In addition to this type of commitment, at the policy implementation stage politicians often lack incentives to build credible mechanisms that would guarantee that budget allocations translate into genuine outcomes. Positions in public bureaucracies can be used to reward supporters, and uncontrolled or unaudited budgets can provide campaign funds for the incumbent party. Depoliticizing the ministry of education or creating a politically independent supreme audit institution that would audit health expenditures is a typical example of “good policies” that are not “good politics.” Lack of information about policies and outcomes can also limit the extent to which citizens can award or sanction political behavior. Unless citizens and voters are informed about the gap between planned and achieved outcomes or, more generally, about government’s performance in providing effective health and education services, they cannot sanction politicians at the ballot box. Media and civil society organizations play a key role in translating the process of policy making and implementation for citizens and in raising awareness about the noncompliance of politicians or bureaucrats with their mandate. The government of Uganda, for example, launched a universal primary education program with the goal of increasing enrollments and literacy rates. In 10 years, this ambitious effort gave tangible results: it increased primary school enrollment from 2.9 to 6.3 million children. The success itself generated its own challenges, however: a severe shortage of school buildings and classrooms. A school facilities’ grant incorporated in the national budget disbursed US$600,000 per district to build new school buildings. The community officials’ lack of managerial experience coupled with incentives for graft made monitoring imperative. In 2002, a civil society organization mobilized citizens to obtain information on expenditures from local politicians and bureaucrats and match it with the actual construction sites. Finding large mismatches between spending and the existence or quality of school buildings, the citizens petitioned the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Education and Sports. As a result, problematic subcontractors were fired. Moreover, the community started to post financial information on community boards, reducing teachers’ absenteeism and the corruption incentives of local officials.5 The process through which development priorities are selected significantly affects development outcomes. Often, the geographical maps designed to allow technical targeting of resources to the areas that are most in need do not overlap with the political maps of development. For many political representatives, rewarding key constituencies pays off more than objectively allocating aid to the poor. Visibility of outcome matters for politicians, since they
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Understanding Policy Change