New development: Regulatory impact assessment in developing countries—tales from the road to good governance

Abstract

This article sets out the challenges facing the practice of regulatory impact assessment (RIA) in developing countries and then goes on to propose a set of guiding principles with which to attempt to overcome these. The discussion is based on the findings of a practitioner workshop held at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Keywords:

• Better regulation
• developing countries
• policy appraisal
• regulatory impact assessment
• regulatory reform

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants of the workshop on ‘The challenges and opportunities of Regulatory Impact Assessment in developing countries’ held at the University of Pretoria in April 2014. The workshop was funded by the ‘Linking Impact Assessment Instruments with Sustainability Expertise (LIAISE) Network of Excellence’ financed under the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme.

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or its member countries.

Notes

* The workshop on ‘The challenges and opportunities of Regulatory Impact Assessment in developing countries’ was held in April 2014. It was attended by 28 RIA experts and practitioners from around the world who considered the state of play of RIA in 17 developing countries, namely: Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Vietnam.

* While other countries (including developed countries) also use consultants to conduct some RIAs, the majority are conducted by government officials.