Multi-stakeholder initiatives (i.e., partnerships between governments, civil society, and the private sector) are an increasingly prevalent strategy promoted by multilateral, bilateral, and nongovernmental development organizations for addressing weaknesses in public sector governance. Global public sector governance MSIs seek to make national governments more transparent and accountable by setting shared standards for information disclosure and multi-stakeholder collaboration. However, research on similar interventions implemented at the national or subnational level suggests that the effectiveness of these initiatives is likely to be mediated by a variety of socio-political factors. This dissertation examines the transnational evidence base for three global public sector governance MSIs—the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative, and the Open Government Partnership—and investigates their implementation within and across three shared national contexts—Guatemala, the Philippines, and Tanzania—in order to determine whether and how these initiatives lead to improvements in proactive transparency (i.e., discretionary release of government data), demand-driven transparency (i.e., reforms that increase access to government information upon request), and accountability (i.e., the extent to which government officials are compelled to publicly explain their actions and/or face penalties or sanction for them), as well as the extent to which they provide participating governments with an opportunity to project a public image of transparency and accountability, while maintaining questionable practices in these areas (i.e., openwashing). The evidence suggests that global public sector governance MSIs often facilitate gains in proactive transparency by national governments, but that improvements in demand-driven transparency and accountability remain relatively rare. Qualitative comparative analysis reveals that a combination of multi-stakeholder power sharing and civil society capacity is sufficient to drive improvements in proactive transparency, while the absence of visible, high-level political support is sufficient to impede such reforms. The lack of demand-driven transparency or accountability gains suggests that national-level coalitions forged by global MSIs are often too narrow to successfully advocate for broader improvements to public sector governance. Moreover, evidence for openwashing was found in one-third of cases, suggesting that national governments sometimes use global MSIs to deliberately mislead international observers and domestic stakeholders about their commitment to reform.%%%%International relations%%%%Public policy%%%%Political science%%%%global action networks, good governance, multi-stakeholder initiatives, social accountability, soft power, transparency%%%%School of International Service%%%%Degree Awarded: Ph.D. School of International Service. American University

Global Standards in National Contexts: The Role of Transnational Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives in Public Sector Governance Reform

Extractive industries transparency initiative and the politics of institutional innovation in Ghana’s oil industry

Norms in development are typically established at the global level to solve complex development challenges on the ground. These norms are standards of expected behavior about how things ought to be conducted and are deemed crucial for societies to flourish. Global norms, however, often fail to successfully diffuse to local contexts. The author intend to argue in this report that many initiatives are effective in putting norms on the global agenda, but few of these norms lead to transformational change on the ground because of cultural and political economy challenges that were not considered in the norm formation or in the advocacy campaign process. Nonetheless, there are lessons to consider that could lead to more successful outcomes. This report explores the journey of norms in development, from emergence to implementation. Specifically, it seeks to identify effective strategies for norms to take root and make part of the global and domestic agendas and limits. It also identifies challenges to the implementation of norms and some possible strategies and tools to overcome these challenges. The report draws from various global policy advocacy campaigns with a particular focus on governance; it also includes notable historic campaigns, such as Britain's antislavery campaign.

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Global norms : creation, diffusion, and limits

Corruption and civic space: Contextual factors influencing EITI compliance

Multi-stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) bring multiple stakeholders (usually government, business, and civil society) to a common platform to dialogue, design, and implement sustainable solutions to identified governance issues However, what factors are likely to determine the effectiveness of MSIs? The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a global MSI, established in 2003, that seeks to improve the management of natural resource wealth in implementing countries through increased transparency This study examines the Nigerian EITI to explore the factors that influence the organisation and effectiveness of MSIs We find that the Nigerian EITI (NEITI) falls short of a truly multi-stakeholder initiative and hence is limited in its impact and effectiveness in improving resource wealth management in Nigeria Four factors deduced from a combination of agency and collective action theories appear to be strong in explaining the shortcomings of the NEITI These factors are the Nigerian structural environment, the characteristics of the stakeholders to the Nigerian extractives industry, the emergent governance structure of NEITI, and the nature of external influence on NEITI Evidence gathered from the implementation of NEITI, demonstrates that a combination of these factors has contributed to the difficulty in achieving a truly multi-stakeholder structure and hence the limited impact of the initiative on improving resource wealth management in Nigeria

Exploring multi-stakeholder initiatives for natural resource governance: the example of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI)

Richard Calland

Papers

Standard setting at the cutting edge : an evidence-based typology for multistakeholder initiatives