Comments

Interesting and would like to read part two of this his writing.

I have just put on line an archive of material on witchcraft in Africa. It includes three usable databases related to witchcraft, one concerning 525 press reports (1960-2010), one wherein SES questions relate to witchcraft beliefs in Tanzania, and one a 600 page correspondences files between my self and Dr. Duncan MacDonald, ( UK, ex-Zambia, Kenya) Correspondence, 1980-2015, mainly his thoughts from a psychological, behavioral point of view. See NormanMillerArchive.com. This is a test site, estimated at 8000 pages, 30% on witchcraft. Some visual evidence. Criticisms welcome. NNM

Thank you for publishing about the conference. It was truly a learning experience for everyone who contributed to it. Hoping for similar opportunities in the future.

Hi Hayley, yes we've just posted a podcast of it: https://soundcloud.com/devpolicy/tax-pirates-and-tax-fairness.

Hi. I wasn't able to make it to the talk. Is there a recording of it somewhere? Thanks

Invisible management is an apt term. As a half Solomon Islander and half Australian running a social enterprise agribusiness in the Solomons since 2015 I never come across the SIRF. I wonder whether facilities are too far away from the eventual customers of an aid program - citizens and if the concept of a facility perpetuates the insular bubble and donor interests of foreign aid.

Hi Grant Really nice piece of work. I've just completed 9 months of ethnographic PhD fieldwork in Moresby looking at the links between ethics and performance on the PNG public service, mostly at a central level. Many similar themes and findings. We should compare notes. 🙂 Early days yet for me in relation to data analysis, but a couple of quick points. Firstly, it seems to me that one of the keys to fighting corruption is to establish a more effective performance and accountability culture in the PNG public service. In one sense, 'corruption' is just one end of the scale that deals with the "appropriate and effective" use of public resources. One of the main challenges here (highlighted in a couple of examples in your paper) seems to me to be that formal accountabilities are not always clear and accountability practices are often weak. There seem to be a range of reasons for this - some are 'top down' (e.g. politicisation), others are 'horizontal' (e.g. the influence of wantok relationships in individual performance management), others are more broadly environmental (e.g. a tendency at times to'make do' with verbal rather than written accountabilities). On the whole, it's challenging to hold others to account if accountabilities aren't clearly defined and appropriate written records aren't always kept. Having said that, I also found (as your paper mentioned) that there are very, very many PNG public servants who strongly wish to 'do the right thing', and are motivated by a strong desire to serve the people of PNG. They work hard in a very challenging environment, made more stressful by the fact that they are consciously working across 'two worlds' - the world of their family, village and community, and the world of the bureaucracy. Navigating this boundary raises deep questions of identity for many. I'd be interested to know if this came up as a issue in your qualitative research.

Quite an insightful article, thanks. Echos some of my experiences in running a business in Solomon Islands as well.

Thanks for sharing. Dr Kitau

Thank you Fabian, BS, and John for your comments. BS - your comment is interesting, but personally, I don't think less democracy would help. If the political incentives are wrong in a democracy they're equally likely to be wrong in an autocracy. And rulers would be even less accountable. John - thanks for an interesting reflection. I guess where I differ from you is that, on the basis of the quality of provincial government in much of the two countries, I don't think that that level of decentralisation would have been much better. The DSIP/CDFs are an interesting example of even greater decentralisation. In the electorates/constituencies where they work, they are certainly suggestive that this level of decentralisation might work better for some tasks, if only it could be pulled away from the politicised distribution that plagues these funds.

Thanks Tom, I agree, even a walk-in party, just for old time's sake, would have been nice. Something for the author to plan for in their next book...

Hi Erin, Congratulations on putting this great piece base on your experience in the Solomon Islands. So true about what is needed to create conditions for flexibility. Would be good to see more programs supporting complex social and political change using flexible approaches to drive real change. Love this article. Thank you Fremy