Citizens and Service Delivery

Citizens and Service Delivery PDF Author: Alaka Holla
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821389807
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
In many low and middle income countries, dismal failures in the quality of public service delivery such as absenteeism among teachers and doctors and leakages of public funds have driven the agenda for better governance and accountability. This has raised interest in the idea that citizens can contribute to improved quality of service delivery by holding policy-makers and providers of services accountable. This proposition is particularly resonant when it comes to the human development sectors – health, education and social protection – which involve close interactions between providers and citizens/users of services. Governments, NGOs, and donors alike have been experimenting with various “social accountability” tools that aim to inform citizens and communities about their rights, the standards of service delivery they should expect, and actual performance; and facilitate access to formal redress mechanisms to address service failures. The report reviews how citizens – individually and collectively – can influence service delivery through access to information and opportunities to use it to hold providers – both frontline service providers and program managers – accountable. It focuses on social accountability measures that support the use of information to increase transparency and service delivery and grievance redress mechanisms to help citizens use information to improve accountability. The report takes stock of what is known from international evidence and from within projects supported by the World Bank to identify knowledge gaps, key questions and areas for further work. It synthesizes experience to date; identifies what resources are needed to support more effective use of social accountability tools and approaches; and formulates considerations for their use in human development. The report concludes that the relationships between citizens, policy-makers, program managers, and service providers are complicated, not always direct or easily altered through a single intervention, such as an information campaign or scorecard exercise. The evidence base on social accountability mechanisms in the HD sectors is under development. There is a small but growing set of evaluations which test the impact of information interventions on service delivery and HD outcomes. There is ample space for future experiments to test how to make social accountability work at the country level.

Citizens and Service Delivery

Citizens and Service Delivery PDF Author: Alaka Holla
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821389807
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Get Book Here

Book Description
In many low and middle income countries, dismal failures in the quality of public service delivery such as absenteeism among teachers and doctors and leakages of public funds have driven the agenda for better governance and accountability. This has raised interest in the idea that citizens can contribute to improved quality of service delivery by holding policy-makers and providers of services accountable. This proposition is particularly resonant when it comes to the human development sectors – health, education and social protection – which involve close interactions between providers and citizens/users of services. Governments, NGOs, and donors alike have been experimenting with various “social accountability” tools that aim to inform citizens and communities about their rights, the standards of service delivery they should expect, and actual performance; and facilitate access to formal redress mechanisms to address service failures. The report reviews how citizens – individually and collectively – can influence service delivery through access to information and opportunities to use it to hold providers – both frontline service providers and program managers – accountable. It focuses on social accountability measures that support the use of information to increase transparency and service delivery and grievance redress mechanisms to help citizens use information to improve accountability. The report takes stock of what is known from international evidence and from within projects supported by the World Bank to identify knowledge gaps, key questions and areas for further work. It synthesizes experience to date; identifies what resources are needed to support more effective use of social accountability tools and approaches; and formulates considerations for their use in human development. The report concludes that the relationships between citizens, policy-makers, program managers, and service providers are complicated, not always direct or easily altered through a single intervention, such as an information campaign or scorecard exercise. The evidence base on social accountability mechanisms in the HD sectors is under development. There is a small but growing set of evaluations which test the impact of information interventions on service delivery and HD outcomes. There is ample space for future experiments to test how to make social accountability work at the country level.

Civil Society and Global Poverty

Civil Society and Global Poverty PDF Author: Clive Gabay
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136262881
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is world’s largest civil society movement fighting against poverty and inequality, incorporating over 100 affiliated country-level coalitions. It has become a significant global actor and its annual days of mobilisation now attract over 175 million people around the world. This book seeks to explore GCAP’s power and its embodiment of emancipatory change. It develops a framework that assesses its external power as an actor by exploring how power works in it, and the relationship between the two. Gabay demonstrates that GCAP, and actors like it, may transcend some of the obstructions they face in navigating and proposing alternatives to dominant codes and practices of neo-liberal globalisation. Thematically, the book explores GCAP’s constitutive powers along three axes: hegemony, inclusion and legitimacy. It draws on a wide range of social and political theory, including Liberalism, Anarchism and postcolonial theory and featuring case studies on Malawi and India. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, international development, global governance, social movements and civil society.

Localizing Development

Localizing Development PDF Author: Ghazala Mansuri
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 082138256X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
This book examines the conceptual foundations of the participatory approach to local development, assesses the evidence of its efficacy, and draws key lessons for policy.

