A new deal between people and government

Rakesh Rajani spoke to the annual Global Leaders Week organized by Enabel, the Belgian agency for international co-operation.

My father, a modest man who died 8 years ago, only gave me one piece of advice. “Son,” he said, “be careful of three things and you will be all right – fire, water, and the government”.

I imagine that you are struggling at this time of huge geopolitical turmoil – where the rules and principles of global cooperation, decency and justice seem to be thrown out, where aid agencies are dismantled and aid levels falling sharply, where progress on human and planetary wellbeing is under threat. I have followed some of your work in these grim times, and I have deep admiration and respect for what you do.

How does one make sense of this mess, and how does one respond?

Wishing for the seemingly kinder global consensus we had 5 or 10 years ago or to remake a case for 0.7% is understandable, but unlikely to be helpful.

We probably need something more basic, more human, more strategic, more imaginative.

I suspect that my father’s fear of government, his lack of trust in the social compact between people and the state, may be at the core of our challenge.

Throughout history, societies have advanced when governments have been strategic and done the right set of things. One can plausibly argue that the only way to make lasting progress, at scale, is through and with government. Even when market action drives progress, one needs the state to provide the right sets of regulations, safeguards and rule of law.

Government is the way large numbers of people come together to secure a good life, for the present and the future. So, I put to you that the most important goal of development cooperation is to contribute to: 1) government becoming better at working for people, and 2) people becoming better able to be heard by, trust and shape their government.

But this precisely is our greatest deficit. People across much of the world – in the Global North and Global South – do not believe that their governments are up to the task. When we feel that government is bureaucratic and slow, that it does not listen, that it does not really understand and does not care, and that it is not there for me and my people, we lose trust and confidence. This feeling is even more acute where people are hurting, feeling economically and culturally insecure, increasingly unable to achieve their aspirations.

And when we stop trusting our government, we get suspicious and angry and parochial. We start perceiving that government is captured or corrupt or wildly out of touch, and we start the blame game, demanding that government stop doing things for “other” people, demanding cuts to global development and clampdowns on immigration, demanding that government get out of the way. The sense that we are all in this together is undermined.

At core, this is not an argument for better advocacy for aid effectiveness or the value of international cooperation. No quantum of facts about progress on reducing maternal mortality or increasing literacy helps alleviate the alienation and loss of confidence that people feel about their lives and their government. In fact, it may make things worse by reinforcing the notion that the government cares more for others than for us.

People’s sense of self-worth is a function of material wellbeing and emotional security, and so how people see and experience government matters.

People in government are people too. True state capability and confidence include how politicians and public servants see and experience themselves, as well as the level of trust and confidence that people have in their state. It goes both ways. This dual confidence, or lack thereof, may lie at the heart of our global crisis today.

I would like to share 4 ideas to kickstart your reflections. These are meant to be provocations rather than affirmations, so I lean on the side of what may help you think and do differently rather than what you are already doing well.

Read the full presentation.