ENFORCING POLICY COMPLIANCE IN DEVELOPING AFRICAN STATES

Are people rational actors or do the need coercion for compliance?

Mundane problems take a heavy toll that coerce compliance with new regulations that have been employed without full participation in the developing democratic states. Developing states include economies with lower per capita income categories with constrained policy processes. For these states, sudden policy announcements which tend to occur without consultations lead to public dissatisfaction, thus non compliance. In the view of the current global health pandemic, COVID-19, democracy and participation may not be prioritised as all states have limited personal human rights for sake of the common good.



The Foreign Affairs Journal (2013) noted that despite the 2008 global financial crisis and its effects, the economies of Sub-Saharan African states grew at an average of 4.7% a year between 2000–2011. One of the highlights was the notable enhancement on human development which is measured by people being able to access resources needed for a decent standard of living, acquire knowledge and live a long happy life. This has yet to be achieved as the differences between the rich and the poor is imminent with poverty being widespread and the unemployment rate growing. So, when the COVID-19 struck, developing countries were still lagging behind in terms of managing human rights to decent living with their economies dealing with high international debt and reduced autonomy.

Kenya, among other states, joined the world in the quest to Flatten The Curve. Epidemiologists have stated that since there are no antiviral medications for COVID-19 and no vaccine, we must rely on non-pharmaceutical interventions like social distancing and eliminating physical contact. This has not been met without resistance as the urban poor (who comprise of the majority of the population in the urban areas where populations are dense) are not able to exercise such globally acclaimed recommendations.

Despite this resistance, national and sub-national governments policy directives must be enforced to ensure compliant behaviour. Not only does willing compliance help curb the COVID19 spread, it also lowers enforcement costs for the governments. Many African leaders have directed their people to comply with curfew directives which are partial lockdown measures to slow down the spread of the virus.

The Economist (2020) Noted that Rwanda became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to impose a nationwide lockdown on 22nd March. Others have followed suit, including Botswana, South Africa and Uganda. Kenya enforced a partial lockdown in form of a curfew on 27th March 2020. On 30th March, Nigeria shut down Abuja, the capital, and Lagos, Africa’s largest city. However, these measures are fiendishly difficult to enforce for a number of reasons. Roughly half of African city-dwellers live in slums and most city-dwellers work in the informal labour market. Consequently, there is little space to isolate oneself and a persistent need to go out for food, water or work. To add on these problems, policies to replace lost income have been slow in coming. Therefore, expecting cities like Lagos, Johannesburg, Kigali or Nairobi to apply the same curfew directives as London, Milan or Vancouver is dispositioned. This was evidenced by the rising cases of police violence during enforcement in some African states leading to legislative action like in the case of Kenya.

The causes of non-compliance may include (but are not limited to):

• Information and cognition problems; 
• Attitude problems; 
• Peer effect problems (contagion effect); 
• Incentive and sanctions problems; 
• Monitoring problems; 
• Enforcement problems; 
• Resources and access problems; and 
• Autonomy problems. 

The rational actor perspective in public policy compliance assumes that information targets possess all the key information needed to make decisions, that program targets respond rationally and that they have preferences that are consistent over time. However, behavioural economists note that the public tends to satisfice and that they have limited capacity to acquire information without biases on preferences, timeliness and high stakes/costs.

The special problems faced by developing countries include;

1. Limited state resources to offer positive incentives for compliance;
2. High perceived opportunity costs of compliance in some sectors such as private sector actors among others;
3. Limited state capacity to monitor and enforce target compliance;
4. Low citizen resources to comply when it is costly to them and their households;
5. Mistrust of government may interfere with information campaign strategies; and
6. Uneven development of civil society organisations to act as partners.

The reality of providing a sustainable solution for governments include employment of coercive strategies such as:

• Providing Information : As the coronavirus pandemic grows and the consumer health movement continues to gain momentum, it is appropriate to reflect on the role of the government in providing the general public with current, reliable health information;
• Framing and admonition : Framing is an important aspect where an issue can be highlighted to make sense of the events. It can regulate the audience’s perception and also the acceptance of a particular meaning. As media plays an important role in the people’s perceptions, negative framing can create a huge impact upon the people;
• Providing resources : Africa states have to marshall their resources and bring together the right communities of experts (clients, governments, scientists, developers, partners, academic institutions, health agencies and the public) to work together, and manage through the COVID-19 outbreak with available technologies for instance applying data, knowledge, computing power and insights;
• Manipulating choice architecture : Governments should think comprehensively about the potential causes of behaviour and implement gender-responsive and inclusive mitigation strategies;
• Providing positive incentives for compliance : Governments can offer financial assistance to private businesses to remain sustainable through the use of social-economic incentives. Incentives can include tax abatements, tax revenue sharing, grants, no or low-interest financing, tax credits and other financial resources; and
• Imposing sanctions for non-compliance : Sanctions are used to induce behavioural changes thus should be adopted in cases where diplomatic efforts have failed.

This article aims to highlight the underlying issues that Africa States face when dealing with regional and global crises. We endeavour to bring back the humanity perspective and the potential that lies within consensus building and well executed stakeholder engagement.

The Power Tower Kenya seeks to promote local and global awareness and understanding of COVID-19, and will continue to support data-driven recommendations made by all States and Governments and International agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO).

Communications Department: Contact: thepowertowerke@gmail.com