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Putting the power of transparency in context: Information's role in reducing corruption in Uganda's education sector
December 2007
Paul Hubbard
Center for Global Development (CGD)
The promotion of transparency policies as anti-corruption tools is popular based on the intuitive logic that secrecy breeds corruption and sunlight is the best disinfectant. But the idea that information disclosure policies actually have strong anti-corruption effects in developing countries is supported by little systematic evidence.
One current example within development circles comes from Uganda. In his recent book The Bottom Billion, economist Paul Collier portrays this popular transparency case study as a promising example of bottom-up scrutiny:
“Each time the Ministry of Finance released money it informed the local media, and it also sent a poster to each school setting out what it should be getting. … Now, instead of only 20 percent getting through to schools, 90 percent was getting through. In state-of-the-art statistical research that analyzed this experiment in detail, [Ritva] Reinikka and her colleague Jakob Svensson were able to demonstrate that the media had been decisive – in this case reports in newspapers. So scrutiny turned 20 percent into 90 percent – more effective than doubling aid and doubling it again.”1
But it is a mistake to attribute the entire reduction in corruption to a single publication policy. Reinikka and Svennson's research focuses on a small but significant element - information provided through newspapers to local schools. But their research is best understood in terms of concurrent reforms in Uganda's education and fiscal systems. This paper examines a number of other policies and reforms that help explain the reported decline in corruption to Ugandan education in the 1990s.
Policy makers should take a nuanced view of the available evidence. For example, while the proportion of funds diverted did decline spectacularly, the real value of funds actually diverted fell by a modest 12% over six years. There are also suggestive reports that the efficacy of the information campaign has declined over time. The Uganda case study does provide good evidence that information plays a significant role in the political economy of corruption, but a close reading warns us not to overestimate the result.
Footnote:
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Collier (2007), page 150.
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