Dismantling the anti-politics machine in aid : political mētis and its limits

In a recent article in NPE, Rajesh Venugopal (2022. Can the anti-politics machine be dismantled? New Political Economy, 1–15) concluded that the anti-politics machine was still in operation. He argued that development planners held a cognitive divide between the realm of political dynamics – an unknowable terra incognita – and the realm of operational technical knowledge. This article revisits and expands that argument. It takes a particular kind of adaptive project as an analytical entry point, arguing that their focus on political practice reimagines the ontology of politics as a kind of expert mētis which is situated, relational and emergent. Such projects hold out hope that the anti-politics machine can be dismantled by displacing the cognitive frames of the development planner from the centre stage and emphasising political practice during implementation. However, shifting attention to implementation reveals other elements of the anti-politics machine’s operation. Drawing on interviews with policy advocates, the article shows that the anti-politics machine does not simply work through the cognition of the planner: it also acts through bureaucratic resistance to political practice during project implementation, produced through operational, accountability and financing processes that shackle practice, particularly in spaces with heterogeneous interests and values.Peer reviewe

Accountable lobbying of Parliament - A reaction to the Select Committee Report on Lobbying in Whitehall; supporting transparency and limiting opportunity for inappropriate lobbying

Briefing paper number 11

Accountability principles for research organisations

The book encompasses motivations for organisational accountability, drawing on four central principles of: participation, evaluation, transparency, and feedback. It explores the tensions and constraints facing different types of organisations. For research organisations, it describes key stakeholders who should be consulted; it reviews key methods which will enable a research organisation to be more accountable, and discusses practical issues and tensions in their implementation. The study develops an ‘ideal’ holistic set of principles for accountability based on principles and arguments of effectiveness, both the normative and instrumental justifications for accountability

Accountability principles for policy oriented research organisations : a guide to the framework and online database

After years of empirical research and collaborative engagement with a wide variety of organisations, the accountability framework supports research organisations’ ability to respond, in a structured way, to the challenges of increasing attention and demands for accountability. The Accountability Principles for Research Organisations (APRO) explores the meaning and use of concepts of accountability among organisations that conduct research which are influential in the formation of public policy. The accountability framework identifies core principles, work processes and types of stakeholders that are relevant to all policy-oriented research organisations

Accountability of Innovation - A literature review, framework and guidelines to strengthen accountability of organisations engaged in technological innovation

Briefing paper number 124Technological advances in fields such as health care, food security and clean energy offer vital solutions to the chronic problems facing human society today. Innovation is a key element of progress and improvement in the quality of life of people across the world. Yet since the Second World War there has been a significant change in the understanding of how technological innovation happens, and how technological innovation in different sectors can be improved. Literature and practice reveals in particular a growing awareness of the need when innovating to take into account a wider group of stakeholders, including the users, as well as a range of social, economic and cultural factors. It is vital therefore to be much more widely accountable and responsive. This paper synthesises some of the most important lessons learned arising from this new understanding of innovation, and provides a framework of accountability for organisations engaged in technological research and development. The guidelines focus on supporting organisations to become more effective, while simultaneously ensuring that they adhere to ethical standards in their innovation. Working towards principles of accountability in the innovation process including engagement with external stakeholders, evaluation, and communicating with them, helps to ensure their ongoing cooperation, acceptance and productive use of often complex technological and scientific innovations beyond the narrow group of experts. Starting from a literature review, the paper presents a set of guidelines which are designed to assist a research manager reflect on their accountability. It provides options and principles, rooted in the literature, which can help them address the processes and consider organisational change. The briefing paper is accordingly split into three main parts. The first articulates a theory of accountability, distinguishing between accountability which serves an ethical purpose and accountability which makes an organisation more effective. The second covers the literature addressing the new understanding of innovation, and analyses it for the relevance to accountability. The third part offers a set of guidelines, structured around distinct processes common to most organisations – strategic planning, project identification and design, conducting the research, and then concluding the research process

Inter-decadal variation in diadromous and potamodromous fish assemblages in a near pristine tropical dryland river

Freshwater ecosystems are both incredibly biodiverse and highly threatened globally. Variation in environmental parameters including habitat and flow can substantially affect many ecological processes within riverine aquatic communities, but the ties between such parameters and ecology are neither well studied nor understood. In highly variable tropical dryland river systems, assessing such relationships requires data collection over inter-decadal time scales, which is not typically permitted on development schedules driven over short periods (including election and funding cycles). Here, we used seine net sampling data collected over an 18-year period in the tropical dryland Fitzroy River, Western Australia, to assess how environmental and temporal factors including habitat, seasonality, and inter-annual variation in wet season magnitude affect the community assemblage structure, recruitment, and growth of aquatic species in dryland rivers. Results demonstrated that macrohabitat (main channel vs floodplain creek) and the magnitude of wet season rains and resultant flooding both had a substantial influence on biotic communities, alongside seasonal and diel variation. The magnitude of wet season flooding (measured as river discharge volume) had the greatest impact on assemblage composition within floodplain creek habitats and was a significant driver of recruitment rates and growth of recruits and adults of several species examined. This study highlights key considerations for conserving dryland river systems and constituent biota. Specifically, these are maintaining (a) rhythmicity of flow within each year, (b) diversity of flow volume between years, and (c) a variety of habitat types including ephemeral, semi-permanent, and permanent shallow floodplain and deeper main channel pools, in order to support a diverse array of generalist and specialist diadromous and potamodromous fishes

Outsourcing the business of development : the rise of for-profit consultancies in the UK Aid Sector

Funding: Economic and Social Research Council - ES/V01269X/1.While much attention has been paid to the ways in which the private sector is now embedded within the field of development, one group of actors — for-profit development consultancies and contractors, or service providers — has received relatively little attention. This article analyses the growing role of for-profit consultancies and contractors in British aid delivery, which has been driven by two key trends: first, the outsourcing of managerial, audit and knowledge-management functions as part of efforts to bring private sector approaches and skills into public spending on aid; and second, the reconfiguration of aid spending towards markets and the private sector, and away from locally embedded, state-focused aid programming. The authors argue that both trends were launched under New Labour in the early 2000s, and super-charged under successive Conservative governments. The resulting entanglement means that the policies and practices of the UK government's aid agencies, and the interests and forms of for-profit service providers, are increasingly mutually constitutive. Amongst other implications, this shift acts to displace traditional forms of contestation and accountability of aid delivery.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Recruitment of a critically endangered sawfish into a riverine nursery depends on natural flow regimes

The freshwater sawfish (Pristis pristis) was recently listed as the most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) animal. The Fitzroy River in the remote Kimberley region of north-western Australia represents a significant stronghold for the species, which uses the freshwater reaches of the river as a nursery. There is also mounting pressure to develop the water resources of the region for agriculture that may substantially affect life history dynamics of sawfish in this system. However, the relationship between hydrology and population dynamics of freshwater sawfish was unknown. We used standardized catch data collected over 17 years to determine how wet season volume influences recruitment of freshwater sawfish into their riverine nursery. Negligible recruitment occurred in years with few days of high flood levels (above 98th percentile of cease-to-flow stage height), and relatively high recruitment occurred in years with 14 or more days of high flood levels. This relationship is indicative of a distinct boom-or-bust cycle, whereby freshwater sawfish rely almost entirely on the few years with large wet season floods, and the brief periods of highest water levels within these years, to replenish juvenile populations in the Fitzroy River nursery. This has direct implications for sustainable water resource management for the Fitzroy River basin in order to preserve one of the last known intact nursery habitats for this globally threatened species