Worker looks at files - Cape Town Port Authority

Understanding the politics of service delivery

16 January 2012 09:00 - 16:30 (GMT+00)

Venue:

Overseas Development Institute

Details

Interventions to improve service delivery and address poverty are most effective when they are informed by a good understanding of the political context in which they are delivered. These principles are increasingly accepted, but it remains difficult to apply them in practice. In recent years, a number of development agencies, including donors and NGOs, have made major investments in tools for applied political analysis, in politics and governance research as well as in strengthening their capacity for political analysis and more politically informed programming. Yet changes in policy and practice remain challenging. ODI and Plan UK held this one day workshop to address these issues.

Speakers:

Leni Wild – Research Fellow, Politics and Governance, ODI
Vikki Chambers – Research Officer, Politics and Governance, ODI
Daniel Harris – Research Officer, Politics and Governance, ODI
Stephen Jones – Principal Consultant, Oxford Policy Management
David Booth –Director, African Power and Politics Programme, and Research Fellow, ODI
Caitlin Porter –Governance Programme Manager, Plan UK
Allison Beattie – Acting Head of Human Development Department, DFID

Chair:
Marta Foresti – Head of Programme, Politics and Governance, ODI

Agenda

9am - Coffee and registration

9.30am - Welcome and introduction (Leni Wild, ODI/Caitlin Porter, Plan UK)

9.45am - Session 1: More than just demand? Achieving change in service delivery

Marta Foresti, ODI, Chair
The use of community score cards for public services, Malawi (Leni Wild, ODI)
Understanding progress in maternal health, Rwanda (Vikki Chambers, APPP/ODI)

Followed by plenary discussion. Key questions for discussion include:

What have been your experiences of supporting sectoral reforms or improvements in service delivery, including in relation to accountability?
Have you seen opportunities for greater collaboration across supply and demand sides?

11.15am - Break

11.30am - Session 2: Addressing the politics of service delivery improvements: operational implications for agencies using political economy analysis

Marta Foresti, ODI, Chair
Scaling up innovative practice for rural sanitation, Vietnam – implications for DFID (Dan Harris, ODI)
Introducing results based financing for primary health care in Nigeria – implications for the World Bank (Stephen Jones, OPM)

Followed by plenary discussion. Key questions for discussion include:

What might be the key factors in achieving greater uptake of political economy analysis or supporting practitioners to work in more politically-informed ways?
What have been your own experiences in commissioning these forms of analysis or using the findings to change the way you work?
What opportunities exist to support country offices/staff in using or conducting political economy analysis?

1pm - Lunch

2pm - Session 3: Implications and next steps for development organisations

Leni Wild, ODI, Chair
Introduction: What can be done differently? - David Booth, ODI
Reflections - Caitlin Porter, Governance Programme Manager, Plan UK and Allison Beattie, Acting Head of Human Development Department, DFID

Followed by roundtable discussion. Key questions for discussion include: