Collectively, the MENA countries spend significantly on social services, especially on education public spending on health and education together take over 7 percent of GDP. They have invested heavily in modernizing infrastructure. Primary school enrollment has risen by 10 percentage points since 1980, and youth literacy has climbed by 20 percentage points; years of schooling rose from only one to five since 1960. Infant mortality was cut by two-thirds in two decades, and immunization rates are approaching 100 percent. Many countries have adopted comprehensive social safety net programs, including food and utility subsidies and unemployment insurance. Despite tremendous water scarcity, the region now provides access to improved water to nearly 90 percent of city dwellers and 70 percent of those living in rural areas. Similar progress can be noted for infrastructure services, like roads and especially for mobile phones, but also telephone land lines, which doubled in the 20 years since 1980.
Yet weaknesses persist. Illiteracy remains a problem, especially for women, and even among youths who should have received schooling. Even if enrollments have expanded, the quality of teaching remains an issue. MENA lags similar developing countries, especially with respect to privatization, of regulation of public utilities and to the governance environment for private businesses. Poorly regulated government owned utilities are unable to satisfy demand, phones are hard to get, internet hosts remain limited. At the same time, private investors who could furnish additional power, water, and telecommunications services find MENA countries far from attractive. Resources and technical capacity alone cannot explain weak coverage and quality of public services in MENA, especially since analysis finds that administrative quality in MENA is similar to those in comparable countries. They do not explain the failure of education systems to produce a skilled workforce, recurrent electricity and water outages, long delays in registering property or businesses, or inequitable treatment of importers. Rather, weaknesses in MENA’s public services stem from weaknesses in governance, especially public sector accountability. Every country in MENA ranks below the median for the world in terms of public accountability, as measured by a dozen worldwide indicators measuring how well citizens can access public information, carry on public debate, hold their agencies and officials accountable, and generally enjoy civil rights. As a region, MENA ranks below similar countries in East Asia and Latin America, and below all other developing countries as a group.
This weak public accountability reflects governments’ heavy reliance on administrative systems to define and manage public services. But centralized administrative accountability systems are isolated from citizens’ concerns (the syndrome of government knows best), lack independence (like the thief who is also the policeman), and poorly monitor how services are actually delivered (whether doctors prescribe medicine correctly or policemen patrol neighborhoods effectively).
The best antidote to weak public services lies, then, in raising public accountability, in increasing citizens’ involvement in how public services are defined and delivered, in increasing citizens’ feedback on those who actually provide the services, and in increasing citizens’ control over the government officials who define and oversee public service policies. The power of the citizen’s voice depends, however, on transparency and contestability. Transparency in government ensures that official procedures and fees are openly posted, that budget allocations are published, that problems can be debated openly. Contestability of government ensures that citizens can choose an alternative provider if one performs poorly, that there are effective complaint mechanisms, and ultimately that they can vote unresponsive leaders out of office.
Countries can increase the citizen’s voice in two ways. The first is to enlist citizens in monitoring and even managing agencies providing public services, since they are in a better position to judge quality and effectiveness. Governments can move in this direction by using feedback surveys to allow users to grade agencies, by enhancing the transparency and client focus of their e-government initiatives, by allowing different service providers to compete, by decentralizing more services to local agencies or governments, and by designing participatory processes that give citizens a direct say in public services.
The second is to expand public participation in government generally, directly through competitive elections and indirectly through a broader array of consultations and public debate. Such participation puts pressure on policymakers, whether in the executive or the legislature, to pay attention to public service issues, to adopt policies that improve quality and coverage, and to strengthen administrative accountability systems. Civil society organizations must be at the forefront of any effort to strengthen the citizen’s voice and empowering them is an important first step in rendering policy makers more accountable for service delivery.
Overall, increasing such participation is one of the greatest governance challenges facing this region, and any region with a legacy of limited public disclosure and restrictions on the media and public debate. But addressing this governance challenge is the only way for MENA governments to continue building on past achievements in delivering public services, and in meeting the growing shortfall in ensuring appropriate public services for the 21st century.
Quelle: The Daily Star
