This workshop is the African chapter of a series of events that aim to build an interdisciplinary community of scholars conducting rigorous and solution-oriented research on issues of public finance, public management, governance, and public service delivery, and is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The workshop is co-hosted by the Blavatnik School of Government (University of Oxford) and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), and is co-chaired by Seye Abimbola (Sydney), Augustina Adusah-Karikari (GIMPA), Nada Eissa (Georgetown), and Martin J. Williams (Oxford).

For further information email martin.williams@bsg.ox.ac.uk and zahra.mansoor@bsg.ox.ac.uk

Papers and presentations

• Agenda (download)

Health Plenary

Paper

• Foreign Aid and Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure in SSA Countries: Does Institutional Development Matter? - Mohammed Elhaj Mustafa, Ebaidalla Mahjoub Ebaidalla and Reham Rizk Kamel (download)

Presentations

• Performance Based Financing Approach to Contracting State Actors - Hyeladzira David Garnvwa (NSHIP) (download)
• Efficiency of public health structures in fragile countries rich in natural resources: the case of Chad - Moukénet Azoukalné (Malaria Consortium Tchad) (download)
• Plugging holes: efforts to improve financial performance - Jodi Wishnia (Witwatersrand) (download)

Health 2

Paper

• Public financial management and free healthcare programme in Nigeria - Daniel Chukwuemeka Ogbuabor and Obinna Emmanuel Onwujekwe (download)

Presentations

• Examining the impact of a maternal health voucher program before and after the introduction of public-financed free maternity services in government health facilities in Kenya: a quasi-experimental study -  Mardieh Dennis (LSHTM) (download)
• Aligning public financial management system and free healthcare policies: lessons from the free maternal and child healthcare programme of Enugu State, Nigeria - Daniel Chukwuemeka Ogbuabor (Nigeria-Nsukka) (download)
• Clinical Hybrid Leaders in Kenyan Public Hospitals: Identities and role in improving service delivery- Jacinta Nzinga (KEMRI-Wellcome) (download)

Education policy

Papers

• Experimental Impacts of the ‘Quality Preschool for Ghana’ Intervention: Implications for System-level Reform (download)
• Fiscal implications of free education: The case of Tanzania - Salman Asim, Dmitry Chugunov and Ravinder Gera (download)

Presentations

• Fiscal Implications of Free Education: The Case of Secondary Education in Tanzania - Ravinder Casley Gera (World Bank) (download)
• Experimental Impacts of the ‘Quality Preschool for Ghana’ Intervention: Implications for System-level Reform - Edward Tsinigo (IPA Ghana) (download)
• Research design - cost analysis in education interventions - Rachel Hinton (DFID) (download)

Keynote

• Evidence as Cliché: Accounting for the Unintended and the Intangible in Global Health and Development - Seye Abimbola (Sydney) (download)

Public Financial Management 1

Papers

• Is Ghana's Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), 2011 (ACT 815) an effective public financial management tool for public investment and consumption smoothing? - Pauline Anaman and John Darko (download)
• Sectoral budget committees in The Gambia (download)
• How Did Fiscal Rules Hold Up in the Commodity Price Crash? - David Mihalyi and Liliana Fernández (download)

Presentations

• Is Ghana’s Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) An Effective Public Financial Management Tool for Public Investment and Consumption Smoothing? - Pauline Anaman (ACEP) (download)
• Sectoral budget committees in The Gambia: a case of positive deviance - Adil Ababou (CABRI) (download)
• How Did Fiscal Rules Hold Up in the Commodity Price Crash? - David Mihalyi (NRGI) (download)

Public Financial Management 2

Paper

• The Current State of Performance-Based Budgeting and Its Impact on Public Budgeting in Ghana: Views from Budget Officers - Frank Ohemeng, Emelia Amoako Asiedu, Theresa Obuobisa-Darko, Juliana Abane and Kenneth Parku (download)

Public Financial Management 3

Papers

• Bureaucratic Agency and Power Asymmetry in Benin-China Relations - Folashadé Soulé-Kohndou (download)
• The Role of Civil Society Organizations in the Public Financial Management of Ghana - Joseph Antwi-Boasiakoa and Gladys Nkrumah (download)

