The Political Economy of the Roads Sector in Uganda
Discussion details
This 20 minute presentation covers the main findings of a study of the political economy of the roads sector in Uganda conducted by David Booth and Frederick Golooba-Mutebi for DFID in 2008. This took place in the context of reforms to the sector including the establishment of a semi-autonomous National Roads Authority (UNRA) and the creation of a ring fenced road fund.
The study uses a ‘layered political economy approach’ to analyse: 1) the systemic constraints facing the sector, 2) the way in which institutions interact with actors’ decision logics, and 3) dynamic processes of change that create ‘room for manoeuvre’ in promoting reforms. The study concluded that there are very large systemic constraints inhibiting reform in the sector because the contracting system remains a central part of patronage arrangements for distributing rents and ensuring political support and financing.The overall balance of power and incentives are not favourable to reform. However, there are many actors with an interest in the improved performance of the sector.It does appear that the reform process has created some additional room for manoeuvre where development agencies can operate to promote change.A particular challenge is to work to solve collective action problems that prevent individual actors breaking out of established patterns of behaviour.In this respect the study concluded that development agencies can play a vital role acting as a third party to broker networks, dialogue and information exchange, and to help the main players to overcome what would otherwise be situations of stalemate or logjam.
The full study is available for download here
We look forward to hearing your comments about the presentation.Is this a useful approach to identifying the potential for reform? Have you been working on similar problems that would benefit from such analysis? Are the recommendations of the study helpful, and are development agencies in a position to work in the way that David Booth suggests?
About the presenter:
David Booth is a Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute in London, where he directs an international research consortium, the Africa Power & Politics Programme (www.institutions-africa.org). Previously Professor of Development Studies at the University of Wales Swansea, he was trained in sociology, has edited two multidisciplinary development studies journals and has done research and advisory work in several countries of Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. His current interests centre on institutional diversity in African governance and the implications for international development policies.
DISCLAIMER: The accuracy and contents of this post are the sole responsibility of the author and do not represent the official position of the European Commission.
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In my opinion this is a particularly important study because it focuses centrally on the problem of identifying what is the potential space for reform and how donors can work with this. David Booth has himself said that political economy analysis has too often been a “dismal science of constraints”. But, in a more positive sense this study helps to show what can potentially be done even in a relatively unpromising situation. There is some very good analysis of what has created the logjam in the sector (12 minutes into the youtube clip) and creative thinking on what might be done to address this. We have borrowed heavily on David’s ideas about ‘room for manoeuvre’ and reform space in the country and sector level political economy tools to be posted on the capacity4dev.eu website. I hope that we will be seeing more of this type of problem-focussed study.