FIGURE 1 Comparisons of governance quality in select MENA countries, 2013 GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESS
MOROCCO TUNISIA
JORDAN
ALGERIA EGYPT YEMEN LIBYA
60 05 04 3 00 2 10
POLITICAL STABILITY
VOICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY Source: Calculated from World Bank’s Good Governance Indicators,
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx#home.
Notes: Government effectiveness captures the quality of public services, the professionalism of the civil service and its independence from political pres- sures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, and the credibility of the government’s commitment to such policies. Voice and accountability reflects whether citizens can select their government and whether they have freedom of expression, association, and a free media. Political stability is the likelihood that the government will be destabilized or overthrown by unconstitutional or violent means. Good Governance Indicators range on a scale from 0 to 100; a country with a score of 60 would rank better than 60 percent of the world’s countries.
of the civil service and for policy formulation and implementation, followed by Morocco and Jordan.13 In addition, as highlighted in Figure 1, the country has the highest rankings for voice and accountabil- ity, aided by (albeit flawed) multiparty elections and novel tools, such as the Marsoum 41 website, which allows citizens to directly access public documents.14 At the other extreme are Libya and Yemen, which are among the lowest ranked in terms of capacity andre- main plagued by high levels of social polarization and instability.
Tus, in addition to more commitment for policy
reform—as highlighted in the 2013 Global Food Pol- icy Report—more emphasis needs to be put on tailor- ing these reforms to countries’ existing governance characteristics. For example, where confidence in government is problematic, mechanisms to facilitate consensus and spur buy-in from all major political factions may be necessary. Where state capacity is low, less technical options that involve very gradual changes, such as small-scale pilot reforms, may be the only feasible pathway. ■
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