Making Problem-Driven Governance Possible: The Foundations of Problem-Driven Capability

Abstract

The state capability literature emphasizes the importance of problem-driven governance. Mayne et al. (2020) identify three capabilities that appear central to such governance: reflective, collaborative, and data-analytic capabilities. However, important questions remain regarding the foundations that make these higher-order capabilities possible. This paper explores these foundations—or building blocks—by revisiting an intervention undertaken within Mozambique’s public financial management reforms. Using process tracing and interpretive coding of the intervention’s case narrative, the analysis identifies and examines how problem-driven behaviors emerged. Such analysis leads to the identification of seven foundations that appear to underpin problem-driven capability, organized in three domains: 1. contextually actionable knowledge, comprising know-how and know-what; 2. the mobilization and empowerment of agents, comprising individual motivation and authorization to change; and 3. the empowered ability to navigate contextual systems, comprising institutional navigation, resource re-mobilization, and strategic time management. The paper argues that these foundations function in ways similar to conversion factors in Sen’s capability approach and to the microfoundations approach in the dynamic capabilities literature. State capability— particularly the capability for problem-driven governance—should be understood as a multiplicative combination of these foundations or building blocks, from which higher-order reflective, collaborative, and data-analytic capabilities emerge.