Presentations

• The Role of Civil Society Organizations in the Public Financial Management of Ghana - Joseph Antwi-Boasiako (Ghana-Legon) (download)
• Unblocking the Path to Achieving Transparency in Public Finance: Case of Sierra Leonne - Ilara Mahdi (SOAS) (download)
• The bureaucratic politics of Africa-China infrastructure negotiations: a comparative analysis of Benin and Togo - Folashadé Soule (Oxford) (download)

Public Financial Management 4

Papers

• The Redistributive Effects of Fiscal Policy in Mali - Thierry Hounsa and Aly Sanoh (download)
• Market and Welfare Effects of Food Security Policies on Small Holder Rice Farmers in Sierra Leone - Mohamed Ajuba Sheriff and K. Lakoh (download)
• Pro-poor analysis of Kenya’s 2018/19 budget estimates what do the numbers tell us? (download)

Presentations

• The Redistributive Effects of Fiscal Policy in Mali - Thierry Hounsa (PSE) (download)
• Pro-poor analysis of Kenya’s 2018/19 budget estimates - Boniface Owino (Development Initiatives)(download)
• Market and Welfare Effects of Food Security Policies on Small Holder Rice Farmers in Sierra Leone - Mohamed Ajuba Sheriff (Njala) (download)

Tax 1

Paper

• Informal Taxation Responses to Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Kenya - Michael Walker (download)

Presentations

• Court Actions and Boosting Domestic Revenue Mobilization in Uganda - Brian Sserunjogi (EPRC) (download)
• Informal Taxation Responses to Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Kenya - Michael Walker (UC-Berkeley) (download)
• Pro-Growth Tax Policy: Components and Determinants - Roger Meyong Abath (Yaoundé-2) (download)

Tax 2

Papers

• Tax Obligations and Foreign Direct Investment: New Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa - Francis K. Andoh and William G. Cantah (download)
• Tax Evasion in Multi-Layer Tax Structure: An empirical analysis - Rose Camille Vincent (download)

Presentations

• Tax Obligations and Foreign Direct Investment: New Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa - William Cantah (Cape Coast) (download)
• Comparing tax incentives across jurisdictions: data sources, definitions and choices for a Corporate Tax Haven Index - Maïmouna Diakité (Tax Justice Network) (download)
• Tax Evasion in Multi-Layer Tax Structure: An empirical analysis - Rose Camille Vincent (UNU-MERIT)

Tax Plenary

Paper

• Building Tax Capacity at Scale: Evidence from Technology Investments in Ghana - James Dzansi, Anders Jensen, David Lagakos and Henry Telli (download)

Presentations

• Taxation and Development: What Have We Learned - Nada Eissa (Georgetown) (download)
• Building Tax Capacity at Scale: Evidence from Technology Investments in Ghana - James Dzansi (IGC Ghana) (download)

Public Service Reform – Research Panel

Paper

• The Challenges of Using Citizen Reporting to Improve Public Services: A Field Experiment and Framework - Mark T. Buntaine, Patrick Hunnicutt and Polycarp Komakech (download)

Presentations

• The New Public Sector Reforms Agenda in Ghana: Path Destruction, Path Creation, or Path Dependence? - Augustina Adusah-Karikari (GIMPA) (download)
• Massive Citizen Reporting is Too Inconsistent and Costly to Improve Public Services: A Framework and Field Experiment - Mark Buntaine (UCSB) (download)
• Innovation, Voice, and Hierarchy in the Civil Service: Evidence from a Productivity Intervention in Ghana - Martin J. Williams (Oxford) (download)

Political Economy

Papers

• Local Governance and Bureaucrats’ Performance: What Really Matters? - Lazare Kovo (download)
• Corruption and the poor: Is social capital an exit option? - Davina Osei (download)

Presentations

• The Political Economy of the Constituency Development Fund in Kenya and Jamaica - Karelle Samuda (MOF-Jamaica) (download)
• Local Governance and Bureaucrats Appointment: Clientelism and Performance - Lazare Kovo (ASE) (download)
• Corruption and the poor: Is social capital an exit option? - Davina Osei (UNU-MERIT) (download)