Attempts
by Nongovernmental organizations and government to build social capital by way
of trade associations, solidarity networks, and groups (micro-credit requires
group membership) have failed because the legal enforcement mechanisms are
still lacking, and the success of these groups is dependent on adequate
information about creditworthiness that so far can only be captured by
unreliable informal channels.
The
incentive for opportunism is too high even within groups because the sanctions
are few; being socially ostracized in a place where few records exist and
people don’t set up permanent roots in urban areas is not as traumatizing. As
Thomas Hobbes warned in Leviathan, the absence of an enforcer implies a
free-for-all: everybody knows that everybody else can behave in an
opportunistic fashion, therefore everybody behaves opportunistically.
Data collection is not determined within the
country. It is very often determined by outside donors who provide specific
funding for a particular project, which they use to prove their policies
outside the country. Therefore since data is not collected for the state
itself, the data doesn't foster debate on policy quality or whether the
government is meeting its plans including millennium goals or Vision
2030.
Creating public records could create trust by
creating a system that is accountable. For
example, both government and Nongovernmental organizations could establish
local units that hire local people to man them. Data collection could be
regularly done on all basic factors like health, age, school attendance,
security enforcement, income generating activities and the data should be made
available locally in whatever manner is palatable to the locals. The devolved
government would rely on such data to budget and plan, and the business and
civil community can use the same information to add value.
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