Michael Woolcock

Measuring Social Capital : An Integrated Questionnaire

The idea of social capital has enjoyed a remarkable rise to prominence in both the theoretical and applied social science literature over the last decade. While lively debate has accompanied that journey, thereby helping to advance our thinking and to clarify areas of agreement and disagreement, much still remains to be done. One approach that we hope can help bring further advances for both scholars and practitioners is the provision of a set of empirical tools for measuring social capital. The purpose of this paper is to introduce such a tool-the Integrated Questionnaire for the Measurement of Social Capital (SC-IQ)-with a focus on applications in developing countries. The tool aims to generate quantitative data on various dimensions of social capital as part of a larger household survey (such as the Living Standards Measurement Survey or a household income/expenditure survey). Specifically, six dimensions are considered: groups and networks; trust and solidarity; collective action and cooperation; information and communication; social cohesion and inclusion; empowerment and political action. The paper addresses sampling and data collection issues for implementing the SC-IQ and provides guidance for the use and analysis of data. The tool has been pilot-tested in Albania and Nigeria and a review of lessons learned is presented.

Trust, voice, and incentives : learning from local success stories in service delivery in the Middle East and North Africa

This report examines the role of incentives, trust, and engagement as critical determinants of service delivery performance in MENA countries. Focusing on education and health, the report illustrates how the weak external and internal accountability undermines policy implementation and service delivery performance and how such a cycle of poor performance can be counteracted. Case studies of local success reveal the importance of both formal and informal accountability relationships and the role of local leadership in inspiring and institutionalizing incentives toward better service delivery performance. Enhancing services for MENA citizens requires forging a stronger social contract among public servants, citizens, and service providers while empowering communities and local leaders to find best fit solutions. Learning from the variations within countries, especially the outstanding local successes, can serve as a solid basis for new ideas and inspiration for improving service delivery. Such learning may help the WorldBank Group and other donors as well as national and local leaders and civil society, in developing ways to enhance the trust, voice, and incentives for service delivery to meet citizens? needs and expectations.

Social exclusion and mobility in Brazil

This book examines issues related to reducing inequality in Brazil. As the volumes editors assert with authority, the current national political climate in Brazil provides an unprecedented space for discussing this topic. Among the several investigations that have looked at exclusion and social mobility in Brazil, very few have presented as much empirical evidence as the studies included in this volume. In addition to reviewing the pertinent literature, Social Exclusion and Mobility in Brazil examines the changing income dynamics among homogeneous groups over a 20-year period. The analysis points to factors-such as ethnicity, education, gender, occupation, and location-that affect the probability that a group will remain in the situation of poverty. The volume also examines Brazilians perceptions of these circumstances and the cultural values that make coexistence possible given very high levels of inequality and low levels of mobility. It reveals that Brazilians expect the state-and only the state-to create mechanisms capable of transforming this situation. This volume presents a set of recommendations for discussion by citizens, academics, and policy makers. These topics include improving labor market equality and increasing access to assets; improving the social security system; supporting the formation of human capital, particularly among youth; reducing discrimination based on characteristics such as race and gender; and strengthening citizenship and participation.

Alternative Paths to Public Financial Management and Public Sector Reform

Reforming public-sector organizations, their structures, policies, processes and practices—is notoriously difficult, in rich and poor countries alike (Grindle and Thomas 1991; World Bank 2012). Even in the most favorable of circumstances, the scale and complexity of the tasks to be undertaken are enormous, requiring levels of coordination and collaboration that may be without precedent for those involved. Entirely new skills—for example, learning to use sophisticated software, may need to be acquired by tens of thousands of people. Such reformsare often premised on the need to “modernize” prevailing administrative systems, with the long-run payoff being enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in the collection, management and allocation of public resources, all in pursuit of top-priority national strategy objectives. But these payoffs may take many years to fully materialize, requiring sustained commitments from senior officials as setbacks, delays and confusion threaten to sap morale and momentum. High turnover, competing distractions and inherent uncertainty can compromise the necessary focus. As such, a central focus of the processes discussed in the cases is to highlight innovative decision-making and implementation strategies on the part of those responsible for leading the reforms—certainly in the country context itself, where the political and bureaucratic space for deviating from standard approaches is often considerably constrained. In such circumstance, being ‘innovative’ means by definition, not holding unwaveringly to predetermined plans and not insistently using standard techniques in standard ways. As such, the primary purpose in presenting these cases is to document how the space (more formally, the authorizing environment) for innovative reform strategies was created and sustained, how and through whom such space was implemented, and how emergent implementation challenges were addressed. Importantly, the approaches deployed in these cases, and the conclusions authors derive from them, are not presented as a new list of universal ‘best practices’ that those undertaking similar reforms should now adopt, but rather as ideas and inspiration that they might consider. In other words, they are cases of how ‘best fit’ strategies in combination with ‘best practice’ approaches were crafted and implemented, of how general principles became specific applications in particular places in response to idiosyncratic problems.