Table 5 Selected quotations diagnosing the climate for EIHSP

Institutions

✓Corruption and poor public management ranked as important determinants of poverty

✓Some kind of slowness continues to hamper the implementation of decentralization and finds justification in the late operationalization of national council on decentralization and the inter-ministerial committee on local services

✓Perceptions about corruption remain a concern

✓Corruption is most rife in procurement, administration of public expenditure, and management of revenue

✓The major challenges to M&E include weak coordination arrangements, parallel M&E efforts, poor public management culture, gaps in information, and underused information

Interests

✓Lack of ethics integrity and patriotism and a tolerance for corruption

✓Citizenry is not fully empowered to engage effectively in demanding better performance from Government institutions in meeting their obligations and providing services

Ideas

✓Discrimination against women through traditional rules and practices that explicitly exclude them or give preference to men is a key constraint on women’s empowerment and economic progress

✓Traditions, culture, and religious norms are not supportive to modern approaches in society and have, therefore, limited economic growth and structural transformation. Backward cultural practices, beliefs, attitudes, and a lack of national ethical values in political, social, and economic spheres