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Lunchtime
Meeting Series: Autumn 2004
Targets,
Voice and Choice: Options for Improving Public Service Delivery
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Discussions on voice and
choice in public services are never far from the forefront of
UK news today. Not only are these topical issues in the UK,
they are also highly relevant to public service delivery in
developing countries. The autumn lunchtime meeting series at
ODI aimed to explore these issues in detail, looking at both
developed and developing country experiences with regard to
targets, voice and choice in the management and delivery of
public services. Are targets really helpful? Should increased
choice be introduced into the health and education sectors?
Which is better, voice or choice? Is there an optimal combination
of targets, voice and choice? The objective of the meeting series
was to enhance understanding of the key concepts, and to inform
the debate, drawing on experience from a wide range of settings,
with a particular focus on the health and education sectors.
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Programme and Reports
(with Audio) (click meeting title for these) Meeting
Series Summary |
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Tuesday 19 October 1pm in the Boothroyd Room Portcullis House
(directions)
The
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Where are
we now?
A presentation on the current status of the Fund and its activities.
Joint meeting, with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS
Professor Richard Feachem - Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria
Chair: Neil Gerrard MP
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Meeting
Report |
Wednesday 27 October
1pm in Jubilee Room, Westminster Hall (directions)
Targets,
Voice or Choice: What do we mean?
An overview session, exploring the debate in both developed
and developing country contexts..
Warren Hatter - Head, Research Unit, New Local Government
Network
Paolo de Renzio - Research Fellow, ODI
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Meeting
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Wednesday
3 November 1pm at ODI
Targets
and Benchmarks in Public Sector Management
Results oriented management and output-oriented budgeting are
key initiatives that are being introduced into public sector
institutions. This meeting aims to investigate the area of targets
and benchmarking in public service delivery, discussing the
merits and demerits of targets and examples of successful and
unsuccessful strategies.
Prof Jake Chapman - DEMOS and author of 'System Failure'
John Robers - Research Fellow, ODI
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Meeting
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Wednesday
10 November 1pm at ODI
Options
for Voice in Public Sector Management
Discussions on voice span a wide range of activities and actors
from lobbies and protests to civil society consultation and
joint civil society-government initiatives. Central themes include:
differences between developed and developing countries vis-à-vis
conditions for voice; perceived benefit/need for/value of voice;
relative value-added of voice at different levels (policy setting,
planning, budgeting and implementation, monitoring and evaluation);
conditions conducive / threatening for voice; representation
(whose voice?).
Marian Barnes - University of Birmingham
Andrea Cornwall - Research Fellow, Participation and Development,
Institute of Development Studies
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Meeting
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Wednesday 17 November 1pm at ODI
Options
for Choice in Public Service Delivery
The issue of choice in public service delivery is topical in
current UK political debates. User fees have been introduced
in the health and education sectors in many developing countries,
and in theory provide an opportunity for the public to reveal
their preference. In reality, the imposition of fees may exclude
the very poorest completely; in remote hard-to-reach areas there
may be no alternative to the public service.
Adam Lent - author of 'Making Choices: how can choice improve
local public services?'
Professor Richard Batley - International Development Department,
School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham
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Meeting
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Wednesday 24 November
1pm at ODI
Targets,
Voice or Choice: Options for the Health Sector
Based on the preceding meetings looking at choice, voice and
targeting in isolation, it is important to discuss these three
elements together in order to investigate the ways in which
they can or do combine in health service delivery and to identify
optimal combinations and conditions.
Professor Julian Le Grand - LSE and Policy Strategy Adviser
to the Prime Minister
Professor Anne Mills - Professor of Health Economics and
Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
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Meeting
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Wednesday
1 December 1pm at ODI
Targets,
Voice or Choice: Options for the Education Sector
Similar to session 6, this session will look at the combination
of targets, voice and choice for delivering education services
in both developing and developed country settings.
Philip Collins - Director, Social Market Foundation
Professor Chris Colclough - Professorial Fellow, Institute
of Development Studies
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Meeting
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Wednesday
8 December 1pm at ODI
Targets,
Voice AND Choice: Participatory Budgeting
The final session of the series will focus on one particular
approach to managing and delivering public services, described
as participatory budgeting. In this approach, the emphasis is
on involving the public in planning and resource allocation
decisions, thereby strengthening their endorsement of the way
in which the public services are delivered. Experiences from
both developed and developing country examples will be discussed
in this session.
Dr Graham Smith - School of Social Sciences, University
of Southampton
Aaron Schneider - Fellow, Institute of Development Studies
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Meeting
Report |
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