Mind, Heart, and Soul in the Fight Against Poverty

Mind, Heart, and Soul in the Fight Against Poverty PDF Author: Katherine Marshall
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This book explores the diversity of collaboration between faith institutions and development agencies. ranging from community level interventions in support of excluded populations, work on education, health, and HIV/AIDS, restoring communities after conflicts, and global efforts to bring greater clarity and meaning to challenges such as poor country debt, labor and the struggle against poverty. What is emerging is a set of new partnerships which are founded on common concerns for the welfare of poor communities and the global cause of social justice. The need for broader and clearer insight, and for creative efforts to see and understand the whole, emerge as fundamental lessons of recent decades of development experience.

Sustaining Civil Society

Sustaining Civil Society PDF Author: Philip Oxhorn
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271048948
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
"Devoting particular emphasis to Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico, proposes a theory of civil society to explain the economic and political challenges for continuing democratization in Latin America"--Provided by publisher.

Civil Society

Civil Society PDF Author: Michael Edwards
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745659055
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
Since its publication in 2004, Civil Society has become a standard work of reference for all those who seek to understand the role of voluntary citizen action in the contemporary world. In this thoroughly-revised edition, Michael Edwards updates the arguments and evidence presented in the original and adds major new material on issues such as civil society in Africa and the Middle East, global civil society, information technology and new forms of citizen organizing. He explains how in the future the pressures of state encroachment, resurgent individualism, and old and familiar forces of nationalism and fundamentalism in new clothes will test and re-shape the practice of citizen action in both positive and negative ways. Civil Society will help readers of all persuasions to navigate these choppy waters with greater understanding, insight and success. Colleges and universities, foundations and NGOs, public policy-makers, journalists and commissions of inquiry – all have used Edwards’s book to understand and strengthen the vital role that civil society can play in deepening democracy, re-building community, and addressing poverty, inequality and injustice. This new edition will be required reading for anyone who is interested in creating a better world through citizen action.

The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society

The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society PDF Author: Michael Edwards
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019933014X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description
Broadly speaking, The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society views the topic of civil society through three prisms: as a part of society (voluntary associations), as a kind of society (marked out by certain social norms), and as a space for citizen action and engagement (the public square or sphere).

Urban Poverty, Political Participation, and the State

Urban Poverty, Political Participation, and the State PDF Author: Henry Dietz
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 0822971933
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Urban Poverty, Political Participation, and the State offers an unparalleled longitudinal view of how the urban poor saw themselves and their neighborhoods and how they behaved and organized to provide their neighborhoods with basic goods and services. Grounding research on theoretical notions from Albert Hirschman and an analytical framework from Verba and Nie, Dietz produces findings that hold great interest for comparativists and students of political behavior in general.

Empowerment and Poverty Reduction

Empowerment and Poverty Reduction PDF Author: Deepa Narayan-Parker
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821351666
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
This publication offers a framework for the empowerment of people living in poverty throughout the world that concentrates on increasing people's freedom of choice and action to shape their own lives. Based on analysis of practical experiences, the book identifies four key elements to support empowerment: information, inclusion and participation, improved accountability and local organisational capacity. This framework is then applied to five areas of action to improve development effectiveness: provision of basic services, improved local governance, improved national governance, pro-poor market development, and access to justice and legal aid. It also offers twenty 'tools and practices' which concentrate on a wide-range of topics to support the empowerment of the poor.

Social Capital and Poor Communities

Social Capital and Poor Communities PDF Author: Susan Saegert
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 1610444825
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Neighborhood support groups have always played a key role in helping the poor survive, but combating poverty requires more than simply meeting the needs of day-to-day subsistence. Social Capital and Poor Communities shows the significant achievements that can be made through collective strategies, which empower the poor to become active partners in revitalizing their neighborhoods. Trust and cooperation among residents and local organizations such as churches, small businesses, and unions form the basis of social capital, which provides access to resources that would otherwise be out of reach to poor families. Social Capital and Poor Communities examines civic initiatives that have built affordable housing, fostered small businesses, promoted neighborhood safety, and increased political participation. At the core of each initiative lie local institutions—church congregations, parent-teacher groups, tenant associations, and community improvement alliances. The contributors explore how such groups build networks of leaders and followers and how the social power they cultivate can be successfully transferred from smaller goals to broader political advocacy. For example, community-based groups often become platforms for leaders hoping to run for local office. Church-based groups and interfaith organizations can lobby for affordable housing, job training programs, and school improvement. Social Capital and Poor Communities convincingly demonstrates why building social capital is so important in enabling the poor to seek greater access to financial resources and public services. As the contributors make clear, this task is neither automatic nor easy. The book's frank discussions of both successes and failures illustrate the pitfalls—conflicts of interest, resistance from power elites, and racial exclusion—that can threaten even the most promising initiatives. The impressive evidence in this volume offers valuable insights into how goal formation, leadership, and cooperation can be effectively cultivated, resulting in a remarkable force for change and a rich public life even for those communities mired in seemingly hopeless poverty. A Volume in the Ford Foundation Series on Asset Building