FFD MooC – Final Assignment

Submitted by Salman HaiderE-mail – 19.haider@gmail.com

Introduction• First of all I would like to introduce myself. My name is Salman Haider

and I am a Post Graduate in Rural Management. After my studies I have been working in a World Bank assisted Project. Therein, I have worked for two years at the implementation level as a head of an Implementation Unit in Bihar, India. Since last 7 months I am working at the State level in the same project but at the State Level, and that too in a different State i.e. Uttar Pradesh.

Problem Statement • Financing for development has issues at multiple levels, the problem

that I have tried to understand does not directly concern “Mobilisation of funds”. Specifically, I am going to talk about the Indian context. Where the development question is staring in the face of millions of people. Many a times the funds mobilised do not get effectively used, managed or spent. This significantly decreases the direct investment and also the re-mobilisation of funds from Government of India (current year fund utilisation is highly related to next years fund allocation ).• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bhubaneswar/Most-govt-depts-spend-less-

than-40-funds-from-annual-budget/articleshow/50071001.cms

Problem Statement Contd….

• The world Bank and the Government of India Converge their efforts for many projects. This is done by utilising funds allocated to various departments operating under the Government. However, allocation of funds in the Government sector is not a big issue. To emphasise this point I would like to quote Dr. Robert Chambers who during one of our workshops said that the “problem with India is that it has too much of funds.”

Reasons to solutions• The bigger problem is underutilisation and inefficient use of funds. This is

the visible problem, however, when dug deep one can find many reasons to it. There are some reasons which are very deep rooted into the system, such as the highly bureaucratic structures and red-tape. There is long and visible fight being put in by various players to address those reasons. • However, I would like to pose such solutions which lie under the circle of

influence of aid/advocacy agencies. Focusing only on two reasons for the inefficiencies of the various government projects.• A. The Lack of Self Knowledge inside a Government Department – • B. Neglected and De-motivated implementation Core -

The Lack of Self Knowledge inside a government department –They don’t understand their tools

• The Strategic layer has no understanding of its own implementation core. E.g. Secretaries of various government departments don’t have a clear understanding of their own implementation core. In various convergence government department convergence meetings that I have attended, the biggest learning has been that the heads don’t know how their implementation core works.

• Solution of this can be various tools games and exercises that can be done with the departments which can help them understand themselves.

Many times what I have heard in work shops that the project is going to shoot as we (aid agency) have convinced the Secretary. Months later we understand that the convergence is not proving to be that much fruitful as envisioned. Reason for the problem is that, its not only the Secretary and the Magistrates and the CDOs who need to be factored in. A significant factor is the understanding and willingness of implementation layer. We cant keep on pretending that they don’t exist, they exist, and they are very significant. Moreover , compared to the people at the strategic layer or the middle management, the personnel at the implementation core stay for the longest duration in any department.

Solution - Incorporating the views of implementation core - We make honest attempts to invite the comments from the people at implementation layer. Why I say honest attempts because in front of his superior officer a government official is very less likely to disagree.

Solution - Filling the gaps, Doing what the government cant – It has been a long understood fact that, in the Government sector there are few motivations for a person to work. We cant do much in here i.e. we as aid agencies cant punish people for underperforming but what we can do is that we can reward the performers.

The Lack of Self Knowledge inside a government department – 2. Convergence at all levels

Thank YouMost of the times it’s the system which fails, not the people. Nobody

wants to do a bloody shoddy work – Prof. Hitesh Bhatt