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States at Work explores the mundane practices of state-making in Africa by focussing on the daily functioning of public services and the practices of civil servants. Adopting mainly an ethnographic approach as a basis for theorizing, the authors deal with topics including: bureaucratic cultures and practical norms, operational routines in offices, career patterns and modes of appointment; how bureaucrats themselves perceive and deliver goods and services and interact with service users; the accumulation of public administration reforms and how the different bureaucratic corps react to the 'good governance' discourse and new public management policies; the consequences of these reforms for the daily working of state bureaucracies and for the civil servants' identities and modes of accountability; and the space that exists for bottom-up micro-reforms that build on local innovations or informal arrangements.

We analyze the multitude of conflicts of interest to which all actors in the development chain are subject. Our aim is to reflect on how the findings of research and evaluations conducted on development interventions of all kinds can be biased as a result. This analysis rests on an inclusive definition of conflict of interest, which exists whenever an actor's public stance is constrained by interests that put pressure on him or her to either express statements that contradict his or her own perceptions or knowledge, or to withhold criticism that he or she would otherwise be prepared to express. We illustrate the analysis with many cases based on our long experience in the field. Identifying problems encountered by a development intervention must be understood as a key step in formulating solutions adapted to local contexts.

Presents an analysis of how and why corruption governs everyday life in Africa. This book constructs an analytical frame of reference around the various forms of corruption; the corruptive strategies public officials resort to; and how these forms and strategies are deeply embedded in daily administrative practices

Appropriate deployment or posting and transfer (P&T) of health workers – placing the right people in the right positions at the right time – lies at the heart of fostering communities' faith in government health services and cementing the role of the health system as a core social institution. The authors of this paper have been involved in an ongoing transnational dialogue about P&T practices and determinants. This dialogue seeks to call attention to the importance of P&T as a health system function; to urge donors and policy-makers working in health systems, HRH and public administration governance to consider how to address issues around P&T; and to suggest avenues and approaches to research. P&T is a vexed and unresolved issue in many low- and middle-income countries that requires, above all, political commitment to improving public sector services and to new thinking and research. It holds promise as a focal point for inter-disciplinary collaboration in research and implementation that can inform other areas in HRH and health systems strengthening. Innovative social science and management theorizing, and iterative, locally driven interventions that focus on establishing transparent professional norms and building the credibility of government administration, including the health services, are likely the way forward.