantial amount of development expertise, leadership, and capacity exited government. With this shift, it is argued that decisions on aid policy and programming have been increasingly determined in closer coordination with the government’s foreign policy priorities and objectives. Do these circumstances still leave room for bureaucrats to engage with research expertise emanating from outside DFAT, and how, if at all, does this contribute to shaping development policy and programs? This paper presents emerging findings from the Developmental Leadership Program (DLP)’s embedded research impact project. Using data from interviews with DFAT officers and local staff, and with researchers and managing contractors closely engaging with DFAT in their respective contexts, it explores the ways in which research is produced, disseminated, captured, commissioned, contextualised, and consumed across the aid ecosystem. It examines the framing of research, the role of leadership, networks and coalitions, the impact of the pandemic, and the institutional incentives and bounded rationality of development actors. Finally, it presents recommendations for producers and consumers of research on ways of working that can ensure that research and expertise is valued and used effectively in policy and programming, despite the complex political economy and organisational culture of donor agencies.
Afeez Lawal (Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Nigeria)
Paper short abstract:
This study examines the power relations that shaped the design and implementation of a Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) programme in Nigeria. It showed how the design and implementation of the CBHI programme in rural Kwara was dominated by foreign actors. It serves a lesson for other nations.
Paper long abstract:
This study examines the power relations that shaped the design and implementation of a Community-Based Health Insurance (CBHI) programme in Nigeria. Healthcare reform is largely a political process which requires a careful analysis for better understanding. The process is often characterized by politics of domination and influence by various actors on the policy scene. Health policy triangle developed by Walt and Gilson serves as the analytical tool. Using a qualitative method of data collection, this study sheds light on the recent trends in health policy transfer to Africa from the global North. The study was conducted in selected archetypal rural settlements in Kwara State Nigeria. The study revealed that the design and implementation of the CBHI programme in rural Kwara had underlying politics. It also found that the foreign actors dominated the policy space and the local policy actors were given secondary roles. The study concludes that the inefficiency of the programme was due to the imposition of a policy that was not in tune with the realities of the people because they were not involved in the policy design. This raises the need to repurpose the role of the state towards achieving meaningful development, especially in the healthcare sector. In other words, the government should set out a comprehensive health policy plan that will be insulated against policy hijacking and directed towards the attainment of universal health coverage.